Gordon Trevor Owen

The 7th Battalion Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, the ‘Ox and Bucks’ had fought through Tunisia before arriving in Italy. In the middle of February on the Anzio bridgehead they had moved forward into a Wadi, the Germans launched attack after attack on the defences. Surrounding and over running many of the positions, supplies ran very low and with many of the commanding officers killed or wounded. Many of the wounded insisted on staying on the front line dressing their wounds the best they could. During the fourth night of the battle ‘B’ echelon, consisting of clerks, cooks, drivers, mechanics and other administrative personnel tried to reinforce their comrades and bring in some supplies but they were held back by severe cross fire from machine guns, mortars and artillery. Following this shelling, the German infantry tried to take the advantage and attacked from both the front and the rear. It was only by supporting artillery dropping shells within and around
their own positions that they were able to repulse this attack. On the fifth night, a single tank managed to get through and brought in ammunition, rations, cigarettes and wireless batteries. With these they continued to hold the enemy until later the next day when they were relieved. There were only 60 men left from an original Battalion of 1000.

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