Basil Guy Gingell M.C.
Continuing my research on Old Boys from the memorial boards, I was particularly pleased that I was able to find so much about Basil Guy Gingell, especially as he had won the Military Cross. I was able to find out why he won this medal, and where but not how he was killed. The Military Cross is an operational gallantry award given to (now) all ranks of the services in recognition of exemplary gallantry during active operations against the enemy on land.
Basil Guy Gingell was born in Ongar in 1921 to Basil Gingell and Lillian Grace Gingell (Nee Cook). His father Basil was born in High Laver and was one of ten siblings. He was a well known farmer and member of Ongar Rural District Council. Basil and Lillian were married in Epping in circa August 1915. Basil Guy Gingell was born in circa May of 1921. He had two siblings James Stanley and Doreen E. Gingell. In September 1939 they are shown as living at 11 Lower Park Road, Loughton. In circa May 1941 he got married in Colchester to Margaret J. Gingell (Nee Lord).
He was a Second Lieutenant with service No: 182323, of the 1st Battalion Essex regiment, and was awarded the M.C. (Military Cross). He died on 23rd May 1942 and is buried in Ranchi cemetery, which is in Calcutta, West Bengal. He is also remembered on the Loughton War memorial. Prior to joining the Essex regiment, he was a member or the Territorial Army.
Army Number: 182323.
Basil’s number came from a block of numbers (1 to 294,000) that were allocated to the Royal Army Service Corps and for a point of enlistment date reference, number 100,694 joined that regiment on the 27th October 1939 so it looks as though Basil may have joined the Regiment after October 1939. In August 1920 Army Order 338 stated that army numbers would now be issued from one continuous series to all men then serving in either the regular Army or Army Territorial units, so Basil would have carried the number 182323 consistently throughout his military career irrespective of which regiment he was in or where he was posted. Rather confusingly, Ancestry records show Basil’s enlistment regiment as the Royal Artillery and his casualty regiment as the Essex Regiment, but Basil’s Army Number does not coincide with the block number associated with the Royal Artillery, (consistent though, with carrying the same number irrespective of the regiment he was with).
Rank and enlistment:
Searches indicate that Basil received his commission around 2nd Quarter 1941, shortly before he left England to serve overseas. Basil joined the Territorial Army at 17 this would have been during 1938. Any factual evidence showing when Basil joined the Royal Army Service Corps could not be found, although it would appear to be after October 1939 as previously mentioned. Unfortunately, neither was I able to locate any information indicating when Basil transferred to the Essex Regiment so it may have been the case that he applied for officer training, was successful and joined the Essex regiment in the early part of 1941. (This would coincide with his marriage date).
Military Cross
The recommendation for Basil’s Military Cross was received on the 15th December 1941 when he was 20 years old, and Gazetted on the 24th February 1942 (WO373/18/82). I have specifically taken the known documented facts about the action that Basil was directly involved in and which won him his Military Cross from pages 70 to 88 of the book “The Essex Regiment 1929 to 1950” by Colonel T.A. Martin MBE.
1st Battalion Essex Regiment military action for the period 1940 until May 1942, the date Basil Guy Gingell died.
When the Second World War started, most of the 1st Battalion was stationed in Egypt as part of the “Canal Brigade”. They were given the job of keeping watch on Italian and other neutral shipping to prevent sabotage, particularly scuttling a ship in the Suez Canal.
The 1st Essex remained in the Port Said-Moascar area until January 1940, when they were moved to Sudan, arriving in Khartoum on 25th January, where they carried out training with renewed vigour. It was now clear that the period of inaction (“the Phoney War”) was ending and the Middle East garrisons were moved to their war stations. On 1st May 1940, the 1st Battalion took the train to Atbara, about 200 miles north of Khartoum, and an important railway junction.
Italy was mobilising troops in East Africa and declared war on the 10th June. Over the next few months, the 1st Essex began to see some action as it came into contact with Italian forces. Towards the end of October, the Battalion was transferred to the 10th Infantry Brigade in the 5th Indian Division and moved to Gedaref on the road from Khartoum to Gallabat on the border with Ethiopia (Basil may have been with the Regiment by this time). They were part of the plan to attack Gallabat and Metemma, just across the border. The attack started at dawn on the 6th November, and though Gallabat was captured and held for a day or so, the decision was eventually taken to withdraw, with the 1st Essex having 68 casualties. The 10th Indian Infantry Brigade was pulled out on the 11th December and the 1st Essex made its way back to Palestine arriving in Haifa on 6th January 1941, where they came under the command of the 1st Cavalry Division. In May, a group of Iraqi officers who had seized power there sided with the Germans and besieged a British garrison at Habbaniya. The 1st Essex were attached to the force sent to Iraq to resolve the situation. Habbaniya was relieved on the 18th May, and the force then fought its way to Baghdad, entering on the 5th June.
The Battalion rested and refitted on the shores of Lake Habbaniya, but was informed on the 12th June that it would be taking part in the campaign to occupy Syria, a four-pronged attack, two from Palestine and two from Iraq. The 1st Essex crossed the frontier into Syria on the 21st June 1941, and approached Palmyra, defended by, amongst others, the French Foreign Legion (part of the Vichy French forces). The town surrendered on the 3rd July and the 1st Essex moved in and occupied it. An armistice was signed with Syria on the 15th July and the campaign was over. On the 18th July, the Battalion left for Damascus, and then on the 24th marched into Jebel Druze to take over from the Vichy French forces. Then another arduous desert journey was taken to Deir-ez-Zor to take over patrolling and internal security. On the 16th August, the Battalion provided a guard of honour for the visit of General de Gaulle, and on 30th August for the visit of General Auchinleck. The 5th Indian Infantry Brigade was relieved in the Syrian desert by the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade, but the 1st Essex was left to cover the interval between one departing and the other arriving. It was on the 12th October 1941 that the Battalion left Syria, crossing into Palestine – it was therefore a battleworthy and confident Battalion that crossed the Suez Canal two days later.
Operations in the western desert: Tobruk and Ed Duda 1941, Basil Guy Gingell wins his Military Cross.
The 1st Essex spent the 15th/16th October 1941 refitting in Amriya and then sailed into Tobruk in Libya, which was still under siege by the German and Italian forces and relieved the 2/17th Australian Infantry Battalion in the line, coming under the command of the 20th Australian Infantry Brigade. On 25th November, the Battalion took part in the attempted link up with the British 8th Army advancing from the east to relieve Tobruk and attacked Ed Duda coming under heavy artillery fire and attacks from enemy infantry.
On the 26th November 1941, orders were received that the battalion would move forward to form up positions ready to attack Ed Duda and at about 15.30 B Company (commanded by Captain Stevenson-Hamilton) on the west was attacked by enemy infantry (about two companies) the attack was held up about 200 yards from the forward defended positions with heavy casualties being inflicted on the enemy.
A sharp and spirited counter attack was then put in by a platoon commanded by 2LT B.G Gingell and about 80 prisoners were taken. (My emphasis)
On the morning of the 27th November, the enemy was found to be in close contact with the front of B Company and the whole Battalion area was kept under constant artillery and machine gun fire. On the morning of the 28th November it was found that the enemy had withdrawn to a distance of about 4000 yards in front of B Company and the shelling was not so heavy. Around midday on 29th November, about 40 enemy tanks got into position and started to advance on the Battalion with about 15 tanks getting to within 300 yards of B Companies forward defences and bombarded B company’s forward defences for about 2.5 hours. At about 4.30pm, between 25 to 30 enemy tanks followed by infantry overran most of the positions of B Company and A company.
By this time, posts containing anti-tank guns and rifles had been destroyed with the remnants of 11 and 12 platoons of B company were taken prisoner. The enemy continued to advance slowly and by 5.30 pm 25 tanks had penetrated the centre of the Battalion’s position. The remnants of B Company under the command of Captain Stevenson – Hamilton were still hanging on at the extreme right of the position with three enemy tanks and about a company of infantry within 100 yards of them.
During the enemy advance, the whole Battalion area was kept under constant gun and Machine gun fire from tanks and enemy artillery. Twenty-five enemy tanks (18 of them heavy) were in the middle of the Battalion position and within 400 yards of the Battalion HQ. At about 9pm a counter attack from the 14th infantry brigade was forthcoming and at 1.30 am, a large number of British tanks arrived. Upon seeing their approach, the enemy tanks withdrew.
A counter attack by two Australian companies against the enemy infantry in front of Battalion HQ was successful and meanwhile, Captain Stevenson-Hamilton with one platoon of C company and the remnants of B company re-established their original positions and by 2.00 am, the enemy had been driven off and the position completely reoccupied. After the battle / offensive all troops on Ed Duda had been placed under the command of the 1st Essex.
It was documented as well that “Such then was the battle in which the 1st Essex made history. They had fought the best that the Germans could put against them and had prevailed. In spite of the weight of the German armour and their superiority in numbers, they had stuck it out through thick and thin”. So this was a tough fight and one can only imagine how close it must have been.
Numerous awards were made and in addition to Basil’s M.C., his commanding officer Captain Stevenson-Hamilton received the DSO.
Over the next few days ferocious fighting took place, including assaults by enemy tanks against the 1st Essex, until on the 12th December, with Tobruk relieved, the Battalion was drawn into rest inside the original Tobruk defences. As 1942 came in, the 1st Essex moved to Qassassin, Egypt, and were not to return to the Western Desert. With the relief of Tobruk, and the entry of Japan into the war, reinforcements were urgently needed in India and the Far East, and the 1st Essex was among those to go with the 70th Division to fulfil this need.
The 1st Battalion of the Essex Regiment sailed from Port Tewfik, Egypt on H.M. Transport Mauretania on the 28th February 1942. It had been intended that it would go to Rangoon, Burma, but this had fallen to the Japanese during the voyage, so it was diverted to Bombay, India. The Battalion disembarked there on the 8th March and moved to Poona.
On the 31st March, orders were received for the 70th Division to move to north-east India – it was the only trained, battle-experienced formation in India and was to be kept ready to provide a mobile striking force against any Japanese landing on the coast of Bengal. So, on the 7th April the 1st Essex left Poona and took the train to Barkakana, near Ranchi, 200 miles west of Calcutta,moving into Khunti Camp around the 11th April, Basil died in May 1942 and I have been unable establish what the cause of his death was. However, I was able to locate Basil’s Army casualty list and record of death.
The Battalion would spend the best part of the next year in this area and there were few highlights! In early September 1942, the so-called “Congress Revolution” broke out in Bengal. The 1st Essex was deployed around Dhanbad, and successfully contained the situation there. The Battalion returned to Khunti in October, and spent the next 5 months in jungle training. This included marching 110 miles from the camp to Daltongunj for a 6 week spell in the jungle there.
Additional to his Military Cross Basil would also have been awarded the Africa Star, 1939 – 1945 Star and the War Medal. The War Medal 1939–1945is a campaign medal which was instituted by the United Kingdom on 16th August 1945, for award to citizens of the British Commonwealth who had served full-time in the Armed Forces or the Merchant Navy for at least 28 days between 3rd September 1939 and 2nd September 1945
