27th Lancers

[Fiona Muxlow]

My Grandfather, Kenneth James Muxlow (203094) was a Second Lieutenant (and an Acting Captain) and served in Egypt, Africa and Italy. He joined the Sherwood Foresters from his home in Sheffield and was then commissioned. He served in the 17/21 Lancers and the 27 Lancers. He was shot in the face whilst attacking a sniper post in a farm near Rimini and was Mentioned in Dispatches. He spent two years in hospital in Italy as a result of his injuries. I’d be very interested in finding any information about the Lancers’ involvement in the Italian campaign. I have the letters sent to my Grandmother from the men in my Grandpa’s platoon after he was shot and on my desk I have his hip flask which he always said saved him from a sniper’s bullet as he was travelling through Rome.

[Nathanael Price]

Hello Fiona,
My Grandfather also served in the 27 Lancers in the Italian Campaign. I found your message while trawling the internet.
I have a copy of the regiment’s war diary for late 1944, which makes several mentions of your grandfather, including a note on his injury. I will be glad to email copies to you.
My mother also has a photograph of the officers of the regiment. I can take a picture of it when I next visit her.
All best,
Nathanael
(Grandson of R A Duke, Lt/Captain, 27 Lancers)

[David Langley]

Hi Nathanael, Fiona,

I’m a bit late to this, I can see your posts are from some time ago…but like yours, my grandfather (W A Langley) also served in the 27th Lancers and despite my asking he never divulged a great deal about his time in the war – the odd story here and there but nothing too detailed, and I can understand why.

Nathanael, would you be inclined to share a copy of the war diary you mention? It would be interesting to get a feel of the kind of thing he was up to at that time. And for that matter any other information, photos etc would be interesting to see.

Thanks,

David.

[Frank de Planta]

David.

27L were a armoured car equipped reconnaissance regiment that worked direct to HQ Eighth Army so the only reliable place to find any information on what they got up to is the War Diaries.  If they had been in an Armd Bde or Armd Div, at least you could have had a better chance of finding references to their work.

Get me through enquiries@cassinobattlefields.co.uk and I will put you in touch with the person who gets War Diaries for me from Kew.  As a battlefield guide, I use his services a lot and he is not expensive.

Regards

Frank

[Andrew Christie]

Dear All – I read with interest your exchange of notes about what you have found out about the activities of the 27th Lancers in Italy in 1944/45. My father, Michael Christie, also served in the Regiment. He was wounded, I think in the Po Valley, and lost the sight of his left eye, when hit by a fragment from a mortar whilst in the turret of his armoured car. He was sent to a military hospital in Naples to recover. I have a copy of a letter he wrote to a friend from the hospital. The friend returned it to my mother after my father’s death in 2005. I must try to get hold of a copy of the regimental war diaries to find out more about what happened to the regiment, regards Andrew

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