Correction re the Glosters @ 19th May 1940 (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Friday, February 01, 2013, 20:48 (4308 days ago) @ Jefff

re "my muddled mind"... !!!

Those sharper than I will have noticed a foolish error in my above posts relating to the last days of my mum's cousin Pte Ken WRIGHT, 2nd Btn Glosters. Despite the CWGC site clearly stating he died on 19th May, I have recounted the story of his Regiment's battle at Cassel almost two weeks later !
Apologies for this, in my enthusiam to illustrate what might be found on the internet I copied over some old unfinished research without properly checking it first. As I feel it may be of interest to others I'll leave the post for now with a view to amending at a later date.

On tonight's re-searching "19th May 1940 Glosters" on the net, one of my first hits interestingly took me to a photo of another member of Ken's unit. Private Michael Wilfred Burns from Mitcheldean was killed in action at Ath in France on 19th May 1940, leaving a wife and young son; this photo may well have been the last time they saw him...
http://www.sungreen.co.uk/Mitcheldean-Dean-Glos/Pte_M_W_Burns_Glos_Regt.html
http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2277201/BURNS,%20MICHAEL%20WILFRED

I've found that Michael (from Mitcheldean) would almost certainly have been a mate of Ken (from Longhope), not only were they near neighbours but they were distantly related thro' marriage.

The Glosters own website has this regarding those few days when Ken Wright and many others of the 2nd Glosters lost their lives;

"By 16th May the two Gloucester battalions were in positions near the Waterloo battlefield of 1815, but the French army had already been fatally broken, and 2nd and 5th Battalions received the order to retreat. The retreat was in some danger of turning into a rout. Captain Lovett wrote of 18th May:-
“. . . we proceeded by Motor coaches – our destination was Bruyelle. Some coaches went via TOURNAI where the Bn. sustained about 90 casualties from bombing . . . I received a rude awakening when I was having a doze on the journey. I was hauled out of the coach and thrown into a ditch by my Coy. Commander — we were being dive bombed but nothing came anywhere near us, the attack being on the column about 100 yds behind us. The M/T discipline was extremely bad during this journey as there was a lot of unnecessary passing and racing between coaches of other units.”
https://soldiersofglos.com/announcement/cassel-and-ledringhem/

Further searching has found this extensive history which mentions the 2nd & 5th Glosters amongst many other units. It transpires Ath is actually in Belgian and was part of an Allied defensive line along local rivers & canals, setup to hopefully stem the overwhelming fast "Blitzkreig"(lightning war) invasion that had first sliced thro' Holland and Belgian just 9 chaotic days earlier.
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/UK-NWE-Flanders/UK-NWE-Flanders-4.html

More searching found this Diary of the Oxfordshire & Bucks Light Infantry, who fought alongside the 2nd Glosters, it adds extra info to illustrate this everchanging and most arduous situation.
http://www.lightbobs.com/1940-1bucks-france--belgium.html

Similarly the 7th & 8th Battalions of the Worcester Regiment, with more men of Dean, were fighting alongside the 5th Glosters. This excellent site includes interesting Diary extracts and so on about all their actions during the Battle for France in May 1940, in particular the section "an Officer's View".
http://www.worcestershireregiment.com/wr.php?main=inc/h_dunkirk

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Additional CAREFULL research to come...