The Gully
The 38th Battle Honour in order for The Regiment and awarded as such when World War II and Korea Battle Honours were awarded to The Regiment. It is not entitled to be worn on the Colours.
After the Battle of San Leonardo the Germans were not given an respite. The advance towards Ortona continued.
The new attack was launched on December 10, 1943 by other units of the 1st Division and for some reason a gully in the earth a few hundred yards short of the objective was not considered at all.
The gully housed a garrison that could move about at will providing rear fire on the assaulting units.
It was necessary to clear the coastal area as quickly as possible and the 1st Brigade of which we were part of was ordered to thrust past Ortona and cut the coastal road to the North.
The Regiment was to attack to the East along a railway line.
At 0800 hrs 18 December 1943 the attack commenced and the 48 Battalion Highlanders pushed off. They reached their objective under good artillery support.
At 1145 hrs the Artillery barrage for The Regiment commenced, but something went wrong. The firing was so inaccurate that shells were falling all over the place including other friendly units.
For The Regiment this proved catastrophic as the Germans not bothered by the firing let the tanks bypass them and then from their position and from the east side of Gully they opened a murderous cross-fire on The Regiment.
The 2 leading coys were torn apart, all the officers were casualties. Never before in the war had the Regiment run into such a death trap.
The CO ordered a consolidation of his remaining troops. Cpl Forrest took over his platoon and led them to the cover of a small gully where they ousted the enemy, dug in and held off repeated counter-attacks.
That night The Regiment reorganized and then at 1415 hrs December 19, 1943 they advanced again this time with better covering fire and to the objective.
The casualties were high between 18 December to 20 December 1943 with 34 killed, 54 wounded and 24 missing.