WO 171/1326 - 4 King's Shropshire Light Infantry - October 1944

Instructions regarding War Diaries and Intelligence Summaries are contained in F.S. Regs., Vol. 1. and the Staff Manual respectively Title pages will be prepared in manuscript.	WAR DIARY or INTELLIGENCE SUMMARY	Army Form C.2118
	WAR DIARY or INTELLIGENCE SUMMARY	Unit: 4 KSLI
Month and Year: October 1944	(Erase heading not required).	Commanding Officer: Lt. Col. M.R. Robinson

Place	Date	Hour	Summary	Reference
MILHEEZE to VEULEN	18	0730	onwards. Bn moved down the Bde CL and passed through 1 Herefords at IUSSELSTEIN. The group moved with one Sqdn F & F Yeo leading with no infantry entanked. C Coy and D coy were entanked on the other two Sqdns, A Coy & B Coy moved in T.C.Vs. C Coy were moved on the road running East & then South through STEEGSBROEK into VEULEN. B Coy & A Coy were used to clear the houses along the CL as far as the W. end of VEULEN. D Coy was ordered to clear the village of VEULEN. The Coy reached the East end of the village after some sharp close quarter fighting and then met stiff opposition. A Tp was deployed on the left in support of 16 & 17 Pls but 2 tanks were hit and put out of action by anti tank gun fire & the [other?] tank had to disengage. The enemy then counterattacked with 3 tanks and at least a Pl of infantry. The tanks came down the line of the road and the infantry worked through the fields. D Coy was forced back round the corner into the Eastern end of the village where they consolidated under heavy fire, but not before the situation was restored by a counterattack by 18 Pl supported by tank fire. 16 Pl commanded by Lt. Bratland had borne the brunt of the enemy counterattack and was reduced to the Pl Comd and 12 men – no NCOs being left. The coy FDLs were no more than 125× from the enemy. The remainder of the Bn consolidated as follows – A Coy on the right of the road behind D Coy, B Coy on the left of the road echeloned slightly back from A Coy, C Coy in [posn?] at the W end of the village. Bn HQ was sited in B Coy area. The move into the village was made along the C.L. under observation and particularly of the X Rds where the CL switched East. Nebelwerfers caused some casualties, particularly in the A/Tk Platoon.

Source: Jeroen Koppes, TracesOfWar.com, transcribing: Hans Houterman.

Disclaimer: This War Diary is based on its original, but typos might be corrected. Locations are calculated, so might not be in the correct place. For historical research, always check the originals.

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