The Wartime Memories Project - The Durham Light Infantry



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World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII

Information.

The Durham Light Infantry were formed in 1881 when the army was reorgansed from the 68th Durham Fusiliers becoming the 1st Battalion and 106th Bombay Light Infantry becomng the 2nd Battalon, with The Durham Volunteers Home Defence Rifle Corps forming the TA Battalions.

During Second World War the DLI had eighteen active battalions.

  • The 1st Battalion
  • The 2nd Battalion (2nd Bombay Europeans and 106th Light Infantry) saw action with the BEF and the withdrawal through Dunkirk. The 2nd Batn, fought with the 14th Army in Burma, seeing action at Kohima, Donbaik and Mandalay.
  • The 5th Durhams (TA) served in an antiaircraft role, and were divided, first as 1/5th and 2/5th, which became 54th and 55th Searchlight Regiments, Royal Artillery.
  • The 6th Btn, went to France with the BEF in 1940. It later saw action at Gazala, Gabr el Fakri, Mersa Matruh, El Alamein, Mareth; Landing in Sicily, Solarino, Primosole Bridge, Sicily, and took part in the June 1944 assault landings in Normandy and saw action in the advance towards Germany, Villers Bocage, Tilly-sur-Seulles, St Pierre la Vielle, Gheel.
  • The 7th DLI was converted and transferred in 1936 as 47 AA Battalion, Royal Engineers.
  • The 8th Battalion served in N Africa, Gazala, Gabr el Fakri, Mersa Matruh, El Alamein, Mareth; Landing in Sicily, Primosole Bridge. The also took part in the assault landings in Normandy in June 1944 and saw action in the advance towards Germany, Villers Bocage, St Pierre la Vielle, Gheel.
  • The 9th battalion saw service in N Africa, Zt el Mrassas, Point 174; El Alamein, Mareth. Landing in Sicily seeing action at Primosole Bridge and in NW Europe: Villers Bocage, Tilly-sur-Seulles, St. Pierre la Vielle; Gheel, Roer, Ibbenburen.
  • The 10th battalion served in France during 1940, in Iceland in the defence of Rauray and in NW Europe from 1944.
  • The 11th Battalion
  • The 12th battalion was transferred to the Black Watch in late 1939 and re-named the 1st Battalion the Tyneside Scottish, serving with the BEF to France in 1940, served in Iceland between October 1940 and December 1941, and fought in NW Europe during 1944.
  • The 13th Btn, was a Home Defence Battalion
  • The 16th Battalion
  • The 18th Btn. was a Home Defence Battalion, formed from the 13th Btn. in 1941
  • The 30th Btn. was formed in 1941 by a merger of the 13th and 18th Battalions. Their role was in Home Defence.

The first soldier of the Second World War to be awarded the Victoria Cross was Richard Annand, 2nd Battalion DLI, in Belgium in May 1940. Another VC was won by Adam Wakenshaw of Newcastle upon Tyne, awarded posthumously for action with the 9th Battalion DLI in North Africa, June 1942.

In 1968, The Durham Light Infantry amalgamated with three other county light infantry regiments to form The Light Infantry, so ending 200 years of history.



If you served with the DLI during World War Two we would love to hear from you.


Please contact us:



Early Days

I was born in 1911 and I had two older brothers who were called Bernard and Ray. In the First World War, I can remember the searchlights being on all night and when a Zeppelin was seen, everybody was told, and we had to go down into the cellars. It seemed to happen every night at the start of the war, when I was about three. We liked watching the searchlights through our bedroom windows before the alarms went. There was no rationing and it was, “first come, first served” at the shops. We didn’t have much money and I was very underweight.

The Social Services sent my brother Ray and me to a convalescent home in Conway in Wales to build us up. I stayed there but my mum came and took Ray home. The women who looked after us took us out every day and we had to go climbing in the mountains or swim in the sea for our health. The food was rough and I didn’t like it but we had to eat everything. We had a glass of milk every morning and bedtime was at six o’clock in the evening. We slept in revolving shelters – two in each. There was no covering at the front and it was open to the elements. I was about six when I went and I was there for three years. I only had one visit from my parents in all that time.

We had a meal together in the summerhouse and they stayed a few hours and then went home. My father was in the trenches during the war and my mother had four children at home so I suppose it was difficult to make the journey. Whilst I was in the home they had a gardening competition and all the children got a little plot. I put sweet peas at the back, then verbena and stocks and pansies at the front. At night I used to hear the trains going past on their way to Manchester and I used to say, “When will I go home – this year, next year, sometime, never.” We had no school down there but a tutor used to come in sometimes and teach us history.

In 1920 my mother brought me home. I had two little sisters who I had never seen and they called me “tin ribs”. The lack of schooling affected me as I was nine years old before I had any real education. I was regarded as bright and was given money for answering questions correctly. I could do all the work that was asked of me and I was very good at composition but I never did algebra or geometry. I developed my English because whenever I read a word I didn’t understand I always looked it up in the dictionary and learned it. My lack of education meant that I failed the 11-plus so I only got an elementary education at The Holy Name School in Greenheys, Manchester.

My dad was gassed during the war and he got a pension as he could not work. One day he received a letter that said the gassing had only aggravated his chest condition not caused it and they stopped his pension. We got food tickets from the Public Assistance and my brothers and I all got paper rounds and the money we earned paid the rent. I left school at the age of fourteen and got a job as an errand boy in a grocer’s shop. One of my jobs was to fill the bags but I wasn’t allowed to weigh stuff out. There were two girls in charge and they used to shout “Roddy” when they wanted me, they never used my first name. I had to go outside and bring eggs in for customers and also take orders round on a little truck. The wage was eight shillings a week but sometimes people gave me a tip when I delivered their groceries.

In Victoria Park there were lots of big houses that had been turned into nursing homes and the matron of one where I was delivering told me that her cook had left so I said my mum was a good cook and she gave her a job. I was ambitious and applied for lots of job and I went to a warehouse called Phillips and got a job there at fourteen shillings a week. I only had to work from nine to five unlike the shop were the hours were 8.30 am until 5.30 pm. When there was a threat of air raids the boss asked for volunteers to watch the warehouse during the night in case of incendiary bombs. I agreed to do it and was trained as a fireman. The pay for this was better than my salary because in my job you didn’t get your full wage until you were over twenty-one.

The War

I was called up in 1940 after the French surrendered and I was sent to a place near Nottingham called Allerton. We were in what was known as the Dukeries near Sherwood Forest. There were a lot of abbeys in that area that had been given to Henry VIII’s friends at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries. The lucky ones slept in the abbeys and the rest of us in tents on very wet ground. I was sent to the East Coast defences at Skegness as we expected a German invasion. One of my jobs was to walk along the beach and check whether the sea would rock a small, medium or large boat. Then we had to walk along the beach for another mile to see if any boats were coming in. We had to stand to at 4.30 am because we had a mile to walk. Some men were dug in on the sand dunes and we had to carry machine guns, mortars and all sorts of weapons to them. The army put up a card with the following instructions “You will stay here until the last man and the last round”. The plan to stop the invasion at that time was to have several lines of defence. If they got through us there was another defence position and then another and another going inland. The idea was that by the time Germans had got into the town there would be so few of them that we would be able to finish them off.

After Yorkshire I went to Norfolk to wait to be sent abroad because we couldn’t get on the Queen Mary to go the Middle East. The day before we were due to leave, Norwich was bombed. It was night and I heard a lot of loud thumps that were incendiary bombs being dropped followed by heavier bombs. Early in the war I think there had been some sort of agreement that we wouldn’t bomb Germany’s historic towns and they wouldn’t bomb ours, but after we bombed Lubeck they retaliated and bombed Bath, York, Exeter, Norwich and Canterbury. They called them the Baedeker raids as it was thought the Germans had picked them from the Baedeker tourist guides.

Things were really bad at this time as we had lost a lot of battles. Word came through to say our boat was ready and we had to go to Scotland to embark. We put our tropical kit on and marched off with fixed bayonets accompanied by a band to make people think we were actually doing something to help beat the Germans. Ten thousand of us in all were sent to Gourock and we embarked on the Duchess of Atholl who we nicknamed the Drunken Duchess because she rolled about so much. On the crossing it was decided to hold a boxing competition and I put my name down. A ring was made on the top deck and we had the contest when we were in the middle of the Atlantic. I was a flyweight and came out to meet my opponent and clobbered him and he went down. I thought I had won but he got up and knocked me out and when I woke up I was being carried down to the lower deck. I received 200 cigarettes as a loser’s prize.

We landed at Suez and unloaded and went through Cairo to an infantry base where we were put into different regiments. I was in the Durham Light Infantry. Before we got through, the Eighth Army had already been there. They had a success in 1941 but in 1942 we had a leader who was not very good. He wasn’t a tank man and the Germans had 88mm guns and we lost Tobruk because we had no tanks. We might have lost the war if we had lost Suez. The Eighth Army were driven back to within 18 miles of Alexandria. Monty said, “If we can’t stay here alive we will stay here dead.” Reinforcements were ten miles further away.

On 23rd October 1942 all the Eighth Army were in groups and we could hear the Scots pipes playing and the New Zealanders were sent to the armoured cars at a certain time and we came out of our trenches. We each had hand grenades, fifteen rounds of ammunition and six empty sandbags. The sandbags were for when we had to dig in as there was only two inches of sand and underneath solid rock. We had to fill the sandbags and heap them up around us. About an hour before that 1,000 guns were set off towards the Germans. They had a lot more tanks than we did. We came out of the slit trenches and advanced behind a creeping barrage and the shells were falling about ten yards in front of us. We advanced to the German lines and most of them surrendered and the rest retreated. We had the Germans and Italians on the run. Now and then they stopped for a skirmish and they booby-trapped everywhere. We went to Tripoli and got into Tunisia.

The French built a line at Mareth like the Maginot Line. We were given the job of getting through on a moonlit night. The barrage went up and we attacked. I had the job of cutting the wire. Our tanks could not get through because there were deep wadis. I was wounded there by a shell that dropped nearby. The sergeant was hit and went to the first-aid tent which was blown up so it was very lucky I didn’t follow him. Things calmed down with just an occasional shell and food came along for us. I had a cup of tea and then I had to go to hospital for two weeks until I recovered.

Monty sent a corps deep into the desert with anti-tank guns and my division went there but I couldn’t because I was still in hospital. They pressed on to Tunis to a place called Cap Bon and there were thousands of Germans. We surrounded them and they surrendered and that was the end of the desert war. We got on a train in March 1943 and went right back to Suez where we had started from. Our job there was to train in the Jabal al Akhdar mountains for two or three weeks because we were going to a mountainous country, although we had no idea where. When we had finished training we got on a boat and went down the Red Sea passing Israel, Saudi Arabia and Akaba and we had to practise landing our boats.

We marched for about ten hours through thick sand to where we set up camp. We got bedded down and had about an hour before we were called to get up again and we had to pack up everything. The reason for this was because they brought the date for the invasion of Sicily forward. We got back on the ship and we had two battleships the Nelson and the Rodney to escort us. We went to Avola in Sicily and we were supposed to arrive at the same time as the airborne troops but they were dropped short and we had to pick them up out of the sea. We landed with many casualties. I had a back-pack and all my cigarettes got wet and I had to throw them away.

We came to Catania and after two or three days of hard fighting we managed to take the airport. One night Herman Goering’s division were dropped on us and we had to retreat towards Carlentini. We had to start all over again to take the airport with the help of another brigade. My job was to guide all the traffic in from the seaport. Then we had to take the bridge at Primasole where we lost a tremendous number of men.

The weather was very hot and at night there were millions of mosquitoes trying to bite us. I used to put my plastic gas cape over me but it was too hot and when I took it off the mosquitoes got to me. I didn’t know I had malaria, but one night on guard duty I was sweating and had a terrible headache and a Canadian took over from me and told me to go to the hospital. They said I had malaria and put me on a hospital ship going to Malta. It was an awful journey as the ship was full of insects so it was a tremendous relief to see Valletta harbour. All the quinine had gone so they starved me for two weeks with just cups of tea to drink and eventually the malaria died down.

Italy surrendered at this time and Italian battleships were coming into Valletta harbour to surrender. I had to go back to Sicily and by the time I arrived the Allies had got to Salerno and they were in great trouble. We were supposed to go to Salerno but no Eighth Army divisions were sent to Italy because we were Monty’s favourite corps and we were going to be sent back to England for training for D-Day. We settled down in Norfolk and trained for D-Day. Then we camped near to Southampton. We sat under the trees and the sergeant went to get us a bucket of beer and the Welsh soldiers drank it and started to sing for us.

On D-Day we boarded ships in the Solent and I had my thirty-first birthday. The weather was terrible and I heard one of the marines who were with us say “We’re not going today because it’s too bad” and I ran back to tell my friends. The next morning small boats came for us and we all got in them. The Captain said “Lower away” and we were dropped into the sea which was still very rough and some of the boats went over. We crossed the Channel and landed on Gold Beach. The landing was not as bad as it might have been although there were lots of casualties.

We went up the hill to Bayeux and all the children were calling “Bonbon monsieur” and people came out of the shops and some offered us glasses of brandy. We walked a couple of miles along the road to see where the Germans were and then we were called back to the beach. There were eight tanks waiting and we set off across the fields towards the Germans with fixed bayonets. The Germans disappeared and we settled down next to a cottage. Then the Germans came back and our officer said “Every man for himself.” The field we were in was large and a greyhound came running among us tripping people up as we ran towards the fence. The fence was very high and we had a long drop over the other side.

We ran back down the lane towards our HQ. The NAAFI had just arrived but the Germans were firing 88mm shells and three of my friends were killed. Two hundred yards away I could see a German tank coming with all its guns firing. I was on an anti-tank gun and as I aimed the tank turned away. Things quietened down after that and as there was trouble at Caen we set off to assist the troops there. We went through a town called Tilly where I got hit and my friend John bandaged me up and managed to get me away from the danger which saved my life. He got me to the coast and I was sent back to England where I had to have two or three operations at a Canadian hospital at Aldershot. They had to remove the metal from my body. I ate everything they gave me because we hadn’t had much food in France.

My brother Ray was stationed at Aldershot and he came to see me and brought me a jug of tea. On the table was the piece of metal the surgeons had removed from my body. I slowly improved and then had to go by train to West Kilbride on the River Clyde in Scotland. At the hospital I could see people doing all sorts of tricks and I thought it was entertainment for us but it was an asylum and they were patients.

They had to give me chloroform to take out all the stitches and then I went to a big house for recuperation but I didn’t have long there as I was needed for training in Edinburgh with the Scots Guards. From there I was sent to Dover which was being shelled. We were shelling the Germans and they were shelling us and I could see buildings collapsing in flames. Then we were sent to Ickleford in Sussex before being sent back to Dover at Christmas 1944. We were then sent to Bicester ready to be flown back to Belgium because the Germans had broken through the American front.

We arrived in Belgium and were posted to different places where the Germans might threaten and my group were sent to the Rhineland and occupied two German towns, Kleef and Goch. Things changed when the clouds cleared and the air forces could operate and played havoc with the German forces. They had to crawl back to Germany after being badly mauled. This was the end of the break through. Ike gave Monty the Ninth Army and this was not popular in America. We flew in when the weather cleared and that broke the Germans. We went to a place called Neimagen near Arnheim and we were in training for crossing the Rhine. We had to carry the boats down to the river at night so the Germans didn’t spot us. On 24th March we crossed the Rhine in little boats. The river is one mile wide and as we reached the other side all we could see were buildings with white flags flying. However, we still had another three rivers to cross – the Waser, Aller and Elbe.

At the Aller we had a very big battle. We were about five miles from Belsen and some of our troops were sent there but I was glad I didn’t have to go. When we crossed the Elbe we went further forward than we should have done and went into the Russian Zone but they made us go back ten miles. We settled down in a little town and we were scheduled to go on to Berlin. Most of the Germans had crossed the Elbe to get away from the Russians. Then we had to occupy Kiel where we lost quite a lot of men but Hitler had killed himself the week before and things were opening up.

We went into Kiel and in one of the houses I heard a radio and the people called us in to listen. We heard Churchill say “Germany has unconditionally surrendered” and I got down on my knees and prayed. There were 300,000 German troops in Norway and that put the wind up us as we thought we would have to go over because at first they wouldn’t surrender. Thank God they did.

The “real war” was over now and so we were sent back to a place called Lubeck, a cathedral city which was very nice. There were thousands of displaced Ukranians and Poles there and they were very unruly. They got hold of the weapons that the Germans had dropped and we had the job of rounding these people up and calming them down. Eventually things settled down but we had to stay there to keep things under control. We were asked to run a prison in Lubeck and we had to take the prisoners out every morning for exercise.

I was the only NCO there for a week so I regarded myself as a prison governor! A German teacher was found to help us to learn the language and I went to classes but unfortunately I missed some when I was on guard duty. However, the teacher offered to bring me up to date and I was called the teacher’s pet. I used to escort her home at night because it was still quite dangerous. I took her round the town sometimes and once we went to a café. I left something on my plate and she took it and put it in her handbag because the people couldn’t get enough food.

A little girl used to come up to me and take my hand and her family wanted me to take her and give her food. It was not allowed but I did it. We stuck it out in Lubeck for a year. I had some leave and I was sent home. I sailed from a port on the Baltic where no ships had been able to leave during the war because of mines. We arrived at Calais where there was a big camp with thousands of soldiers waiting for demob. I forgot where my tent was and wandered round the town for ages until someone recognised me and showed me where to go.

When I arrived back in Manchester my mum had moved house and someone had to show me where she lived. She had put flags out for my arrival. My malaria came back so I couldn’t return to Germany. When I got well enough I was sent to Norfolk. There were lots of fights between our troops and the Americans over the local girls. I met an American in Cambridgeshire. He was lost and I took him back with me and found him a bed. The next morning I was afraid to take him to breakfast because of this dislike of Americans but everyone said to take him so I did and afterwards we found big blocks of chocolate on our beds.

We were all waiting for our official discharge but we still had to train. The war was still going on in Japan and all the younger ones were scared that they would be sent over but I was too old to go. But then the atom bomb was dropped so nobody had to be sent.

Back to Civvy Street

I lived in Victoria Park with my mother and I was the only one left at home. There was a church just around the corner where I went to Mass. Luckily I had a job to go back to at a wholesale drapers in Manchester and I wanted a job there as a sales representative. I stayed for a while but they were losing trade because mail order shopping had started and people were buying from catalogues so clothing shops were not doing very well. I knew we might have to close down and I took a course in the interim in arithmetic and statistics. I went to the Job Centre and asked if there were any jobs in the Civil Service.

I was sent to Albert Bridge House for an interview and when I told them I had a diploma they offered me a job. I stayed there for nineteen years with a pension at the end of it. didn’t get married until I was forty because I was away in the army during the war and afterwards I did a lot of work at the local church. I had a girlfriend but she didn’t want to get married and anyway I didn’t have a good enough job. Then I met my wife Josie at a church dance and we got married in 1953. We adopted two children and Josie died in 1984. After I retired from the civil service I got a job at the chest hospital but I had to leave when I was seventy. I then I got a job at Ladbrokes the bookmakers. I had to buy the Sporting Chronicle every morning and mark the odds and winners up as well as working in the office. It was at a time when most people smoked and you could hardly see across the room. I didn’t like all the smoke so then I got a job at the Queen’s Bingo Hall in Hollinwood and took “early retirement” when I was eighty.

John Edmund Roddy



My father Frank Soulsby was a private or Lance Corporal in the D.L.I. and was captured just after Dunkirk, I think. He was in Stalag V111B until the end of the war. He spent time in the salt and coal mines and was injured in a rock fall in one of them. He came home with a badly infected chin which never really cleared up completely. His best mate was Arthur Stott who lived near Stockton in Durham. He also had some Australian mates who convinced him to emigrate to Australia which we did in 1950. He really didn't say much about his war service or POW time and died in 1990. I have a letter written by my mother when he returned to say that she had trouble getting him to talk and she felt that he missed his mates.



My grandad fought in WW2 in the DLI and was wounded at Dunkirk. He later went on to fight in Africa (8th Army Clasp), France and Germany and other places. I was left his medals in his will and I am trying to trace if he was entitled to the Dunkirk Medal, as he has that one missing. I have a few photos of him in uniform and a couple in Egypt. I would be willing to send some of these photos and a photo of his medals if you wish. My grandad's name was Joseph Summerbell Wilkinson of whom I am very proud



Elias Sterio - The ultimate sacrifice

Born Swansea 23.10.1919, lived in Cardiff with wife Sarah. Whilst serving with the 6th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry, in 1943, was sent home wounded.

D Day:

D Day 6th June 1944, arrived on Gold Beach at approx. 11am, then moved off the beach to it`s assembly area at Ver su Mer. At 3pm they moved off through Villiers le Sec to Esqaiy sur Suelles. The Durhams were part of the 50th Division whose objectives were the capture of Tilly sur Seulles, Hottot & Villers-Bocage.

13th June 1944

The 6th Battalion lined up on the main Tilly - Bayeux road and, with `A` Company leading, moved down the road to Le Pont de la Guillette, Buceels. On turning right at this point,down a lane to clear a German position, the leading companies were almost immediately engaged by mortars and machine guns from an area of nearby farm buildings. Elias Sterio was one of the 1st down the lane and gave the ultimate sacrifice, Elias was just 24 years old and left a wife, Sarah and a 1 year old daughter, Mary.

Elias Sterio now lies at peace at the war cemetery at Tilly sur Seulles - a hero.

60 years after Eli`s death, nephew Brian & Great nephew David made a trip to be at Eli`s grave on the 13th June 2004. We are going back to Normandy, 1st July 2005, this time taking Mary, Eli`s daughter who has never been to her fathers grave.



Joseph Edgar Trayler, Lance Sergeant in Durham Light Infantry (No. 4456668) returned to England from hospital in North Africa in Nov. 1943 as his wife had been murdered in Folkestone. It appears he was not granted compassionate leave, so was arrested on arrival in UK. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who knew Edgar ( as he was known)or the circumstances of his arrest.





I was a member of the 11th Battalion of the DLI, captured at Lille in 1940. I spent the rest of the war in Stalag 8b.

We had a Sergeant in charge of our working party at a coal mine near Trzebinia, we knew him as Sgt "Krappitz". He was from County Durham. He was a great man and was like a father to us younger lads. Does anyone remember him?

I would like to get in touch with anyone who remembers Sgt "Krappitz" from those times. He was with us on the long march from Poland to Landshut where we parted company.


I would also like to get in touch with the family of one of my fellow prisoners who was killed in a accident whilst working in the coal mine in July 1944. He was about 23 or 24 years old, from London I think, I didn't know his full name but I think he may have been Pte Harry Williams of the 5th Battalion of the Hampshire Regt who died on the 15th July 1944 and is buried at the Cracow Rakowicki Cemetery.

I'd also like to hear from my friend Cecil B. Moulden who was from Stroud in Gloucestershire, we lost touch after the war.

George Black



I am looking for any information regarding my dad who has since sadly died. He was captured outside Arras in 1940 during the fall of Dunkirk. He served with the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, Durham Light Infantry and was a Prisoner of War in East Prussia. His name is Martin (Marky) Collins and he was from East London. I would be grateful for any information you may have.

Thanks. Tracy Sturgess.



My mother in laws father George Edward Taylor was in the DLI and was killed in action about 1940. We have no photographic record of him and would like to hear from anyone with information about him. He is buried in a cemetary in Burqouy Road, Arras, France. This is about all we know.

Joanne Johnson



My Grandad William Rielly M.M served in the 6th & 9th Battalion from 1937 - 1945. There is an incident that I am particularly interested in and would appreciate any help. It took place as British troops were about to enter Germany.

An officer had driven through lines into a minefield, and his vehicle was blown up, the Officer was injured and lay out in the field of fire. This went on for some time and the Officer had waved back to the troops some 200 DLI soldiers and Officers. My Grandad took of his army gear, tied a white handkerchief around his arm and ran out to the officer, picked him up and started to bring him back to British lines. On his way back he was shot in the left shoulder by a sniper but continued to bring this Officer back to the British lines. When he eventually got back, there was a big cheer from all of the British troops in the area who had seen this incident and while my Grandad was receiving medical treatment Officers from the DLI came and congratulated him and said they would recommend him for a special award. This award was called the Special Gallantry Award and I would like to know what happened to this recommendation and who the Officers were who were present on the day. Please e-mail me if you have any information. Lynsey Pili



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