WW2 100 – 31 August 1944 – Death of a ‘Black Cat’ in Italy: Gunner Herbert James Skinner (1916-44) 113th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery
Continued from 26 Aug 1944 DRIVER CYRIL JOHN LOCKYEAR (1918-44) 143 Field Park Squadron, the Royal Engineers https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/03/ww2-75-26-august-1944-adopted-in.html A news cutting from the 1944 Exmouth Journal It’s always helpful to come across a wartime newspaper cutting about people serving in the forces who had a link to Budleigh, so this item from the Exmouth Journal telling me about Herbert was a welcome find, sad though it was in announcing his death at the age of 28. However I was puzzled by that mention of his ‘landing on the Aegean beaches’. Nowhere in the history of the Royal Artillery’s 113 rd Field Regiment have I read about its involvement in that area of the Mediterranean. Had he taken part in the Aegean campaign – an ill-judged attempt to capture Greek islands in 1943 – the chances are that he would have been killed or taken prisoner. Budleigh Salterton's...