Post by Eric Roper on Jun 4, 2010 16:29:47 GMT 1
Can anyone help Mr Shonfield:
Dear Mr Roper,
I wonder if you can help me. I am researching an article on events in Tuscany in 1944, specifically the liberation of a village called San Leolino, not far from Arezzo, by 2nd Battalion King's Liverpool Regiment on 15/16 July 1944.
You may have seen a brief account of this engagement by one of the soldiers involved, Kenneth Kingsley, published on the Daily Telegraph website last year as part of this war memoir:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/britainatwar/britainatwarreadersmemories/5120498/Britain-at-War-I-tried-to-save-the-soldier.-He-died-in-my-arms.html
I am trying to trace Mr Kingsley or his family but I would also be very grateful for any further information you may have on this engagement, and in particular if there might be any further recollections or accounts.
Obviously many of those involved may no longer be alive, but their relatives may have accounts that they would be prepared to share. I should explain that my interest is personal, as well as historical/journalistic, as I live in San Leolino. There are several of my neighbours who were youngsters at the time and remember the liberation, and the community as a whole is keen on preserving as much as possible of these memories.
A week before they were liberated the village was raided by troops from the Hermann Goering Panzer Division. Nine civilians were killed, and the village only narrowly escaped a much bigger massacre of the sort that occurred in other villages nearby.
The Special Investigation Branch of the Military Police investigated and produced a war crimes report in 1945, but the report has never been published until now. Later this year, however, the regional government of Tuscany is producing a book based on the report, and it seems very appropriate that we should have an account of the liberation to coincide.
If you are able to provide any advice or contacts to help with this, it would be tremendously helpful. I have a colleague in Liverpool - her name is Carmel Brown, she lives in Oxton - who is working with me on this project. She will be looking at the war diary and regimental history next week. Would it be all right if she contacted you, and if so when would be convenient?
Yours sincerely,
David Shonfield
Poggio al Sole
San Leolino
Bucine 52021
Email: david_shonfield@hotmail.com
Dear Mr Roper,
I wonder if you can help me. I am researching an article on events in Tuscany in 1944, specifically the liberation of a village called San Leolino, not far from Arezzo, by 2nd Battalion King's Liverpool Regiment on 15/16 July 1944.
You may have seen a brief account of this engagement by one of the soldiers involved, Kenneth Kingsley, published on the Daily Telegraph website last year as part of this war memoir:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/britainatwar/britainatwarreadersmemories/5120498/Britain-at-War-I-tried-to-save-the-soldier.-He-died-in-my-arms.html
I am trying to trace Mr Kingsley or his family but I would also be very grateful for any further information you may have on this engagement, and in particular if there might be any further recollections or accounts.
Obviously many of those involved may no longer be alive, but their relatives may have accounts that they would be prepared to share. I should explain that my interest is personal, as well as historical/journalistic, as I live in San Leolino. There are several of my neighbours who were youngsters at the time and remember the liberation, and the community as a whole is keen on preserving as much as possible of these memories.
A week before they were liberated the village was raided by troops from the Hermann Goering Panzer Division. Nine civilians were killed, and the village only narrowly escaped a much bigger massacre of the sort that occurred in other villages nearby.
The Special Investigation Branch of the Military Police investigated and produced a war crimes report in 1945, but the report has never been published until now. Later this year, however, the regional government of Tuscany is producing a book based on the report, and it seems very appropriate that we should have an account of the liberation to coincide.
If you are able to provide any advice or contacts to help with this, it would be tremendously helpful. I have a colleague in Liverpool - her name is Carmel Brown, she lives in Oxton - who is working with me on this project. She will be looking at the war diary and regimental history next week. Would it be all right if she contacted you, and if so when would be convenient?
Yours sincerely,
David Shonfield
Poggio al Sole
San Leolino
Bucine 52021
Email: david_shonfield@hotmail.com