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In Memory of JOHN FINCH
Private
S/154714
Royal Army Service Corps
who died on
Saturday 6 December 1941 . Age 24.
Additional Information:
S/154714 Private, Royal Army Service Corps. Killed in action whilst attending to a wounded man on Saturday 6 December 1941. Age 23. The son of John Henry and Rose Finch, The Asps Cottage, Warwick. He was educated at Barford School. Buried in the Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery, Egypt. He is also commemorated on the Bishops Tachbrook War Memorial and on a Memorial Screen, St. Peter’s Church, Barford.
Cemetery:
HALFAYA SOLLUM WAR CEMETERY Egypt
Grave or Reference Panel Number: 3.B.3.
Location:
Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery is on the main coast road from Mersa Matruh
through to
Libya, and is on the east side of Halfaya Sollum, approximately 12 kilometres
from the
Egypt/Libya border.
It is important to note that although most of the strict military and police
controls have been lifted, the cemetery is in a sensitive area and visitors
are subject to roadside check-points along the way from Mersa Matruh. The
cemetery is open 07.30 to 14.30, Saturday to Thursday.
Historical Information:
The campaign in the Western Desert was fought between the Commonwealth
forces (with, later, the addition of two brigades of Free French and one
each of Polish and Greek troops) all based in Egypt, and the Axis forces
(German and Italian) based in Libya. The battlefield, across which the fighting
surged back and forth between 1940 and 1942, was the 1,000 kilometres of
desert between Alexandria in Egypt and Benghazi in Libya.
It was a campaign
of manoeuvre and movement, the objectives being the control of Mediterranean,
the link with the east through the Suez Canal, the Middle East oil supplies
and the supply route to Russia through Persia.
Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery,
approximately 12 kilometres from the Libyan border, is adjacent to Halfaya
Pass, the scene of heavy fighting in 1941 and 1942.
All of the graves in
the cemetery were brought in from the surrounding area, including military
cemeteries at Sidi-Barrani, Buq Buq, Fort Capuzzo, Bardia, Minquar el Zannan,
and Camerons Burial Ground at Nibeiwa. The cemetery now contains 2,046 Commonwealth
burials of the Second World War, of which 238 are unidentified.
Regiment, Corps etc.
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Royal Army Service
Corps |
Battalion/etc.
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Surname |
FINCH |
Christian Name(s) |
John |
Born |
Warwickshire |
Enlisted |
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Residence |
Oxfordshire |
Died Date |
06/12/41 |
Rank |
PRIVATE |
Number |
S/154714 |
Died How |
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Theatre of War |
Middle East |
Supplementary notes |
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