An Excellent & Interesting 'Multi Clasp" & ' M.I.D. 'HIGH RANKING' OFFICER'S WW2 and later campaign group of Six,
To: 182366. Major--Lt/Col, D.C. CLAPHAM. 2/Bn KING's SHROPSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY. 1939-45 Star, France & Germany Star, Defence and War Medal ( MID emblem)GSM GVI (PALESTINE 1945-48) & (MALAYA)CSM EIIR ( SOUTH ARABIA )
( WORLD WAR TWO )The Territorial Battalion, the 4th KSLI, was immediately mobilised on the outbreak of war. It too began with intensive training in Northern Ireland and England as lorry borne infantry of 159 Brigade in the 11th Armoured Division. And it too was destined for campaigning in North West Europe when the attack on “fortress Europe” began.
The Battalion landed in Normandy on “D-Day, the 6th June 1944, and was soon thrust into action on the Odon and in Operation Epsom - designed to isolate Caen. It faced severe opposition from elite German SS Divisions in the fighting which followed and then took part in the destruction of the Falaise Pocket.The 2nd Battalion landed on Queen beach near Hermanville-sur-Mer on “D-Day”, 6th June 1944 as part of 185 Brigade of the 79th Armoured Division. After a period of hard fighting, the battalion took part in the capture of Caen, by then completely ruined, and of Manneville.
The battalion fought its way across the Seine in September 1944 and then began what the regimental history describes as “something like a royal progress” through Belgium, everywhere welcomed by joyful crowds.
After heavy fighting on the fringes of the Reichswald Forest and at Venray and Overloon in Holland, the battalion was to spend a bitterly cold and comfortless winter facing the river Maas.
The offensive was renewed in the spring of 1945 and saw the 2nd battalion in action at Kervenheim. Here on March 1st, Sergt. Joseph Stokes, a Glaswegian in the KSLI - won a posthumous Victoria Cross for his conspicuous gallantry in launching three consecutive attacks on German strongpoints until brought down by his wounds
By the end of March 1945, 2 KSLI was facing the Rhine itself and, crossing the great river on 29th March, fought its way across the Dortmund-Ems canal towards Bremen. Here, in the dying stages of the war late in April 1945, the 2nd KSLI were to see their last serious fighting as the town suburbs and factories were cleared of the enemy
The battalion had seen nearly a year of solid action - but at a high cost; it lost 144 men killed, 66 missing and 552 wounded.
GUARD OF HONOUR PROVIDED FOR WINSTON CHURCHILL BY 4th KSLI IN ANTWERP. From Antwerp the rapid advance continued. In the fighting near Overloon in Holland in October 1944, Sergt George Eardley, who had already won the Military Medal in Normandy in August, was to win the Victoria Cross for his single-handed attack on three German machine-guns positions which were holding up the whole advance.
Like the 2nd Battalion, the 4th spent the winter of 1944 on the Maas and endured its cold and comfortless conditions until the advance was resumed in February 1945. After clearing the Hochwald area, the 4th under their resourceful and popular C.O., Lt. Col. Max Robinson, crossed the Rhine on 28th March, captured Osnabruck and then began a rapid advance into Germany and to the River Elbe - a distance of 125 miles, in which the Battalion was at the forefront of every action.
As they continued their advance through Germany, the end of the war on 9th May found the battalion south of the Kiel canal opposite Lubeck and heading for the Danish frontier.
They were one of the battalions which, under Brigadier 'Jack' Churcher, occupied Flensburg, the seat of the remnant Nazi government under Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz. The arrest of Doenitz and his associates was effected by 4-KSLI and the Herefords at the very end of the battalion's war service.An excellent and seldom seen group to a high ranking officer from a much collected line regiment..Court Mounted as worn by recipient SOLD
GUARD OF HONOUR PROVIDED FOR WINSTON CHURCHILL BY 4th KSLI IN ANTWERP. From Antwerp the rapid advance continued. In the fighting near Overloon in Holland in October 1944, Sergt George Eardley, who had already won the Military Medal in Normandy in August, was to win the Victoria Cross for his single-handed attack on three German machine-guns positions which were holding up the whole advance.
Like the 2nd Battalion, the 4th spent the winter of 1944 on the Maas and endured its cold and comfortless conditions until the advance was resumed in February 1945. After clearing the Hochwald area, the 4th under their resourceful and popular C.O., Lt. Col. Max Robinson, crossed the Rhine on 28th March, captured Osnabruck and then began a rapid advance into Germany and to the River Elbe - a distance of 125 miles, in which the Battalion was at the forefront of every action.
As they continued their advance through Germany, the end of the war on 9th May found the battalion south of the Kiel canal opposite Lubeck and heading for the Danish frontier.
They were one of the battalions which, under Brigadier 'Jack' Churcher, occupied Flensburg, the seat of the remnant Nazi government under Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz. The arrest of Doenitz and his associates was effected by 4-KSLI and the Herefords at the very end of the battalion's war service.An excellent and seldom seen group to a high ranking officer from a much collected line regiment..Court Mounted as worn by recipient SOLD