James
Farndale
1916 to 16 March 1941
FAR00833
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Private James Farndale aged 24 of the West
Yorkshire Regiment died of wounds on 16th March 1941 in Eritrea
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Stockton
1916
James Farndale, son of James and
Margaret (nee Murray) Farndale (FAR00521), was born in Stockton in
1916. His birth was registered in Stockton in the fourth quarter of 1916.
1921
James
Farndale, 48, a general labourer in foundry at Blairs & Co Engineering
Works, Norton Road, Stockton, but out of work
Margaret
Farndale, 43, home duties
Annie
Farndale, daughter, 16, single, a printer’s assistant at Harrison Printing
Works on Norton Road
Albert
Farndale, son, 13, an errand boy with Brown Joiner
James
Farndale, son, 4
Eritrea
1941
4460826 Private James Farndale aged 24
of the West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales Own) Second Battalion died of
wounds on 16 March 1941 in Eritrea.
He was buried at Keren War Cemetery,
Grave Reference 3.A.3. (Inscribed Beloved Son of James and the Late Margaret
Farndale, God Grant him eternal rest).
Operation
Appearance was a British landing in British Somaliland on 16 March 1941
against troops of the Italian Army. In August 1940, seven months previous, the
British had withdrawn from British Somaliland, after it had been invaded by the
Italian army. The British and Empire forces from the United Kingdom, British India, Australia and South Africa conducting
Appearance made the first successful Allied beach landing of the war and retook
the colony.
On 9 May 1936 Africa
Orientale Italiana (AOI) was formed from Ethiopia,
Italian Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. On 10 June 1940, Italy declared war on
Britain and France, with Italian forces in the AOI threatening the British and
French colonies in East Africa. Italian forces endangered British supply lines
along the coast of East Africa, the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea and the Suez
Canal. Egypt, the Suez Canal, French Somaliland and British Somaliland were
vulnerable to attack
The Invasion of British
Somaliland
On 3 August 1940, the
Italians invaded with two colonial brigades, four cavalry squadrons, armoured,
artillery and air support. Kassala was bombed and attacked and the British
garrison was overmatched. The Somaliland Camel Corps skirmished with the advancing
Italians as the main British force slowly retired. On 5 August British
Somaliland was cut off from French Somaliland. Surrounded and close to being
cut off Major-General Alfred Reade Godwin-Austen was instructed by the General
Officer Commanding-in-Chief Henry Maitland Wilson to withdraw from the colony.
The 2nd battalion Black Watch, supported by two companies of the 2nd King's
African Rifles and parties of the 1st/2nd Punjab Regiment covered the retreat
to Berbera. By 2:00 p.m. 18 August most of the contingent had been evacuated to
Aden with the HQ sailing with HMAS Hobart the morning of 19 August. Italian
forces entered Berbera that evening. British casualties were 38 killed and 222
wounded; and the Italians had 2,052 casualties.
Landing
at Berbera
The
operation to recapture British Somaliland began on 16 March 1941 from Aden, in
the first successful Allied landing on an enemy-held beach of the war. The
1/2nd Punjab Regiment and 3/15th Punjab Regiment Indian Army (which had been
evacuated from the port in August 1940) and a Somali commando detachment,
landed at Berbera from Force D (the cruisers HMS Glasgow and HMS Caledon, the
destroyers HMS Kandahar and HMS Kipling, auxiliary cruisers Chakdina
and Chantala, Indian trawlers Netavati
and Parvati, two transports and ML 109). When the Sikhs landed, the 70th
Colonial Brigade "melted away". Repairs began on the port and
supplies for the 11th African Division began to pass through within a week,
saving 500 miles (800 km) of transport by road. On 20 March, Hargeisa was
captured. The British moved on to re-capture the whole of British Somaliland
and on 8 April, Brigadier Arthur Reginald Chater was appointed Military
Governor. British forces were now able to advance into eastern Ethiopia,
supplied through Berbera. The Somaliland Camel Corps was reformed by mid-April
and supported British forces over the next few months mopping up Italian led
guerrilla forces.
Keren
War Cemetery, Eritrea
The small town of Keren is about 90 kilometres
west of Asmara. Keren War Cemetery is 2 kilometres west of the town. The site,
on top of the famous Keren pass and overshadowed by Cameron's Ridge on the
opposite side of the road, was presented by the Chief and the Community of Ad Hadembas, and an inscription recording this has been built
into the cemetery wall.
Keren was the last Italian stronghold in Eritrea
and the scene of the most decisive battle of the war in East Africa in February
and March 1941. Guarding the entrance from the western plains to the Eritrean
plateau, the only road passing through a deep gorge with precipitous and well fortified mountains on either side, Keren formed a
perfect defensive position. On these heights the Italians concentrated some
23,000 riflemen, together with a large number of well sited guns and mortars. A
preliminary assault by United Kingdom and Indian troops was repulsed after a
week of bitter fighting, although they gained and held a valuable position on
Cameron's Ridge, on the left of the road. The final battle began a month later.
After ten days of gruelling combat the Commonwealth troops succeeded in forcing
their way through the seemingly impregnable defences on the ridge and finally
through the 200 metre long road block which the Italians had blasted at the
narrowest point in the pass. Keren was taken on 27 March. The defeated Italian
force retreated in some disarray to Asmara, which fell to Commonwealth forces
on 1 April, and the Italian surrender was taken at the port of Massawa on 8
April. KEREN WAR CEMETERY contains 440 Commonwealth burials of the Second World
War, 35 of them unidentified. The KEREN CREMATION MEMORIAL stands within the
cemetery and commemorates 285 Sikh and Hindu soldiers from India and Pakistan
killed on the Keren battlefield during the Second World War, whose remains were
cremated in accordance with their faith. Three East African soldiers are also
commemorated on the memorial.
No. of Identified Casualties: 405