Pte Peter Meaney, No2 Cdo

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 05/04/2013 18:12:49

I recently received a letter from Andy Meaney, the son of Pte. Peter Meaney, one of my old comrades from No. 2 Cdo. Andy stated that his Dad, now 85, was living in North Norfolk, but was suffering from periodic falls, partial failing sight, and an in and out memory. I was most gratified to know that Peter was still with us and that he remembered me as the (then) Sgt. Of the 10-man No. 2 Cdo. unit that operated in North Africa in late ?42 and the first half of ?43. Peter would have been 18 at that time and I was the same age.

Peter?s record of service is not to be found in the many books that have been published by historians and some Commando officers, so I will detail some of his exploits as a deserved recognition of not only this particular soldier, but as an example of the contribution made by the many unchronicled privates who served so nobly throughout the army Commando units. In a way this account of what Peter did is a mirror image of the lives of the fathers of John Mewitt, Stephen Unwin, Stephen and Roy Donnison, Bill Harvey, John White, Ron Lain and Nick Collins to name but a few sons of this wonderful group of Commando veterans.

Peter missed the St. Nazaire operation. He arrived at No. 2 Cdo. As a replacement shortly thereafter and then, as he recalls, had a rollicking time in the North African endeavour. I can only say that my memory of that operation would be that we prosecuted our ten-man war effort with vigor. Following our rejoining the main body of No. 2 Cdo. Peter went through the campaign in Sicily and a couple of weeks after that fought in the Salerno landings which was the heaviest casualty action that the Commando was involved in. He then saw six months of assorted warfare in Yugoslavia before returning to Italy where he was involved in further campaigning ? this time involving attacking heavily fortified mountaintop positions in Albania before he settled down to more conventional warfare in Northern Italy.

Of the many unpublished sorties or operations that happened in those days, I have received information to the effect that Peter conducted some of this kind of business with the Greek resistance movement and at one time went as far away as into Bulgaria. All-in-all, I estimate that Peter was exposed to the bad intentions of the enemy for possibly as long as 270 days which was a very long time to be under-the-gun.

I am appreciative of the patience of any readers who have got this far, but please do understand that I have waited a long time to get this overdue tribute to our Commando private soldiers on the records. Peter?s superb services gave this former junior officer an opening to get things said.

Best regards to all.

PS Peter, you said that the captured tank was a Tiger (60-ton Mk.6). Not so, it was a Mk.4 special German beauty (weighing a mere 40 tons). Anyhow it does not matter as you wrecked the thing when you attempted to drive it!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 12/06/2008 15:40:38

Photos received from Peter Meaney's son Andy.

1. Picture of Pte. P. Meaney with well-marked building as backdrop. Peter is on "detached" service from No. 2 Cdo. Belt, pants, shoes and weapon from assorted sources. 2 Cdo. shirt remains in this view - perhaps Greece 1944.

2. Picture of Pte. Peter Meaney left and Pte. C. E. Smith right, No. 2 Commando, Italy 1944.

Some time ago I found a photo of my Dad with some other commandos. I asked who the tough looking sergeant was. My dad can?t see too well, but he replied that if it was the sergeant he went to North Africa with then he was an absolutely great guy and they?d had a fantastic time together. It was obvious then that my dad still had a great deal of affection and respect for the man with whom he went through so much.

Bob Bishop was that sergeant, one of the ten man team that landed in Libya. It seems they were running around with a pretty hard bunch of renegades in the mountains and desert, and covered a considerable distance in N.Africa before returning to No2 Commando. After that they went through Sicily, the landings in Italy, Jugoslavia and Albania before Bob headed back to Northern Europe and my dad went south to Greece.

It may surprise readers to know that despite all their exploits, when Bob and my Dad had their recent telephone conversation, it was the concert party on the island of Vis that stood out. They?re still laughing about it. It must have been an outstanding show because Bob not only remembered my dad?s act?and the words!..he also remembered who came next?.and what they sang! Bob?s memory is staggering!

The book ?Band of Brothers? describes the exploits of E Company, 101 Airborne during some of the hardest fighting of WW2 and some may have seen the TV series. Here?s a quote from page 88, after the events of the Normandy landings,

?Winters wrote in his diary ?I did not forget to get down on my knees and thank God for helping me to live through the day and ask for his help on Dplus1? And he made a promise that if he lived through the war he was going to find an isolated farm somewhere and spend the rest of his life in peace and quiet?.

That may well explain why I grew up in the middle of a field, miles away from anywhere in north Norfolk.

My dad?s memoirs are very colourful and I?ll add them to this thread on a regular basis. They are certainly not what you?d expect to hear from someone who still occasionally insists that he spent the war washing up tea-cups in the NAAFI. But they add to Bob?s remarkable history of No2 .

Thank you Bob for keeping the memories alive. I hope that all going well, you and my dad will meet again at Fort William in November.

Kindest regards

Andy Meaney

He rarely talked about events. For instance I had no idea that my dad had been at Salerno until quite recently. And he never tells about the ?bad bits?. Just the light hearted ones. So we all took all the stories with a pinch of salt. But now I realise that most of the ?unbelievable? stories are actually true. And he wasn?t working for the NAAFI at all!

Reading Bob's story of No2 Commando prompted him to tell me a few of his experiences. There?s still a lot of detail that remains deeply buried, but I hope I manage to convey the humour with which these few stories were told to me.

The Tank
Bob?s excellent history of No2 Commando tells the story of the capture of a German Tank just outside Salerno. My dad was either part of the team that knocked it out, or he was very, very close by. I think he was first to reach it. The fate of the crew isn?t mentioned. What we do know is that the engine was still running so he jumped in the driver?s seat and, with all the abandonment of youth (he was only 19), and totally confident in his own ability to drive it, he opened up the throttle.

Unfortunately, such are the vagaries of tank driving that despite looking one way, the tank went another, and he ran straight through the front of a very large Italian building which collapsed on top of it. I think he also managed to plunge it into a very large hole

It must have been pretty spectacular because as Bob details ?the Mk.4 special German beauty (weighing a mere 40 tons)? was a write off. The building was in an even worse state. I?ve no idea how long it took them to dig my dad out but thereafter he was always highly complementary of German build-quality.

Peter Meaney died January 25th, 2010.

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