WO 171/1384 - 2 Royal Ulster Regiment - 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: 2nd Bn The Royal Ulster Rifles
Month and Year: October 1944	(Erase heading not required).	Commanding Officer: Lt. Col. I.C. Harris

Place	Date	Hour	Summary	Reference
721382	13		Reveille was at 300 hrs & the Bn left ST ANTHONIS at 400 hrs marching to an Assembly Area at 741332. Breakfast was eate great effect great effect.n here & was very much welcomed after a tiring march in the dark. At 600 hrs the CO was at 8 Br Inf HQ to learn the last dispositions on the enemy from the Bns in contact. Then he met Company Commanders, the battalion on that sector of the front with which we were most concerned. Here the CO met the tank commander & some "marrying up"was achieved before all parties went forward to recce routes. Recces had to be carried out with care because mines had been encountered by 8th. Inf. Bdr. on the previous day , & it was consequently important to find a route which would permit the passage of tanks and infantry. At 830 hrs the CO gave final orders & at 900 hrs A Coy let the assembly area for its first objective .Bn Hq moved forward behind it to a house at 753332. Soon after A Coy had moved off intensive mortaring & shelling came down but it seemed to be defensive rather than observed fire, falling along the line of the OVERLOON-OPLOO road rather than upon our man as they moved forward. Major Sweeney MC kept his Company well on the northern side of the road, working on the right handed & crossing the roa d at the point where the wood was the nearest to it. Meanwhile the tanks drove forward across the road & kept up an impressive covering barrage of machine gun fire upon thewhole line of the wood to the west & south. Flails too were closed by behing, prepared to deal with any mines which were discovered, A Coy had had a few casualties crossing the open ground but once in the wood they were to a large extent covered from activities of the Bosche. Now there were fresh difficulties dictated by the nature of the country. This wood varied in thickness from being in some places impenetrable, to others where the undergrowth had been cut down by shelling & dry rot. Tracks leadindthrough the woods were soft and sandly like the rest of the wood so thatthe speed of marching personnel & vehicles was much reduced. Another problem was the mapping of the area; tracks & woods on the map bore little relation to tracks & woods on the ground & even with a revised trace of this particular wood, it remainrd extremely difficult to fid direction. At 945 hrs A Coy reported its objectives gained & D Coy under Major Bird left soon after this. Gradually a few prisoners began to come in but it soon became clair that the mainbody of the Bosche had withdrawn from the wood & that this prisoners were stragglers. Consequently D Coy , its objectives reported carried, was instructed by the CO to push forward to the original objective of C Coy & under Major the Longouil now moved forward to take over D objective. At one point in their advance B Coy came to clearing & right hand final objective. At one point in their advance B Coy came to a clearing & were fired on by a bazooka & small arms. No casualties were sustained but by the time B Coy had deployed to deal with this threat the Bosche had fled. The Coy made good its objectives without further incidents. Subsequently some Bosche were observed in a little strip of wood opposite the position & Bren guns opened up with great effect. Soon after this two Pz KW Mk IV was observed withdrawing south east across the front , unfortunately out of Piat range. The tanks could not assist here because they had been quiet unable to follow the infantry through the wood to these positions. Bn HQ moved to the edge of the wood (751309) at 1800 hrs. Difficulties of administration began to arise. No vehicles could reach the forward Companies.because the tracks had not yet been cleared of mines & because they were so soft, but inany case only carriers could have made the yourney. Food, water, blankets & greatcoats had to manhandled up to the company positions by relays of working parties. Additionally all ranks had to dig in, & through the soil was soft it was late before all preparations were completed. Little sleep was had by the Bn that night. Casualties during theday had not been heavy & these few were caused principally by mortar fire. A Coy suffered some in the in the initial advance , & later D Coy lost Lieut Curran, slightly wounded in the head.

Source: Jeroen Koppes, TracesOfWar.com, transcribing: Theo Vervoort.

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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