大象传媒

This is only a very small piece but like everything else part of the much bigger "jigsaw".

11265767 Private Albert McGann was my great uncle and the youngest of three brothers who served in WW2. My Grandfather James was I believe in the Royal Horse Artillery. Laurie the middle brother served in the Army Air Corps and Albert the Queen's Regiment.

My mother Clare who was 6 or 7 years old always remembered Albert as her favourite Uncle, as the youngest he always found time to play and make a big fuss of his nieces.

My mother never forgot the last time she saw Albert as he left home with his kit bag over his shoulder he stopped a little way from the house and turned back "Say a prayer for me" he said "I will not be coming back this time". A neighbour an old lady who was standing nearby scolded him "You should not have turned back like that it is unlucky". He smiled and waved goodbye.

Mum could not remember the timescale but it was not long before the official telegram was received. 11265767 Private Albert McGann of the 2nd/7th battalion Queen's Royal West Surrey's had been killed in action on the 8th September 1944, in North East Italy.

My ongoing research has found that Following the fall of Rome to the Allies in June 1944, the German retreat became ordered and successive stands were made on a series of defensive positions known as the Trasimene, Arezzo, Arno and Gothic Lines.

Albert was killed in the fierce fighting at Gemmano which was one of the last major battles as the allies pushed up towards Rimini, which subsequently fell to the allies on the 21st September. He is buried in Gradara Commonwealth war cemetery.

The site for the cemetery was chosen in November 1944 and it contains the graves of casualties incurred during the advance from Ancona to Rimini, which broke the German's heavily defended Gothic Line, and in the heavy fighting around Rimini.Gradara War Cemetery contains 1,191 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War.

I have decided to visit Gemmano and Albert's grave in September 2004. It will be the 60th Anniversary of his death and I will be the first member of my family to visit his grave. By coincidence I will be 40 years old on the 6th of September 2004.

So any veterans of WW2 who read this, take heart, we have not forgotten. Me and many of my generation do appreciate the sacrifice made in those terrible dark days in Europe, Africa and the Far East, thank you all.

At the going down of the Sun and in the morning we will remember them.

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