大象传媒

On the 20th February 1943 at Sbiba, my gradnfather, William O'Rourke was leading a 3" Mortar detachment and they were in a defensive position with his observation post on a small hill. Early in the morning the enemy started an attack which lasted the whole day. Throughout this time my grandfather was in his observation post under machine gun and mortar fire. In spite of this he returned mortar fire with great accuracy destroying a large number of enemy infantry including a machine gun crew of 5 who were positioning their gun on a tripod.

In the afternoon the Company in whose area the Mortar detachment was, was subjected to mortar fire. From the direction of the fire orders the forward platoon could hear, it was thought that the enemy observation post was on a ridge in front of the company. My grandfather, Corporal William O'Rourke very skillfully landed 5 bombs along the crest, no more fire orders were heard and the Company experienced no more mortaring. My grandfather had to conserve his ammunition and in spite of the fact that he fired 105 mortar bombs, he was never in a postion of having no reserve. A Royal Artillery officer who was observing said he had never seen such accurate mortar fire.

The story above was taken directly from the citation received by grandmother notifying her of this act of bravery. What makes this story more fantastic from my point of view is the fact that my grandfather's brother was also involved in the same action. Both brothers received the military medal at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on the 26th April 1945.

I never knew my grandfather, he died on 20th June 1954, and my mother was only a little girl when he was awarded the medal. All my mother can recall of the day was standing outside the fence at Buckingham Palace crying her head off because she dropped her hat on the inside of the Palace fence and the soldier near-by couldn't move to pick it up for her.

My mother gave my grandfather's medals a few years back and I got in touch with the Regiment of the Coldstream Guards to obtain copies of his service records.

William O'Rourke was by no means a model soldier. He attained the rank of sergeant but was 'busted' several times back to corporal for being late returning after leave. He was however, a man who went into the army at the age of 18yrs 6mths in August 1935 and stayed in the army until 1947.

I think about him a lot especially now that I am older than he was when he died. I would have liked to have known him very much.

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