Birmingham Boys at Belsen – 113th LAA, Royal Artillery

Durham Light Infantry by name – with Brummies being at the heart of the action.

The Durham Light Infantry, 113th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery was formed in 1942 from the local 55th Searchlight, TA regiment. This newly expanded unit took on men from all areas with a number being from Birmingham. An online archive would like to find out more about them.

They included Bombadier Reg Price, from Aston, Bombadier Cyril Nicklin from Alum Rock, Gunner J. Stout from Aston and many others.

The 113th LAA would arrive in Normandy, just after D-Day and would be deployed defending the famous Pegasus Bridge and the river and canal bridges of Belgium and Holland. They would be assigned to defend one bridge that would prove to be “too far.” The famous bridge at Arnhem. In 1945, 113th LAA would defend the first temporary bridge to span The Rhine and then they were given the task to relieve a POW camp that was reported to be full of Russians and a few political prisoners. This came was 238 miles away and was called Bergen Belsen. The unit covered the distance in less than 24 hours, through a lot of territory that had yet to be captured.

Belsen was a concentration camp and the British Army had discovered something that needed urgent critical aid and recording with film and photographs for future war crime trials. The 113th weren’t medically trained they were simply chosen as available manpower. Belsen was liberated on 15th April 1945 and the 113th arrived with recce units on the 16th and the bulk of the manpower in the camp from the 18th.

The horrific footage filmed at Belsen features a number of men from 113th LAA, including Brummie Reg Price.

The 113th LAA saved so many lives evacuating the people out of the infested camps to better conditions where a massive medical effort was waiting for them in the safer, cleaner areas.

All would suffer nightmares, with what we call now PTSD. Very few would ever mention Belsen to their families. History has documented the wonderful people, the medical staff, volunteers and personnel that went to Belsen but the 113th LAA role has largely been overlooked yet they were present for the longest time. The 113th LAA refused leave after two weeks, staying for 5 weeks. Men were offered the opportunity to immediately transfer to other units, very few did. They had a sense of duty and decided to stay to get the job done. The unit would remain in Belsen until 26th May. Before doing so, the last hut was ceremonially burnt with two large commemorative signs erected (one in English and one in German) these signs were produced by Reg Price, a sign-writer in civvy street and remained until c1948.

Just Birmingham?
No, these men (plus one woman in the line up of personnel who was a driver for the Padre) lived all over the UK – and if you have picked this up online, the archive would love to hear from you. Please get in touch. liberator@belsen.co.uk

Thank you.

Just 113th LAA?
Again no. This article is specifically about the 113th LAA, Royal Artillery but the archive would love to hear your stories from any unit that was part of the liberation of Bergen Belsen.

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