First Draft Submitted

After a pretty solid weekend of tweaking, correcting, checking and re-checking, I’m pleased to report that the first draft of my next book on the history of 142nd Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps (formerly 7th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment) had now left for the publishers.

The culmination of over two years of work and many more years of research before that, it’s now edged a little closer to fruition.

The men of 142 RAC left absolutely nothing in terms of first hand accounts, so this one has been difficult to say the least. I know what you’re thinking “he said the same about his Burma book on Second Suffolk” - but this one had been equally difficult to compile. So far, I’ve found less that five first-hand accounts from individuals who served with the Regiment written after 1945 and even fewer photographs, but undeterred, theirs is an interesting story that I felt needed to be told.

This then leaves only the 4th and 5th Battalions to have their war service recorded and then my ‘cannon’ of Second World War Suffolk Battalion Histories will be complete (but that’s some time away yet!)

As you can see in the image here, the proposed working title is ‘From Longstop Hill to the Gothic Line.’ This I have chosen because it neatly frames the timescale of the Regiment’s fighting war. Though their first action was at Sbiba in support of the Guards in February 1943, their first ‘major’ action en-masse was the advance over the Dj Dourat Ridge in April 1943 in the advance to retake Longstop Hill in the north, though they only got to within four miles of it, but their advance had been accomplished over the most arduous of terrain and their Churchill tanks certainly performed magnificently. Their final major action was the breaking of the Gothic Line at Monte-Colombo in September 1944, though they did advance onwards through San Marino ending their fighting west of Forli in November 1944.m, but these two important battles seldom get any attention when the Tunisian or Italian campaigns are mentioned, hence why I am keen to get them recognised.

They’ll be a quiet period now for some weeks as the project progresses, but I’ll be sharing updates as and when they arrive so you can follow its journey to print.