10th Battalion, The Durham Light Infantry, War Diary October 1939

1st – 13th October 1939

Individual training continued under Company arrangements.

13th October 1939

I Officer and 20 Other Ranks were detailed for Vulnerable Point Duties at Victoria Viaduct.

The party were relieved on 15th October.

The disposition of the Battalion as to location and telephone contact arrangements were set out in a set of annotations to the diary, which also mentioned that they had three buses and two trucks available for transport, held at Crook under the control of the Company Commander based there. Again, the typing is faint and blurred, making definition as to the placing of the Companies difficult to achieve.

14th October 1939

“A” Company was posted to Darlington to relieve a Company of the 6th Battalion and to become the First Line Troops under the Civil Defence Scheme.

20th October 1939

Individual training continued. Strength was shown as 10 Officers and 517 Other Ranks.

90 recruits were posted to the Battalion from the Reception Centre at Darlington – described as “Army Intake”.

22nd October 1939

Lt. P. Wrightson and Lt Wilkinson were both posted to the Battalion from the Reserve of 5th Battalion DLI – the Searchlight Unit.

The Battalion changed location – moving to Bishop Auckland (apart from “A” Company which remained on Civil Defence Duties in Darlington) to replace the 6th Battalion, which had moved South with the rest of 151st Brigade.

30th October 1939

2/Lt. W.P. Atley was also posted to the Battalion from the Reserve of 5th Battalion.

59 Other Ranks were posted to the strength of the 6th Battalion DLI, who were now in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. As the Regimental Enlistment Books do not routinely identify postings between Battalions it is problematic to identify these men specifically.

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