Trafford

Born during the June quarter 1923 in the Bucklow R.D. - ref: 8a/323, the
son of Charles Smith & Mary Alice Peers (nee Walker).

His father was a native of Rostherne employed on the Tatton Estates for
over 50 years.  Ernest attended Rostherne School and was a choirboy at the
Parish Church.  No trace of his father in 1911.

Joined the Army in March 1942.   His brother Teddy was in the RA.

Married Freda Evelyn Bartram (from Tibenham, Norfolk), during the September
quarter 1942 at Norwich  in the Depwade R.D. - ref: 4b/600.

Death reported in the 11/06/1943 edition of the Sale & Stretford Guardian.

CWGC - In May 1943, the war in North Africa came to an end in Tunisia with
the defeat of the Axis powers by a combined Allied force.

The campaign began on the 8th November 1942, when Commonwealth and American
troops made a series of landings in Algeria and Morocco.   The Germans
responded immediately by sending a force from Sicily to northern Tunisia,
which checked the Allied advance east in early December.  Meanwhile, in the
south, the Axis forces defeated at El Alamein were withdrawing into Tunisia
along the coast through Libya, pursued by the Allied Eighth Army. 

By mid April 1943, the combined Axis force was hemmed into a small corner
of north-eastern Tunisia and the Allies were grouped for their final
offensive.   Many of those buried at Massicault War Cemetery died in the
preparation for the final drive to Tunis in April 1943 and in that advance
at the beginning of May.

On the 10th May, the 6th Armoured Division took Hammam Lif and then
continued to Hammamet and Korba on the east coast of the Cape Bon
peninsula.   Organised resistance ended on the 11th May.