Identity
Person No.
14045
Service No.
243045V
Last Name
First Name
Prescott Reuben
Initials
P R
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
32
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
KIA 14,779
Killed in action
Cause of Death
Killed in action, at 07h00 hours, the 6th South African Armoured Division entered the streets of Rome. Regimental Headquarters together with B Squadron NMR and a Company of WR/DLR supported by a Troop of Sherman tanks was tasked to clear the roads to Foiano Romano. Contact with the enemy was soon made and the South African force came under intense German Nebelwerfer Rocket fire, 75mm anti-tank fire and were engaged by Mk IV Tiger Tanks. The South African Artillery joined in the fray with heavy shelling of the area. Heavy losses were inflicted on the German force with two Mk IV Tiger Tanks being knocked out, two 75mm anti-tank guns destroyed, a German Machine-gun nest wiped out and a building providing cover for the enemy forces was destroyed. One Sherman tank and a Stuart Honey tank were hit and abandoned but were later recovered by advancing South African Forces
Military Service
Location
Country
Locality
Unknown
Cemetery
Grave Reference
Coordinates
Unit History
Role at time of death
Mounted Rifles, later Armoured Reconnaissance
Status
Volunteer unit (pre-1913); Active Citizen Force (Reserve) from 1913
Part of
Lineage from the Royal Durban Rangers (1854) through several volunteer mounted units, unified as Natal Mounted Rifles 1888. Reactivated for the Boer War as Natal Mounted Infantry. Transferred to the Active Citizen Force 1913; converted from cavalry to armoured reconnaissance 1934. Renamed Queen Nandi Mounted Rifles 2019.
Notes
Husband of Mrs. M. J. Lupke, of Townbush Road, Pietermaritzburg. Born in Pietermaritzburg. A railworker with the South African Railways.
Citations
Unknown
External References
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