NAM.2017-11-16-28

Report giving orders for a bomb dump, 7 April 1941. Associated with James Arthur Riccomini MBE MC, 2nd Special Air Service. James Arthur Riccomini was born in Maidstone in 1918 and was educated at Henry Mellish Grammar School. On leaving school he joined the Scots Guards and in 1940 transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC). With the RASC, he served with No. 5 Line of Communication Railhead Motor Transport Company on convoy duty and reconnaissance operations in Palestine and Iraq, and with 266 Company in North Africa. On 16 June 1941, whilst in Egypt at Halfaya Pass, he was captured and sent to Gavi prisoner of war camp, in Liguria. A fellow prisoner was Col David Stirling, founder of the SAS. On 18 September 1943, he was on a train to Austria transferring to another prisoner camp when he and 16 other men carved a 2ft hole in the end wall of their carriage and jumped out of the moving train. He took part in Operation Gallia. 33 men from Troop A 3 Squadron 2 SAS were parachuted into the mountains of northern Italy in midwinter on 27 December 1944. They were deep behind enemy lines and their orders were to cause mayhem among German and Fascist Italian forces by fooling them into believing 400 men had parachuted in. It was hoped this would then encourage the German’s to take man power away from the defensive Gothic Line, which was holding up the Allied advance. Early on in the operation, Riccomini injured his ankle which then became infected. He continued the operation, but during the withdraw on 20 February 1945, he was ordered to stay behind enemy lines and recover. As soon as he was fit enough to walk he led a group of SAS troops out of the Rossano Valley and to the safety of the American forward positions. Riccomini died during an assault on German military headquarters in Northern Italy during Operation Tombola, in March 1945. He was one of three SAS men killed during the operation. He was dropped into Nazi-occupied Italy to the sound of bagpipes played by Scottish volunteer David “Mad Piper” Kirkpatrick on 10 March 1945. A three-pronged attack was planned with Riccomini leading an assault on a German billet at Villa Rossi. Before his team could reach the Villa, an attack on one of the other targets began, alerting the German defences. Riccomini’s team rushed the Villa and amid fierce fighting, he was killed on the second floor with a shot to the head. He died on 27 March 1945 and is buried in a war cemetery in Milan.

World War Two, Italy (1943-1945)