Other: 1931 address was 17, Creighton Avenue. Left school to work in a shop.
Keren Battlefield (Wikipedia) The Battle of Keren (Cheren) was fought as part of the East African Campaign during the Second World War. The engagement took place from 5 February to 1 April 1941, between a mixed Italian army of regular and colonial troops and British troops (mostly from Sudan and British India) and Free French forces. The town of Keren, in the colony of Italian East Africa, was of tactical importance to both sides in 1941. The road and railway through Keren were the main routes to the colonial capital at Asmara and the Red Sea port of Massawa, which surrendered to the British after the battle.
In the 4th Division history of 1948, Stevens gave 3,273 casualties, of whom about ten percent were killed.[28] In 1951, Mackenzie wrote that in the final stages of the battle, the Italians had 5,000 casualties, of whom 1,135 men were killed.[23] In 1954, I. S. O. Playfair, the British official historian, recorded that Italian troops and Eritrean Ascari had 3,000 casualties.[29] In 1993, Raugh wrote that 3,000 Italian troops were killed and that British casualties were 536 men killed and 3,229 wounded.[30] An informal review of Bruttini and Puglisi (1957) found that about 3,000 Italian soldiers were killed, 4,500 wounded and sick, 9,000 Askari killed and nearly 20,000 wounded giving totals of 12,147 killed and 21,700 men wounded.[31]
Northern front, Eritrea 1941
Commander – Lieutenant-General William Platt
Royal Artillery, Brigadier William H. B. Mirrless
- 1 Field Regiment RA
- 11/80 Field Battery RA
- 52/98 Field Battery RA
- 25 Field Regiment RA
31 Field Regiment RA
Operation Crusader
Main article: Operation Crusader
Operation Crusader, 18 November – 31 December 1941 (click to enlarge)
The Eighth Army (Lieutenant-General Alan Cunningham) conducted Operation Crusader (18 November – 30 December), to relieve Tobruk and capture eastern Cyrenaica. The Eighth Army planned to destroy the Axis armour before committing the infantry but was repulsed several times, culminating in the defeat of the 7th Armoured Division by the Afrika Korps at Sidi Rezegh. Rommel ordered the panzer divisions to relieve the Axis positions on the Egyptian border but failed to find the main body of the Allied infantry, which had bypassed the fortresses and headed for Tobruk. Rommel withdrew his armour from the frontier towards Tobruk and achieved several tactical successes, which led Auchinleck to replace Cunningham with Major-General Neil Ritchie. The Axis forces then retired west of Tobruk to the Gazala Line and then back to El Agheila; the Axis garrisons at Bardia and Sollum surrendered. The British lost 17,700 men against 37,400 Axis casualties, many having been captured at Halfaya and Bardia. Tobruk had been relieved, Cyrenaica recaptured and airfields captured to cover convoys supplying Malta.[54]
