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THE LOWLANDER - DENNIS DONNINI VC
185 Plays10 months ago
A Lowlander Special ~ on the anniversary of his VC being Gazetted, this is the story of young Fusilier Dennis Donnini of the 4th/5th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers, during their attack on Lind & Stein during Operation BLACKCOCK.
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Transcript
Introduction: Heroic Acts and Honors
00:00:16
Speaker
21st March 1945 First Divisional VC of the War His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased to approve the posthumous award of the Victoria Cross to Fusilier Denis Delini of the 4th 5th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers On the 18th January 1945 Fusilier Delini was badly wounded in the head at the opening of an attack on a German village Refusing medical aid he charged into the village with his platoon driving out the enemy
00:00:45
Speaker
Shortly after he rescued a severely wounded comrade and taking the latter's brain gun went into the open, firing as he went. Although hit again, he continued firing until he was killed as a result of a bullet exploding a grenade he was carrying. Fusilir Denini's home was in County Durham. Hello Andy. Hello Mary.
00:01:13
Speaker
So that was the citation for young Dennis Donini. Yeah, it was. Well, it wasn't the full citation. It's actually the leading paragraph on the front page of the Lowlander on the 21st of March, 1945. And it's a part of the citation that was in the London Gazette of the same day. And it's the announcement to the division, to all of the division, that they had won their first Victoria Cross. And of course, that was Fusilier Dennis Donini of the 4th 5th Battalion, Earl Scots Fusiliers.
Who Was Denis Donini?
00:01:40
Speaker
OK, so shall we have a little look at where Dennis came from, what his family was like before we get into what he achieved? Because we've been through some of the details there, but I think we can think we explain a little bit more, can't we? Yeah, I think we probably explained the name Dunini, which doesn't sound particularly Scottish or from County Durham. So maybe you did a bit of work on this a couple of years ago tracking down Dennis and his family. So maybe you could just give us an overview of where the family are from, where they live now or at the time, and then some details about Dennis himself.
00:02:10
Speaker
Okay, so Dennis was the youngest of 10 children. His parents were Alfredo Pellegrino Donini, who was born in Castelanueva di Garfanian, which is near Luca, which is kind of about halfway down on the left-hand side of Italy. And his mother was a lady called Catherine Brown.
00:02:29
Speaker
Alfredo came to Britain in 1899 with his sister Mira and they settled in Easington Colliery up in the north of England, where he became an ice cream vendor and the proprietor of a billiard saloon. Now,
00:02:44
Speaker
From the mid-1800s, migrants were coming to Britain from Italy, and there's a good reason for that. The migration was fueled by dire poverty. We have to remember that Italy wasn't united as a single country, as a nation of state, until 1861. I think it was 1871 that things actually came together in terms of language and culture a little bit more.
00:03:06
Speaker
But certainly up until the turn of the century, it was a collection of individual states where there was very little development in an opportunity for individual advancement. And a lot of forward-thinking Italians decided they would try their luck elsewhere.
00:03:22
Speaker
So by the 1870s what we saw was a whole swathe of migrants coming to Britain. Many of them settled around Holborn in London, but a lot of them went up to Glasgow and to other Northern industrial cities. And what they did was they brought with them what today we could consider to be artisan skills in some ways.
00:03:40
Speaker
Tarazzo workers, mosaic workers, statuette makers, musicians and ice cream traders. Yes, they brought language, they brought a little bit of Italian culture with them, Catholic faith certainly, and that in some part was responsible for the extended family structures that distinguished them quite a bit from the places where they lived. It was quite usual
00:04:06
Speaker
for Italian families to grow quite quickly. As I said, Dennis was the youngest of 10 children. Now, Alfredo came with his sister, Mira, and they settled in Seaside Lane in
Joining the Army: Overcoming Odds
00:04:18
Speaker
Easington Colliery.
00:04:19
Speaker
Which I know you can't pronounce, but never mind moving on. It's the second word I can't say. OK, so Dennis was the youngest of 10. The eldest was another Alfredo carrying on the tradition, and he was born in 1918. Now, Alfredo and Louis Dino Donini both served in the army. Louis died on the 1st of May 1944 while he was employed as a driver by the R.A.C.
00:04:43
Speaker
His two elder sisters Corinna Madelena and Sylvia were both enlisted in the ATS. And Alfredus started in the Merchant Marine. This is Alfredo Jr. So this is Dennis's eldest brother. So Alfredus started in the Merchant Marine but at the outbreak of war he joined the 9th Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers which was organized as a machine gun battalion.
00:05:06
Speaker
and it actually got transferred out to Malay command a few days before the battle of Singapore but that's incidental really because Alfredo was captured in France okay quite early on yeah and he was sent to now I'm gonna pronounce this badly I know I am
00:05:21
Speaker
torn Podgors in Poland, Stalag 20A, as prisoner for war number 7079 and that's where he stayed for the rest of the war. He stayed there for four and a half years. Now that camp was liberated in February 1945 and when it was
00:05:38
Speaker
Corporal Robert Fisher, this was reported in the newspapers at the time, Corporal Robert Fisher of the Sydney RAF, he met young Alfredo Donini, an unusual name, and he had heard quite recently about another Donini who'd won a Victoria Cross, and that of course was Alfredo's younger brother, about whom he'd heard absolutely nothing for three or four years. They hadn't been in contact with each other.
00:06:00
Speaker
And in fact Fisher got in touch with his wife back in Britain and had a newspaper shipped out to the camp. He passed it on to Alfredo who showed the photograph of his younger brother to his mates and he tucked it carefully into his jacket and then set off home. So one of the first times that he realised that his young brother had died and picked up a VC was when he was liberated in 1945. That must have been a roller coaster of emotions
00:06:30
Speaker
Yeah I know pride and and and just oh yeah I mean Dennis himself was he was the youngest he was very small and I have double checked this because we've had a discussion with he was actually five he was actually five foot four which is pretty small that would have got in a minute and what we used to call a bantam battalion in the first world war well no you say that you say that let's talk about this for a second because when we say that we've had a discussion about it there are several places um on the interweb where it states he was only four foot ten
00:07:00
Speaker
Well, there's places on the internet that says he's five foot four. I think this is going to rumble on myself until we manage to speak to somebody in the family. But regardless, he's very small. I think that we can agree on that. We can, but let's dwell on that height thing for a moment, because you mentioned there the bantams in the First World War and the
00:07:24
Speaker
in the First World War the average height of a British soldier was five foot seven and that had increased by an inch to five foot eight by the Second World War and nowadays the average soldier is five foot ten. This data is collected all the time. In the First World War it was Alfred Bigland who wrote to the Secretary of State for Warlord Kitchener and asked for permission to set up a unit for short able-bodied men who wanted to fight for their country and the
00:07:53
Speaker
I think there was something like two and a half thousand men had been barred from the army were selected for two battalions based in Birkenhead and they were called Bantam battalions. They were reserved for men who were five feet to five feet, three inches tall with an expanded chest of 34 inches.
00:08:10
Speaker
Obviously he'd have been okay, he wouldn't have been any one of those people. No, he wouldn't, that's right. So today, a British soldier can be just four feet ten.
Operation Blackcock: Strategic Importance
00:08:20
Speaker
Okay, that's 148 centimeters. Drivers need to be five foot two, which is one, five, eight. But in the Second World War, when we talk about men signing up underage, I think there was a little bit of flexibility on height as well. If you sort of lifted your heels on inspection, you might have got in.
00:08:36
Speaker
I think by 1944, and we'll come on to why that's important, I think the standards might have maybe... Exactly, exactly. But this data does exist, tracking the height of men for over 100 years. In fact, it goes back much further than that.
00:08:54
Speaker
the Romans imposed height standards on their soldiers. And the reason I'm pursuing this is that when you think about Danini, he came from an Italian family. According to Flavius Yegetius, who was a fourth century commentator in Italy at the time, the ideal soldier should possess a lively eye, carry his head erect and be brawled of chest with muscular and brawny shoulders.
00:09:21
Speaker
but it didn't matter if he if he was short and although it may seem daft looking that far back as to to you know who was saying what about how tall people could be those texts were still being studied in the 1500s and 1600s for for reasons of regulations around who should and who should not be invited to join the army
00:09:45
Speaker
and there's a very logical reason for this because it's not just about are you tall enough to hold the gun but it's about issuing standard equipment to hundreds of thousands of men. So for example the quartermaster of the US army during the second world war expected men
00:10:04
Speaker
to be five feet eight on average and around 145 pounds, because if they made uniforms to that specification, they didn't need to worry too much. There was always going to be somebody taller and always going to be somebody shorter, but not by that much. And in fact, if you look back at some of the US Army data, you find the average height for somebody who was serving in the US Army in 1944 was 62, no, I beg your pardon, 61 inches, okay?
00:10:34
Speaker
Compare that with 1874, 64 inches, 1802, 66 inches, okay? So men were on the hull getting a little bit shorter.
00:10:46
Speaker
Come back to the British Army, though, and our height regulations would certainly have allowed for somebody of a slightly more lies stature to actually make it through the past inspection and get into the ranks. Whether or not he was actually five foot three, five foot four, or as reported, four foot ten.
00:11:07
Speaker
remains to be. Listeners he was 5 foot 4. The serious point is you mentioned the uniforms and that's where we talked about his height because in a newspaper report that came out about 10 years after the after the event in 1955-56 we talk about how when he first came back on his first bit of leave after joining the army in the sort of some early summer of 1944
00:11:31
Speaker
his uniform was about four sizes too big for him and his father actually was quite handy with a needle and thread and recut his uniform and redid it so it actually fitted him and looked properly. Exactly. Now Dennis himself of course he was the last child of 10 and everybody knows the last child is always the wild one and he was a bit wild as a child he was good fun and everybody liked him but he was very cheeky very outgoing
00:11:54
Speaker
And he really, really was quite keen on joining the army as well. He was wanting to join. I don't know if he volunteered, but he definitely wanted to join up. And so his elder brothers had joined up, his elder sisters had joined up. And so in about May 1944, he finally joins up. He joined his local battalion, which is the Northumberland Fusiliers. But of course, by the time he'd finished his training, the 52nd Lowland Division had just fought and walk around.
00:12:21
Speaker
and they needed battle-casual replacements. And we think that Dennis was finally sent out to the Netherlands in the first couple of weeks in November 1944, where he joined the 4th 5th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, which is part of 156 Infantry Brigade. That brings us neatly into what's going on at the time and the lead-up to Operation Blackcock.
00:12:48
Speaker
Let's have a reminder of Operation Black Cock and where the Royal Scots Fuziliers are and what their objective is.
00:12:54
Speaker
We did talk about it way back in the dark months of January 1944, but I'll give you a little bit of a bigger overview. So we talked about the the Roar Triangle and I'll go over it again for those of you who missed. Top of the Roar Triangle is the Dutch city of Roarmond. Bottom left hand triangle is the Dutch town of Sittard and the bottom right of the triangle is Geilenkirchen and sort of halfway up the far side is the the important town of Heinzberg.
00:13:23
Speaker
And so the objective of Operation Black Hawk within the first few weeks of January is to be cleared because the idea is strategically the Allies need to clear everything west of the Rhine and the Ruhr Rivers in order for them eventually, actually not so long after Danini was awarded the victory across, to cross the Rhine into Germany proper.
00:13:43
Speaker
So the first part of that is Operation Blackcock. It's a 12-core operation commanded by Major General Neil Ritchie, who we've talked about in the past. The component parts of the Corps are 7th Armoured Division, 52nd Lowland Division, 44rd West 6th Division and 8th Armoured Brigade, and some Commandos and some other people. Now,
00:14:03
Speaker
The operation starts on the 16th of January 1945 and the first phase is the 7th Armoured Division are going to roll up the left hand side of that triangle.
00:14:15
Speaker
and that's what they do on the 16th and the 17th and into the early morning of the 18th and they roll up that left-hand side of the triangle and what that does is it starts to draw the enemy away, their attention away because what's going to happen next on the 18th of January 1945 is the main thrust, so the main effort of the clearance of the Royal Triangle is the entrance of the 52nd Lowland Division and what they're going to do is they're going to punch a hole in the bottom
00:14:41
Speaker
layer of that triangle, the bottom part of the triangle, just north of the Dutch town of Sittard. Broadly speaking, the 52nd low elevation is going to peel open the bottom defences of the triangle and they're going to pour through any gap that's made. So that task, the break-in task, is given to 156 Infantry Brigade commanded by Brigadier Barclay, who we heard way back in the Christmas special. He gave it a Christmas message.
00:15:04
Speaker
Within 1.56 brigade you have three battalions, you've got the 4th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers, you have the 6th Battalion and the 7th Battalion of the Cameroonians. And Barclay sits down in these sides, his lead battalion, the break-in battalion, is going to be the 4th 5th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers. And their task is to move from the open ground just north of Sittard. They're going to cross a stream, or a ditch really, it's not much more than a ditch, a stream called the Safflin Beak,
00:15:32
Speaker
And they're going to cross that, and they're going to go up into the high ground just above it, and they're going to capture two villages, the village of Lind and Stein. And when I say village, that's really pushing it quite far. It's actually a hamlet. There's a few houses in each, there's a couple of farms in each. Now, in order to do that, they're going to be supported by a number of units. And this becomes important, so I'm going into a lot of detail here, but it's well worth knowing. What they're going to do is they're going to split the battalion down into two columns.
00:15:59
Speaker
B company on the left and A company on the right. And each of those columns you're going to have supporting arms to help you get across the river and also to provide support when you get into the village. So in each column they have minefield tanks of the 5th and 4th of Yeomanly. They're crab tanks, they spin chains around the front to detonate any mines because there's lots of mines.
00:16:20
Speaker
They also have some average armoured vehicle Royal Engineers from the 79th Armoured Division. They've got two couple of purposes. You've got ones with scissor bridges. Now, these are bridges on top of the tank which will cross over the actual river, the stream itself, which cannot be forwarded by tanks or armour. You've also got the tanks of the Sherwood Ranges Yeomanry of the 8th Armoured Brigade, specifically Sea Squadron of the Sherwood Ranges Yeomanry. And riding on those tanks of the Sherwood Ranges Yeomanry, you have Bee Company,
00:16:50
Speaker
and A company of the 4.5th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers. I'm going to talk about the ground and the enemy in a minute, but just to finish that bit off, B company's job is to cross on one of these folding bridges, move across, move up and capture the village of Lind. Once that's done, A company is going to have a crossing
00:17:11
Speaker
and they're going to capture the village of Stein. And their job is to capture them village, which is going to allow the other battalions within the brigade, the Cameroonians, to pass through them and capture other villages along the defensive line, as well as the 5th Battalion Heinlet Infantry who are going to pass through them as well. So they're effectively, they are peeling open the enemy defenses so the rest of the division can pour into them. It's really, really important. And if they don't do that, Operation Black Hawk comes to a standstill.
00:17:39
Speaker
OK, so a couple of quick questions there. Very briefly, who are they fighting? So it's elements of the 176th Infantry Division, the Black Boot Division. They've got a Black Boot as their divisional symbol. And those guys have been dug in and strung out all across the top of that triangle for quite a while. So not across the top of the triangle, no. So they're at the bottom of the triangle. It's really important to understand that.
00:18:05
Speaker
The ground, I'll talk about the ground because that becomes important to tell you where the Germans actually are. So it's very low lying ground between Sittard and Lindenstein until you get to the small river. You get to small river the Safflin Beak, which is a couple of meters wide, but it's very deep.
00:18:20
Speaker
The ground all around there is very boggy. Me and you have walked over there. I've lost count of how many times we've had a water over there. There's some woodlands, there's some orchards. But there's a ridge line, once you cross the river, on a ridge line about 200 metres further up,
00:18:35
Speaker
This ridge line, it's only about 10, 15 metres higher than the ground above it, but that's quite significant. And there's a road that runs east to west on the top of that ridge line and dug in all along those roads and the villages and the buildings of Lindenstein are the German front lines. And unusually for this part of the war, they've actually got long trenches, communication trenches, which connect all of these little houses together. So it's a perfect defensive position. So they've got a couple of companies of infantry
00:19:03
Speaker
protect defending those villages. They've also got anti-tank guns, they've got mortars, they've got lots and lots of machine guns, and they also have some divisional artillery which they can bring down. And they can see absolutely everything below them because of course, the jocks are coming across open ground.
Bravery in Battle: Earning the Victoria Cross
00:19:19
Speaker
That's the ground, but what kind of state is the ground in? Well, that's the key question. So for the last few weeks, as listeners of the Law and Door know, it's been incredibly cold. In fact, it hasn't really got above freezing since sort of early December.
00:19:32
Speaker
And by this point in January, there's snow in the ground, the ground has been frozen, and all of the allied planning is using that as a consideration. So the idea is they're going to move these two armored columns over the open ground, the boggy ground below Lindenstein, assuming that it's going to be frozen and frozen solid so you can actually transport your armored vehicles across. But guess what, Marin? Guess what, Andy? On the night of the 17th, into the early hours of the 18th,
00:19:59
Speaker
So the day they're meant to launch the attack, there is a thaw. And the thaw is such that actually the ground starts to melt and there becomes a quagmire of mud. So we've got to the point where we know what the plan is and we put some maps and details up on our social media so you can follow along. I think what we'd be good to do is just actually describe the battle itself and
00:20:22
Speaker
What I'd love to do is just describe why the individual actions of one person changed a battle fundamentally from what was possibly a disaster into ultimately success. So we're going to take another little couple of minutes just to describe the battle. Who is where, which direction we're going and why. OK, yes, you're right, because I do get to send you a bit bogged down in the detail. OK, 18th of January 1945.
00:20:52
Speaker
50-second lowland division, specifically 156 infantry brigade of that division, specifically the 4th 5th baton Ross-Gottfies layers, are going to launch themselves into Operation Blackcock. They're going to cross the upper ground between the Dutch town of Sitard,
00:21:08
Speaker
to a small river which is basically the Dutch-German border. They're going to cross that river, the Safflin Beak, and they're going to attack two small villages which are north of that river called Lindenstein. They're actually hamlets. Those villages set a strider at an east-west running road which is on a high bluff sort of ridgeline about 10-15 meters above the ground to the south where their jocks are going to cross, but it's enough to have really good observation and some really good defensive positions, specifically machine guns, anti-tank guns,
00:21:37
Speaker
mortars and artillery of the 176th Infantry Division. So not up a mountain side but we're going across certainly open fields towards an elevated region. Okay, got it. So the time is 0730 hours on the morning of the 80th. Is it dark? Well it's starting to get a bit light but it's grey, it's January, it's blowing in absolute hooli, the wind is howling, the snow in the ground, there is still light but it's also very muddy, I mean very very muddy.
00:22:06
Speaker
because it started to thaw. Exactly. So both columns set off and the idea is they're going to get to those, the idea is they're going to get to the river and they're going to ford the river while under this artillery barrage and the support from the tanks that are with them as well. Would they have sent reconnaissance forward to understand what the beak, what the Beck, the river looks like? No, not this case. On the morning of a big advance, they wouldn't really do that. They've got it all sorted out. They know what they're doing. They've got it on the maps. They've got it on the plans.
00:22:35
Speaker
So they're just going to crack on. They may have done some patrols. In fact, I know for a fact they have done patrols in the weeks leading up to it, but that again, because the ground's frozen, perhaps they're not as totally aware of what's going on in terms of the mud. Okay. And they haven't sort of worked out. Let me try that again. So there's no actual point that they've identified where they can go. Okay. So we'll go across here very easily.
00:22:58
Speaker
Well, there are crossing points identified. So basically the B company, the left hand column, they're going to cross the beak just below the village of Lind and about two, 300 meters to the east, A company are going to drop their bridge just below the village of Stein. That's the original plan.
00:23:18
Speaker
So as they move forward, there's a hell of a lot of fire going around and they get to within maybe a hundred meters of the Saffler Beak and the tanks just bog in and they really bog in. And in fact, we've managed to track down some original film footage of that event and we can put that on our socials. We actually see the extent of how much they've been bogged in. These massive, big vehicles are completely bogged in. And within a matter of minutes, the entire advance of the 52nd low-envision comes to a halt because of mud.
00:23:47
Speaker
and everybody jumps off the tanks. The tanks are bogged in. Now one of the bridges sort of gets close to the beak and it tries to put its bridge across. It puts it down but the tanks can't get close to the bridge because they are bogged in as well. So it's an absolute chaotic scene of disaster.
00:24:04
Speaker
Once they get down there, the troops go to ground and then the Germans spot them. Bear in mind they're on the high ground and they start opening up with everything they've got. They've got mortars, they've got machine guns, they've got artillery. And these troops, the JOCs, A Company and B Company, the 4th, 5th Battalion, Royal Scottish and Fusiliers, they're just out in the open under complete observation.
00:24:25
Speaker
And nobody knows what to do. The officers are starting taking some casualties. Men are starting taking the casualties. Some of the armour is so bogged in it has to be abandoned. So the message goes back to Brigadier Barclay, the commander of 156 Brigade, and say, what should we do? What are we going to do now? And they go, well, you're going to have to attack with or without the armour. You haven't got a choice. The entire division and the entire corps is waiting for you to peel open these defences.
00:24:48
Speaker
So how many men have we got stretched out along the front here? Well, it's hard to say, but let's say your average infantry company maybe has about 150 men at full running. So you've got maybe 300 infantry men plus your tank crews, which normally three or four. So they're pinned down, they're A and B coming.
00:25:07
Speaker
The other companies in 4th 5th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers are about a kilometre behind. So that's C Company and D Company. They're waiting for the advance to go forward to support them. So they're not actually in the picture yet. So the commanding officer of 4th 5th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers Lieutenant Colonel Gosselin
00:25:25
Speaker
He sits down and thinks, what am I going to do? I've got to send the men across without their support, but we don't have any bridges. And then he remembers on the map, there's a tiny little bridge marked on the map just below the village of Lind and Stein, actually in between the two of them. And this tiny little bridge is only wooden, so he can't put any vehicles across, but he knows he can start getting his infantry across.
00:25:45
Speaker
So he comes up with a new plan. Instead of the two companies attacking together, what he's going to do is he's going to start infiltrating B company, so the left-hand company, across this footbridge, and they're going to infiltrate to the left, up into the village of Linda. And we'll show a map showing that, you know, because it's quite hard to understand. And so that's what he does. He gets them moving. There's no armour support. The tanks can't get across.
00:26:08
Speaker
It's just infringement. Fortunately, as they cross this tiny little bridge and they get into the back gardens of Linditz, there's lots of little trees and gardens and stuff like that, and they've actually got quite good cover from view. And relatively quickly and relatively easily, they get up onto the ridge line where the village of Linditz is and they actually capture it and they seize it.
00:26:29
Speaker
And now what they're going to do is they realize that a company can't just go straight across the bridge up to Stein. So what they're going to do, and this is the thing that we found out and actually hadn't really been recorded before, is a company will follow the exact same route of
00:26:45
Speaker
B company. They're going to follow over that little bridge and we've got amazing film footage of some of the jobs going across this bridge. It's amazing. They follow the exact same route up through the gardens of Lind and the idea is they're going to get to Lind and they're going to turn right, ready to go down the road in a new silly direction and capture the village of Stein. That's where we are and how we're going to move forward. Let's pick up the story at a platoon level. Sort of mid-morning, sort of around about half nine, nearly ten o'clock.
00:27:14
Speaker
B company has secured Lind, A company is now in their positions and they are looking east and you'll see that when you look on the map. And they've got to cover a stretch of open ground, maybe 100 yards at the most between the buildings of Lind and the buildings of Stein. As I said, actually nowadays, and we've been there several times, it's actually all just one village now. It's all connected. There isn't that many houses in either. There's a couple of big barns and a couple of big farms in that.
00:27:42
Speaker
A company move into position at the forward trenches or the eastly most trenches of where B company were. They get down into those trenches and bear in mind there's lots of German trenches all around here. So they get into the German trenches and their job is on the water command, the lead platoon is going to advance across that open ground 100-150 yards and start to tackle the buildings of Stein. Bearing in mind the entire division is waiting for them to do this. Because without those two villages taken, the other
00:28:10
Speaker
battalions, so the Cameroonians, and then the HLI, and then the rest of the division can't go anywhere. So at the lead section of the lead platoon is Fusilier Denis Danini. Now, this is his first proper big action. He has been in the battalion since November, 1944. So he's done lots of patrolling, he's been in the line, he's been dug in, but this is his first actual proper attack. So, you know, here he is, and he is in that lead section of that lead platoon.
00:28:40
Speaker
So the platoon commander gets them ready, gives them the word of command, they fix their bayonets, and he tells them on his word of command, they're gonna get up out of the trenches, they're gonna move as quickly as they can across this open ground to get into the buildings. And that's what he does. But within a matter of seconds, the enemy who are about 70 to 100 yards away, their main trench, but they're also in the buildings, they open up an absolutely devastating hail of fire on that lead platoon in that lead section. And everybody goes to ground.
00:29:09
Speaker
Dennis the uni goes down straight away with a bullet wound to his head. Now there's some debate over whether he actually struck his head proper or whether it struck his helmet but regardless he's knocked unconscious and he slumps forward in the front of his trench and if anybody knows has seen a head wound there is blood everywhere there's blood pouring down his face and men in his section in the platoon look around and think well young Dennis has got it. He's a goner.
00:29:35
Speaker
but they're under fire, they're pinned down and they can't move. And after about a minute, they sort of notice that he's moving, the body's moving, Dennis, he isn't killed, he's actually alive, and he sort of starts to very slowly come round. And we talked about this, me and you, and actually I did this talk at the We Have Ways of Making You Talk festival a couple of years ago.
00:29:56
Speaker
He's out of headwind which can make you do some very strange things but also you must imagine the amount of adrenaline that must be coursing through his body. This is his first battle. This is the first time he's ever done the thing that he actually wants to do, wanted to join the army and also he's probably not fully in control of his senses. And for whatever reason, Dennis jumps up out of his trench
00:30:18
Speaker
just as to the guy to his left and to the guy to his right to come with him and he charges across the open ground to the first building in Stein across that open ground fire everywhere he's shooting from the hip he's firing through the buildings and the men of his section can see the Germans
00:30:33
Speaker
absolutely terrified, running out of the building, running for the gardens away from this absolutely crazy young guy with blood pouring down his face. Now he makes that run right across the open ground and he jumps into the first building, the first barn he gets into. He's lobbed a few grenades at the same time as well, by the way. And he gets into that building. Obviously the adrenaline is pumping. And he notices of the two guys that came with him, only one of them is with them in the barn. And he looks out into the open street
00:31:00
Speaker
and it's wide open and again we've been there and we're showing some photographs, it's a wide open street. He sees his mate wounded in the middle of the street and so without thinking he runs out of the building again, out of the barn, out of safety, in full view of the Germans, picks up his mate, he's only five foot four, drags his mate back into the barn. That alone is enough to win a medal.
00:31:23
Speaker
But what Dennis does next is he decides that he's going to have to take the initiative. He's going to get the platoon moving. He's going to take on the village of Stein. And he picks up his mate's Bren gun. Now we talked about the height difference. Anybody, if you've ever seen a Bren gun or if you've ever picked up a Bren gun at maybe a history festival or something like that, there are heavy bits of kit and they're almost as tall as Dennis. But of course, the adrenaline is pumping. He's still got this wind. I mean, he's refused medical attention as well and he's ready to go.
00:31:54
Speaker
And so without another word, he dives out the barn and he starts to run down the main street towards the main enemy trench, which is about 70 yards away. As he's going, he's firing into the buildings and the windows of the barns and the houses along the street. He's throwing grenades and he's just charging forward and the whole of the company, A company, can see him. Some of the guys in B company can see him out and they're absolutely astonished as we lad running down the street.
00:32:22
Speaker
Now, as he gets down towards the German trench, he's scared quite a few Germans off, he's killed quite a few Germans, but they also see he's starting to take a few hits as well. He's starting to get hit, but of course the adrenaline's pumping, and when that adrenaline pumps, you can't actually feel that type of stuff. You're almost impervious to the pain. And just as he gets to the enemy trench, which had a machine gun in it,
00:32:42
Speaker
He gets struck a couple more times in the ammunition pouch. And in his ammunition pouch is a grenade. And it's not just a grenade, it's actually a phosphorus grenade. So for those of you who don't know, white phosphorus is very contentious nowadays. It's actually used in the army in the Second World War and even to this day as a way of creating an instant smoke screen. So the phosphorus is a chemical that burns on contact with the oxygen.
00:33:06
Speaker
Once it starts burning, you cannot put it out until you completely starve it of oxygen. It's a horrific weapon, but it's used to create smoke screens instantly. It hits Denis's ammunition pouch. This phosphorous grenade goes up and unfortunately he goes down. I think he was probably already dead or at least severely wounded by the time the screen goes off. And unfortunately the rest of the platoon have to see the effects of this phosphorous grenade burning. And he lies just short of the German trench. But
00:33:37
Speaker
that action by that individual all of a sudden not only inspires them in terms of sort of morally, you know morally is saying bloody hell we need to we need to match this guy's sort of determination but also tactically it gives them a little bit of a breathing space it allows the rest of the platoon to start surging forward through the buildings that he's cleared and so this momentum builds up and the platoon passage through it
00:33:59
Speaker
Then the rest of the company get to it and they fight the rest of the day in this village of Stein, but eventually by sort of sunset, the village of Stein is cleared and that allows the sixth battalion of the Cameroonians to pass through them and take on the town of or the village of Hongan, which is their next objective.
00:34:17
Speaker
And so from a moment just before he left that trench where the entire 52nd Law and Division attack has stalled, it is not going anywhere. The German defences are too strong to a few hours later where they've completely achieved their objectives is astonishing. And that is why he was recommended for a Victoria Cross.
00:34:40
Speaker
OK, we're going to take a break there. We are because we could sound like we're creating a hydrography here, a kind of one sided, oh, this was amazing. And he leaked forward.
00:34:54
Speaker
But the point is that we know this because it's documented, and it's documented really, really well, not just in the war diaries, but also in personal accounts. And I think there's a big difference between, oh, so and so reported something, or this made a big enough impression that different people came up with the same story over and over again of what happened and how. And the other aspect of this that's worth going back to for a second is,
00:35:22
Speaker
White phosphorus, these bombs, we can make the connection, the documented connection between what
How Was the Victoria Cross Awarded?
00:35:30
Speaker
young Dennis did carrying white phosphorus on his person as part of his own personal arsenal and the decision by the British Army at least to stop allowing infantrymen to carry white phosphorus. Bear in mind that this stuff, this chemically waxy substance
00:35:51
Speaker
I mean, I think they say that it smells of garlic. It doesn't go out. So what you've got is a body that's burning and burning and burning in about 800 degrees Celsius. It doesn't stop. No. And when it goes off, I mean, when it goes off, it is instantly white smoke. And for that purpose, it's excellent. And that is still used like that. And it's perfectly legal to use it like that. Yeah. Of course, the battalion very quickly says, right.
00:36:17
Speaker
A battalion memo goes out very quickly. That's it. Nobody carries them in there. You're not going to carry it in your ammunition because you're basically a walking bomb. Coming back to the the hydrographic aspect of this, we talk about VCs and the reasons why a person should or shouldn't win a VC or be awarded a VC. I don't like to think of it as winning the VC. I think you should be awarded VC. It's not something you win. We can talk about that another day.
00:36:45
Speaker
But the reports do concur, don't they, that he literally picked the brain up and was firing from the hip and he, you know, blood pouring down his face. And he was he was a one man on a mission. Yeah. And the crucial thing is, well, he changed the course of a battle. So you can do something brave. You can do something very daring and courageous. But he actually influenced the battle, which makes the difference. So
00:37:11
Speaker
technically speaking, the 52nd Law Division were never going to be held up for that long. Eventually they were going to win through whether they changed the plan or not. But that particular moment in time, the battalion, the brigade and the division had stopped in its tracks. And the actions of this one young man is the thing that got the momentum going again. It got the companies and the platoons going again, which allowed the next phase of the operation as part of the plan. And so
00:37:37
Speaker
Yeah, it's a little bit later than they were expecting. But actually, by the end of the first day, they'd actually achieved what they were meant to achieve. And that's the difference. So it's bravery.
00:37:47
Speaker
it's courage under fire because it's got to be under enemy fire to get out of Victoria Cross and also it's changing the course of a particular battle and of course he's one of the youngest guys probably in the battalion, he's only just turned 19, he turned 19 at the end of November 1944, he's a young lad, he is small in stature and for something
00:38:13
Speaker
And it's often this thing with Victoria Crossies, it's just something within them. We can't initially put it on what it is, there's something deep sort of in their psyche that just when something goes, happens or when something goes wrong, they just turn it on.
00:38:30
Speaker
And you see that in all of, if you read, I mean, the Victoria Cross citations on the London Gazette, you can read them. And they're not all the same. There's a huge difference in the actions and activities. But there's this underlying current of this individual. And as an individual ward, they've just got something in them that's a little bit different from everybody else. Now, there's plenty of brave actions, which some people could say deserved a Victoria Cross. And of course, you said that's another discussion.
00:38:58
Speaker
Yeah. There's people that probably deserved it and won one and didn't win them. And there's maybe some people that perhaps didn't deserve a full one, but won it. But this is one of those clear cut ones. This is one of those ones where, you know. The action was recorded in detail well enough for everybody to turn around and agree.
00:39:15
Speaker
Now, interestingly, you mentioned that, but we, of course, we've had a look. The actual original recommendation done by his platoon company and battalion commander, we can't find. We're not sure where that went, but we have obviously got the citation and we have got other accounts of it. Shall we have a look at how Dennis's exploits were reported back in Britain? Yeah, I think that's a really good idea.
00:39:42
Speaker
the War Diaries describe what happened on the day and obviously the Lowlander reported the fact that Dennis was going to be awarded the VC. But that announcement actually came via the London Gazette, which is the, I think it's been sort of since the 1660s, 1670s. It is the official publication for public notices. Yeah, basically, you know, when
00:40:08
Speaker
Prince William married Princess Kate. That was announced in the London Gazette, et cetera, et cetera. But actually during the war, this is where you get updates on awards and decorations, but also promotions for officers. So it is really is the official notification. Yeah, his his parents would have been told directly, but the public announcement was in the London Gazette. Yeah. So that came out on Tuesday, the 25th of March. And we'll just I'll just very quickly summarize.
Family Contributions and Legacy
00:40:34
Speaker
We won't go into too much detail.
00:40:36
Speaker
The officers present on the day in the 4th 5th Battalion that observed and saw what Dennis did, they would have made a report and any other witnesses as well. And that would have gone up through the chain of command to the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Gosselin, up to the brigade commander. And each point they'll read it, check it, and then if they're happy with it, they'll sign it and it'll go to the next stage.
00:40:58
Speaker
He goes all the way up to Monty at the top, so Field Marshal Montgomery. He goes, yep, that's exactly yep, we like that, we're going to pass it on. And eventually it will come onto the desk of the King himself. Now, how that actually happens, I'm not too sure, but he will then say, yep, this is definitely worth an award and we will award him the Victoria Cross. And that's where it ends up in the London Gazette. That's where it's announced.
00:41:23
Speaker
And of course, issue with the medal was to Dennis's parents. And at the time, only one relative could attend the investiture. So Alfred had decided to put Dennis's sister's name forward. It made an application for Carina as well as Sylvia to go up to London with him. And the Newcastle Journal dated in July 1945 shows a photograph of Alfred and his elder daughter.
00:41:49
Speaker
his eldest daughter outside Newcastle station on the way to the palace to receive the medal. But there were some issues with Alfredo actually going to the palace wasn't there? Yeah because he was an enemy alien. Well technically yes. Yeah he was interned as an enemy alien it doesn't mean that he was anti-british at all it just means that he'd never bothered getting around to getting himself naturalised as a Brit.
00:42:16
Speaker
I mean, I mean, that sounds like something I would do. I would never actually get ready to do my irrigation papers. Yeah, something like that. But yeah, 17th July, Alfredo received his son's VC from the King. And he would at the end of it, in the application process, he was accompanied by his three daughters, Veronica, and Sylvia and Karina, who were still, Sylvia and Karina were still in the ATS at that point. Yeah, they were great in the uniforming.
00:42:43
Speaker
There's an interesting thought about immigrants and their attitude towards their new country. And you think about the sacrifice that the Danini children made for their new and adopted country. They had five or six people in the services, two of them were killed, and two of them were serving, and one of them was a prisoner of war. So it's a really touching story about
00:43:07
Speaker
you know, how you can take to an adopted country and you can almost go above and beyond what's required of its citizens, you know, who have been here for a long time. But Dennis is remembered quite well. I mean, we've been several times to the CWGC location at Sitard, where he is actually buried. But he's also remembered in Easington, Caillerie, on I think three or four different memorials, actual what we think of a memorial.
00:43:33
Speaker
Second World War, sort of a totemized stone monument. But there's also a far more of a community spirit to memorializing young Dennis because his likeness has been rendered in a huge portrait. It's what, about 12 feet high by about 24 feet wide on a wall overlooking the playing fields where he used to play as a boy.
00:43:57
Speaker
Yeah, it's quite touching when you go there and it's a it's one of these classic sort of northeastern Colorado. I can't say it. Right. It's one of those classic northeast coal mining towns. You've got the roads and rows of top to down houses, but it overlooks the North Sea and it's got these playing fields in it.
00:44:16
Speaker
you know we went a couple of years ago but it still looks kind of you know it still looks like it was back in the day and you can just imagine Dennis and his mates causing havoc and chaos around the streets and and it's a lovely memorial and there's a nice garden there as well and the people seem to still remember him as well that's that's what I felt as well you know people still remember Dennis Di Nini there's a
00:44:37
Speaker
there's a couple of roads, I think there's a care home that's called Denini. And actually over the years various different things have been named after him and very shortly after the war there was a local hospital and they did a funding drive for some new hospital beds and they were called the Denini hospital beds. So his legacy sort of lives on and of course as you mentioned in Sitard, whenever we've gone there there's
00:45:03
Speaker
always flowers, poppies, memorials to his grave in the Sitard War Cemetery.
00:45:09
Speaker
But he's been memorialised in more ways than one, and I know that you dug up what's it called, Dennis, no, Donini Doolally, isn't it, by Jeslo and the Bad Pennies?
Cultural Impact: Celebrating Denis Donini
00:45:19
Speaker
Yeah, there's a northern sort of folk rock-pop band, and they did a song about it, but Dennis, it's quite touching, actually. It's not my kind of music, but it's a really touching sort of note to a young lad from the north-east, and of course, there's a great community spirit in a lot of these north-eastern towns.
00:45:36
Speaker
and it's a really lovely song. I think maybe we could play a little bit at the end of this special.
00:46:04
Speaker
Cause teach your tardies and stop everybody from sick to death in the noise. Playing the class comedian is one long hop step and reboot. When you're gonna stop your daredeviling, or are you gonna jump and get all your days away.
00:46:32
Speaker
Crackers Italian, all this carrying on like a vials Jump in the shower, folks round about say they're sure and the leaders say blue
00:46:47
Speaker
Watching the world go to war, he dreams of his chance to be called and commanded. I've got Roman century in blood and he bares. I'll win the war single handed if I have my way. Turn any heard do. Lovely, they say, his heart like me, heart's blood is threading out.
00:47:26
Speaker
Too loudly they say you'd only get yourself killed now Alfredo, his daddy, he fled most of the leading and all his fascist crew He thought he'd be safe but silent, gelato wiffer and hard-coated
00:47:52
Speaker
So he had it off to icy England. His friends in general were laughing. They all called him a crazy man, and said, you're gonna end up coughing your days away. Turned any hurt to do. Lally they said, your heart locked me up with you.
00:48:27
Speaker
And any hurt too. All in the same, you don't make it to yourself, kid.
00:49:03
Speaker
And the alien off to the island man Alfredus Saint-Paggy While Dan is still in it He gets bodies in the thick of the action The foolhardy hero in the Rhine line He saved many a life of a comrade
00:49:26
Speaker
Fearless boy becomes brave man But still just a crazy young man goes come round and say To Nanny was due Lolly they say they talk like the heart's blood is spilled now Nanny was due
00:49:58
Speaker
He's gone and got himself killed alive
00:50:08
Speaker
He found glory and honor at the king's command With a medal that he never saw And his Italian father, he went to shake that king's own hand But they wouldn't let him in the door They said, be on your way Then he went do-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
00:50:52
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Lowlander.
Credits and Acknowledgments
00:50:57
Speaker
The Lowlander was written, produced and presented by Andy Aitchison and Mirren Walters. This was a hellish good production.
00:51:21
Speaker
went in there and they just saw the bloody Germans off. They were hellish goods.