Henry Pinches – Durham Light Infantry
William Henry Pinches
9th Battalion Durham Light Infantry (1940-1943)
William Henry Pinches, known as Henry, was born in 1915. He was the son of Henry Edwin Pinches and the nephew of Stanley Pinches and known by all as Henry Pinches.
During the 1st World War both his father and uncle had served on the Western Front. His father, wounded at Ypres, had returned to the UK a broken man while his uncle, Stanley, who is commemorated on the Pembridge War Memorial, was killed in action in 1917 on the Belgian coast. Henry’s grandfather, as well as being a coal merchant, owned Townsend Farm, Pembridge, where his two sons had been farm workers.
Stanley Pinches Henry Edwin (Pop) Pinches
(Maureen Edwards Collection)
In the 1911 census, Pop, Henry’s father, was residing with his family at Bridge Street, Pembridge. It was here that Henry spent his childhood, attending the local village school.
The black and white house (on left) in Bridge Street, Pembridge where Henry Pinches grew up (Maureen Edwards Collection)
Henry Pinches is in middle row, second on the left, Pembridge School (Maureen Edwards Collection)
In 1937, he gained employment as a railway station porter working for Great Western Railways.
In 1938, Henry married Edith Williams, a local girl whose family lived in West Street, Pembridge.
(Maureen Edwards Collection)
The following year, his wife, Edith, gave birth to a son, Robert Pinches.
Henry Pinches holding his son, Robert (Maureen Edwards Collection)
In April 1940, Henry had been enlisted as a private in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry. Two months later he was transferred to 9th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry (D.L.I.). It would appear, from Henry’s “Record of Service Paper, that his wife, Edith, along with their son, Robert, joined him in Durham as the address given for Henry’s next-of-kin (Edith) is 325 Brandon Lane, Langley Moor, Durham.
Henry and Edith (Maureen Edwards Collection)
Eleven months later the 9th D.L.I was posted to the Middle East as part of 151st Brigade, 50th Division, arriving there in early July 1941. By the end of the month, 50th Division was deployed to Cyprus to improve the islands defences. From there the 50th Division was sent in November to Palestine and then on to Irbil in Iraq to be part of the forces to meet an anticipated German advance from southern Russia.
A letter written by Henry in 1948 describing his first months in the 9th D.L.I in The Middle East (Maureen Edwards Collection)
In February 1942 the 50th Division was recalled to the 8th British Army in the Western Desert and found itself on the Gazala line. For some months the Durham battalions patrolled no man's land disrupting and stealing German and Italian supply lines in front of them and then attacking the supply columns for Rommel's armoured thrust which began the Battle of Gazala on 27th May.
The Division's 150th Brigade was forced to surrender on 1st June and Axis forces were now west, south, and east of the remaining brigades. Forming columns, most of the 6th and 8th battalions broke out west through Italian then German lines on the night of 14th/15th June, then travelled south past the German armoured thrust and east to the Egyptian border.
Abandoned British Valentines are inspected for maps, code books and tins of food, Gazzala (Bundersarchiv, Bild)
The 9th Battalion and a party from the 6th had been forced to take the coastal route after the Italians and Germans had been alerted to the western breakout and fought through German positions west of Tobruk.
British Army retreating from the Gazala position (IWM)
They were reunited with the rest of the division on 16th June. After the fall of Tobruk, the division was now placed on an escarpment south of the town of Mersa Matruh and on 27th June held attacks by the German 90th Light Division. The 9th Battalion’s position became isolated and was overrun with only the headquarters company escaping. The division was ordered to withdraw on 28th June again in column formation but this time over ground broken by wadis.
A Panzer Mk III at the first escarpment, with Mersa Matruh in the distance (Bundersarchiv, Bild)
When reassembled the 50th Division was withdrawn behind the Alamein line to rest and reorganise after having suffered over 8000 casualties since the start of the Gazala battle.
Lt. General Bernard Montgomery’s call to arms (Maureen Edwards Collection)
The 50th Division returned to the front line on 4th September, and during the first days of the Second Battle of El Alamein stayed in reserve in the southern part of the line. On 28th October, the 151st Brigade was moved north and with the 152nd Brigade came under command of the 2nd New Zealand Division for Operation Supercharge. Early on 2nd November, the three battalions advanced through the smoke and dust of the bombardment which reduced visibility to 50 yards and facing scattered German resistance reached their objective by dawn. Here they witnessed the destruction of 9th Armoured Brigade and were subject to German shelling before being relieved on the evening of 3rd November, having lost nearly 400 men.
The 50th Division returned to the front line when the Eighth Army reached the Mareth Line in February 1943. On the night of 20th/21st March, the 8th and 9th battalions attacked, crossing the wadi and fighting the dug in Italians of the Young Fascist Division, with the 6th battalion and the tanks of 50th Royal Tank Regiment following. The tanks were unable to cross the wadi that night. However, the next night after the 6th Battalion and the 5th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment reinforced the penetration, some 40 tanks were able to cross.
On 22nd March the Germans counterattacked with the 15th Panzer Division and the infantry battalions were forced to withdraw, crossing back over the wadi at first light on 23rd March. The 6th Battalion, which started the battle with a strength of only 300 of all ranks, was reduced to 65 unwounded men by the end of the battle. The 8th and 9th were in a similar condition.
A wounded soldier from the Durham Light Infantry shares a cigarette with a wounded German prisoner during the Mareth line battle, 22–24 March 1943 (Wikipedia)
With the subsequent defeat of the Germans in North Africa, the 9th Battalion was withdrawn to Alexandria to be reinforced and trained in amphibious techniques for the invasion of Sicily.
Pte. Henry Pinches 9th Battalion, 151st Brigade, 50th Division (Maureen Edwards Collection)
The 151st Brigade was chosen as an assault brigade for the Allied invasion of Sicily on 10th July 1943 with the 6th and 9th battalions leading.
Troops from 51st Highland Division unloading stores from tank landing craft on the opening day of the Allied invasion of Sicily, 10 July 1943 (IWM)
Due to poor weather both battalions landed late and in the wrong place but against light resistance. After advancing inland and breaking up attacks from the 54th (Napoli) Division on 12th July, the Durham battalions were ordered to Primosole Bridge after its capture by British paratroopers of the 1st Parachute Brigade.
British paratroopers (1st Parachute Brigade) advance in line (IWM)
The battalions arrived there on 15th July after a forced march of 25 miles and after the paratroopers had been forced from the bridge. After 2 days of ferocious battle against men of the 1st Fallschirmjager Division, the bridge was retaken at a cost of 500 casualties to the brigade. 'Securing Primosole Bridge was vitally important and this made it one of the most significant British airborne battles of World War Two.” (“The Bridge Too Far” by Ian Saliger)
A Bren Gun Carrier moves up to the Catania Plain from the Primosole Bridge July – August 1943 (IWM)
After entering Catania on 5th August after the Germans had withdrawn, the advance northward was contested in a landscape of terraced hillsides and stone walls. With the end of resistance in Sicily the 151st Brigade rested and was informed it was to return to Britain in October.
Pte. Henry Porter 9th Durham Light Infantry (Maureen Edwards Collection)
Henry Pinches had arrived back in the UK on 9th September 1943 where he was posted to an Infantry Training Centre. On 1st January 1944, he was then transferred to 307th Holding Battalion, based at Beaumaris, Anglesey, pending a posting to an active service battalion which never materialised.
The Commanding Officer of 307th Holding Battalion was to write of Henry Pinches in his “Notification of Impending Release” (31st December 1945) - “Has served one and three-quarter years under my personal command as a clerk in my Battalion Office” and given complete satisfaction. Honest, hardworking, Reliable, Trustworthy, Sober, Willing. Strongly recommended for any position of trust.”
On 19th April 1946, he was posted to Class Z - a new Reserve of soldiers and officers who had or were to have served between 3rd September 1939 and 31st December 1948 and who were available for recall if under 45 years of age.
After the war, Henry and his brother Edwin built two bungalows in what had been the orchard adjoining the family residence in Bridge Street. But not long after, he was residing at 3 Curl View, Pembridge.
Meanwhile, a second son, Stanley William Pinches, named after Henry’s uncle who had been killed in action in 1917, was born in August 1944.
Henry Pinches’ children, Curl View, Pembridge, early 1950s (Maureen Edwards Collection)
Post-war, he worked for British Railways on the Leominster-Kington railway as a signalman at Pembridge then, upon closure of the line, he moved first to the signal box at Leominster Railway Station and then to Ford Bridge, Marlbrook signal box.
Leominster Station Signal Box.
Henry Pinches at work (Maureen Edwards Collection)
He died in 1989 in Pembridge at the age of seventy-five.
