SAS Horsfield, Kenneth

[John Robertson]

• SURNAME

Horsfield ​

• FORENAME

Kenneth ​

• UNIT

2 SAS (3 Squadron) ​

• RANK

Corporal ​

• NUMBER

353119 ​

• DATE OF DEATH

18th August 1944 ​

• AGE

23 ​

• GRAVESITE

Bari War Cemetery,Italy XI.E.27 ​

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

parent unit 9 Bn Manchester Regiment​

born Hyde,Cheshire​

son of John and Annie Horsfield,26 Brook Street,Hyde,Cheshire​

husband of Marion (nee Beresford) Horsfield,Gair Street,Flowery Field,​

Hyde,Cheshire (later Shelton Lock,Derby)​

enlisted 1939​

married 12.6.1942 (not 11.8.1944 as in some sources)​

brother Alan served as fitter in R.A.F.​

joined SAS 1942 in North Africa​

award George Cross (posthumous)​

demolition area,Bari - mortally injured by explosion while trying to​

rescue man injured by earlier explosion ​

​

 

[Optymystic]

Kenneth Horsfield

We can demonstrate from the citation, signed by Franck, that Kenneth died in the demolition area Military Establishment 54, which was the air packing station at Brindisi, not Bari which was the SOM (Special Ops Mediterranean HQ). ME 54 was a factory employing hundreds of people to pack the containers for dropping by parachute. It was a replica of STS 61 at Saffron Walden where Kenneth had been employed up to his departure in 1942. I believe that Kenneth was first shipped to Derna (SOE force 133) and thence to Brindisi specifically for his container packing nous. I have no reference to support his secondment to SAS while in Egypt though other sources have him in SAS and one of the photos clearly displays wings on his shoulder. My specific interests are first the description of the incident in which he was killed, which was used as a source by Bonner in Volunteer Infantry of Ashton under Lyne published in 2005. Captain Bonner is unable to tell me where he got it from but it presumably existed recently. Two days spent in the National Archive have failed to reveal it. My second interest is in what must have been a fairly substantial funeral which followed with a Jugoslav choir. Three people had died in the explosion, others were injured and ME 54 employed large numbers of Jugoslavs as they were then known.

 

[Optymystic]

The other British servicemen to die in this incident were Harry Hall from Leeds whose remains are in the grave adjacent to Kenneth's at Bari and Frederick William Tucker from Kent,