WW2 75 – 18 April 1945 – Death of a ‘Tankie’ in Italy: Serjeant Francis Edward Steward (1918-45) 8th Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps

 

Continued from LIEUTENANT HUMPHREY RICHARD HICKSON MARRIOTT (1920-45), 

14 April 1945: The PoW killed by ‘friendly fire’   

https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2023/12/ww2-75-14-april-1945-pow-killed-by.html

 

The project of writing profiles of all the WW2 casualties associated with Budleigh Salterton, as recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, is drawing to a close. Throughout research for the project it has been frustrating to find so little information about some of the individuals concerned. Equally frustrating is my lack of access to service records.

Nearly 80 years after the end of WW2 you would think that the National Archives would be the place to look. Not so, they say. ‘Though we hold some records relating to soldiers’ service after 1920, many for the Second World War period are still held by the Ministry of Defence,’ I learn from the website.

‘However, over 9 million of these records, covering service in the British Army, Royal Navy, and Royal Air Force, as well as some overseas forces under British command, up until the end of National Service in 1963, will be transferred in instalments from the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to The National Archives by the end of 2026.’

That sounds pretty slow in the age of Artificial Intelligence. And a browse of the National Archives website in search of information relating to service records inevitably meets the words ‘charges may apply’.

Now here’s a bright idea for the centenary of WW2 in 2039. Make access totally free, in a fitting gesture of acknowledgement to all those whose lives were used up in this appalling conflict.

 

Meanwhile, with bits and pieces gathered from various sources, I will do my best with my own gesture. I should have tried to get hold of a highly regarded book about the unit in which Francis Edward Steward served during WW2, namely the 8^th Battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment, often referred to as 8RTR. The book in question is Armoured Odyssey: 8^th Royal Tank Regiment in the Western Desert 1941-1942: Palestine, Syria, Egypt 1943-1944: Italy 1944-1945 by Major Stuart Hamilton MC. Apparently, before its publication in 1995, no satisfactory record of 8RTR had existed.

 

St Peter and St Paul's Church, Wangford.  Image credit: Bread Boy49; Wikipedia. Wangford War Memorial  Image credit: Imperial War Museum  © Doug Ireland (WMR-4953)

Francis Edward Steward was not a local man. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) record lists him as the son of Samuel William and Edith Steward, without mentioning where they lived. However, according to the excellent Devon Heritage website he was the son of Samuel William and Mary Steward, née Hunter. He was born in the September Quarter of 1918 at Wangford in Suffolk, although his name does not appear on the Wangford War Memorial.

Both the CWGC record and the Devon Heritage research confirm that Francis was a married man and that his wife was Phyllis Margaret Doreen Steward, née Pyne ‘of Budleigh Salterton’.  The Pyne family was and is well known locally and would have been proud to see his name on the War Memorial.

 Royal Tank Regiment cap badge

Ranked as Serjeant and aged only 26 at the time of his death, Francis is likely to have been on active service from the beginning of the war. According to the CWGC record he was serving with the 8^th Battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment, often referred to as 8RTR.  

The Battalion originally saw action as H Battalion in 1917 during the First World War and inevitably changes took place as the threat of a new world conflict drew closer. The change from a horsed cavalry role to a mechanised one had begun in the post-WW1 period and April 1939 saw the creation of the Royal Armoured Corps, of which 8RTR was part.  

 

HMS Sobieski at anchor on the Clyde. Image credit: Imperial War Museum

Following the outbreak of WW2, the Battalion moved to Ilminster, Somerset, and then in 1940 to Assaye Barracks at Tidworth in Hampshire. Finally, after a period of training and preparation, on 26 April 1941 8RTR sailed with other tank units from Glasgow aboard the troopship HMT Sobieski, arriving  in Egypt on 13 June.  

Tanks would play an important role in the Western Desert campaigns, where the 8^th Battalion was heavily involved. The battlefields were characterized by huge distances, difficult terrain and an inhospitable climate.

With the entry of ltaly into the war on 10 June 1940 the vital Suez Canal in British-occupied Egypt had come under threat when the Italian Army attacked in September. At the Battle of Sidi Barani on 10-12 December the Italians were defeated and the Allies advanced hundreds of miles into Libya, taking 130,000 prisoners by 9 February 1941.

 

A group of Royal Tank Regiment soldiers photographed on an Infantry Tank Mark I, A11 Matilda. Out of 139 built, just 3 A11 Matildas have survived, and they can all be seen at The Tank Museum, Bovingdon, Dorset

The Matilda tank used by 8RTR proved highly effective against the enemy’s armour, wreaking havoc among the Italian forces in Egypt. The Italians were equipped with tankettes and medium tanks, neither of which had any chance against the Matildas. Italian gunners were to discover that the Matildas were impervious to a wide assortment of artillery.

 

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, with aides during the desert campaign, 1942. Image credit: Wikipedia

The German Afrika Corps, sent by Hitler to replace the Italians and led by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, proved to be a greater challenge for the Allies, who were driven back to Egypt in March.

Clearly a major increase of Allied forces in Egypt was needed if Rommel was to be defeated. The Eighth Army, of which 8RTR and other tank battalions were now part,  was the new name given on 26 September 1941 to the enlarged organization which, it was hoped, would see an Allied victory in the Middle East.  

 

A Valentine tank advancing in the Western Desert, 18 June 1942.  Image credit: Imperial War Museum; Wikipedia

Along with an increase in personnel, the Eighth Army also benefited from the introduction of fighting vehicles with more modern designs such as the Valentine. This tank proved its worth during Operation ‘Crusader’, which ran from 18 November to 30 December 1941, and was launched by the Allies in an attempt by the Allies to relieve the besieged port and garrison of Tobruk. The tank earned itself a reputation as a reliable and well-protected vehicle, being better armed and faster than previous tanks such as the Matilda.

With new equipment and reinforcements Rommel won what has been described as his greatest victory at the Battle of Gazala, which lasted from 26 May to 21 June 1942 and was followed by the capture of Tobruk and over 30,000 prisoners.  8RTR along with 4RTR were two of the last tank units to cover the withdrawal from outside Tobruk.

The Eighth Army withdrew to El Alamein, fighting a defensive battle in July and succeeding in halting the German advance. The 8RTR with its Valentine tanks, attached to the 1st South African Division, was part of the reinforcements brought in at this time.

Montgomery in a Grant tank in North Africa, November 1942

Led by General Bernard Montgomery who took command in August, the Eighth Army decisively defeated Rommel at the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942.

In early November 1942, 8RTR was transferred to Palestine, later moving to Syria. It then turned over its surviving tanks and became what was known as a beach-brick battalion or beach group. The function of such groups was to provide support and ensure the smooth running of a landing operation and the rapid evacuation of landing forces from a beach. On 20 July 1943 the dismounted men of 8RTR became No.36 Beach Brick as part of the plan for the capture of Rhodes, a plan which was later abandoned.   

On 3 September 1943 the Allies invaded the Italian mainland, the invasion coinciding with an armistice made with the Italians who then re-entered the war on the Allied side.

Re-equipped with tanks in early 1944, 8RTR then served alongside 7th Armoured Brigade, in Italy, joining it in August 1944 after the fall of Rome in June.

Ahead of the invasion of France in 1944, the 1st, 5th and 44th Battalions headed back to the UK but they were replaced by more Royal Tank Regiment forces and by late 1944 they were fighting their way north through the German defences, notably the Gothic Line, and on to the Po valley.

 

British M10 tank destroyer Self Propelled Gun (SPG) and infantrymen of the 5th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters during the advance to the Gothic Line, 27–28 August 1944. Image credit: Imperial War Museum; Wikipedia

The German retreat northwards through Italy became ordered and successive stands were made on a series of defensive lines. In the northern Apennine mountains the last of these, the Gothic Line, was breached by the Allies during the Autumn 1944 campaign, but with no decisive breakthrough until April 1945. Both German and Allied losses were heavy. 8RTR lost 120 killed in three weeks’ fighting - 22 Officers and 98 Other Ranks. This was 50% of their tank crews - or one crew every day.

The Gothic Line formed Field Marshal Albert Kesselring's last major line of defence along the summits of the northern part of the Apennine Mountains during the fighting retreat of the German forces in Italy against the Allied Armies in Italy.

Using more than 15,000 slave labourers, the Germans had created more than 2,000 well-fortified machine gun nests, casemates, bunkers, observation posts and artillery fighting positions to repel any attempt to breach the Gothic Line. Initially this line was breached during Operation Olive (also sometimes known as the Battle of Rimini), but Kesselring's forces were consistently able to retire in good order.

The Allied front inched forward as far as Ravenna in the Adriatic sector. but with divisions transferred to support the new offensive after D-Day in France, and the Germans dug in to a number of key defensive positions, the advance stalled as winter set in.

As 1944 drew to a close 7th Armoured Brigade found itself, like the rest of the Allies, facing determined defence over hard terrain, in the cold and mud of an Italian winter.

Map showing part of NE Italy. Image credit: Wikipedia.  Places mentioned in the text are marked with a red asterisk

By April 1945 the weather had improved sufficiently for an assault by the Eighth Army, which resulted in the forcing of the formidable Senio River on a broad front between Bologna and Ravenna. The terrain was similar to that of Holland, making it a difficult battlefield marked by swamps, lakes and rivers, and the Germans had built intricate defence positions into the banks of the Senio. The advance was preceded by a terrific air assault in which Liberators dropped 3,400 high explosive and 180,000 fragmentation bombs only 2,000 yards ahead of the Allied troops in a small area near Lake Comacchio where German troops, supplies, gun crews and anti-aircraft batteries were concentrated.

The German armour were restricted by a shortage of fuel, and the RAF and USAAF dominated the skies.  With 6 RTR on the right, 8 RTR on the left crossed over the Lugo Canal helping in the capture of the town of Solarolo, 30 kilmetres (19 miles) west of Ravenna.  Both battalions reached the River Santerno on 11 April 1945

On 15 April, 8RTR were in action in the attack on the city of Imola, located on the Santerno, and during the advance to the River Sillaro.

 

Coriano Ridge Cemetery. Image credit: Commonwealth War Graves Commission

A few days later, on 18 April 1945 and in circumstances as yet unknown, Francis lost his life. He was buried in Coriano Ridge Cemetery, the site having been selected that month, created from graves brought in from the surrounding battlefields. The area had seen the heaviest fighting since Monte Cassino in May 1944, with daily losses for the Eighth Army of some 150 killed. The Cemetery contains 1,939 Commonwealth burials of WW2.

The next post is for LIEUTENANT DAVID HUBERT HARVEY-WILLIAMS MC (1926-45) who died on 19 April 1945 while serving with the Royal Horse Guards (Household Cavalry Regiment) in Germany. You can read about him at https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2023/12/ww2-75-19-april-1945-missing-name.html