My Great Grandfather Lt Col A.H. Williams

[Jamille]

Hello to all,

I am Jamille Sammour, great grandson of Lt Col A.H. Williams who i understand to have commanded 7th battalion RWF and served in the 1st battalion RWF i was here to see whether anyone could give me any information about him/his battalion.

I am not a vet myself but would appreciate any help.

Thank you

[Jamille]

Could anyone please help me find information on my great grand father. He serverd with the 1st or 2nd Battlion RFW in France and Burma and i believe (correct me if i am wrong) went on to command the 7th battalion RFW. i dont know much about his service so anyone who knew him or knows of him it would be of great interest for my to find out about him. I am also in possession of a great amount of pictures taken by him of the battlations fighting in Burma and France if that interests anyone one

[Scouse75]

Welcome Jamille, there are a few forum members who are experts in this area, and Im sure they will be in touch soon. I know that they usually ask for service numbers or medal index numbers to assist them in their searches. They will advise you in due course. Good luck

[jungle1810]

Hello Jamille,
Any photo's of members of the RWF are most welcome. Especially if they are dated and have ben notated. In fact any queries are more readily researched if Regimental numbers, location, and clearly defined battalion/s information is included.Many thanks
RBD aka Jungle 1810

[Jamille]

I do indeed have exactly what you asked for, all dated. all with names all with locations, but the problem is i have hundereds all taken by my great grand father from the begging of his service in 1940 in france burma and and normandy and rather a view pictures of the battle of Donbaink.

[Glyn Hughes 17]

Dear Jamille,
I note from “A Brief Record of The Activities of 7th Bn The Royal Welch Fusiliers” (Merioneth and Montgomery Territorial) The 7th Bn RWF had moved from Ireland to Lichfield, Herne bay, Tenterden, Appledore and eventually Maidstone. Lt-Col A H Williams DSO had recently returned from the Arakan, took over the command of The 7th Bn RWF from Lt-Col Bamfield. The 7th Bn RWF sailed for Normandy on the evening of 24th June 1944. On the 15th July the 7th Bn was allotted the first objective to attack, the formidable “Ferme du Mondeville” feature near Evrecy, the Bn attacked the hill on the following night, this involved an advance of over 2,500 yards, at first all went according to plan. Soon, however a heavy fog came down and Coy,s become unavoidably disorganised. As dawn was approaching the order came to retire and shortly afterwards the fog lifted suddenly, leaving the Bn completely exposed on a long slop. Enemy fire became very heavy and severe casualties were suffered. During this withdrawal Lt-Col A H William was severely wounded and most gallantly evacuated by a small party led by Lt,s D C Jones And C P Dryland.
Kind regards
Glyn

[ap1]

LT Col A H Williams DSO MC was originally Second In Command of 1RWF at the early days of WW2. I am out of the UK at the moment, so I don't have access to the war diaries, but I think he may have had temp command of the 1st Battalion at Dunkirk, after the CO was killed in an air crash recceing enemy positions, although I may be mistaken.

Your Ggrandfather is extensively mentioned in a book called Red Dragon by Lt Comdr Kemp. This was published in 1960, but is no longer in print. It is available online from www.abebooks.com. Expect to pay about £20-£30 for a decent copy. The book cover the 1st Bn at Dunkirk, it also covers the period 1944-45 when the 7th Bn were fighting across Europe after D-Day.

Do you have anything of interest relating to your Ggrandfather's service, documents etc you could share with us online. We have an area called "The Vault" where we display items of interest.

We have a couple of weeks of The Dunkirk Diaries from May 1940 on show in The Vault at

http://www.rwf-forum.co.uk/vBulletin...&articleid=111

Perhaps this is time to get the remainder of those Dunkirk Diaries online, I will see what Bob Bacon, our Webmaster thinks.

Your Grandfather played a crucial part in the history of our regiment in WW2....Welcome Jamille :-)

[ap1]

I do indeed have exactly what you asked for, all dated. all with names all with locations, but the problem is i have hundereds all taken by my great grand father from the begging of his service in 1940 in france burma and and normandy and rather a view pictures of the battle of Donbaink.

These pictures sound of great interest Jamille. We would happily display many of them for you, especially as some will have historical value.

I should also point out in the vault we have the War Diaries for Kohima, and possibly Donbaik in the Vault.