6th Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers (British Army)
Died:
27/04/1943 (Killed in Action)
Age:
21
Summary
Sergeant William John Heron was the son of John and Annie Heron, of Coagh, Co. Tyrone. Sergeant Heron was killed in an action involving A & C Company’s of the 6th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers on 27th April 1943. In an attempt to seize high ground in the Gollcah Gully in Tunisia, advancing troops came under very heavy and accurate machine gun and mortar fire as they assaulted crest after crest. The battalion suffered significant casualties in this action.
Further Information
The CWGC record Sergeant William John Heron as the son of John and Annie Heron of Coagh, County Tyrone.
Guardsman Thomas James Megaw of Moneyhaw, Moneymore was killed on the same day and is buried in the cemetery in which the memorial is located. Also in this cemetery is Fusilier Isaac Henry of Moneyglass, Cookstown, who was killed twelve days earlier.
Sergeant William John Heron has no known grave and is commemorated on panel 19 of the Medjez-El-Bab Memorial in Tunisia.
Sergeant Heron was 21 years old.
In an attempt to seize high ground in the Gollcah Gully in Tunisia, advancing troops came under very heavy and accurate machine gun and mortar fire as they assaulted crest after crest. The battalion suffered significant casualties in this action.
Sergeant William John Heron was killed in an action involving A and C Company’s of the 6th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers on 27th April 1943.
William John Heron was the son of John and Annie Heron. He was born about 1922.
The 38th (Irish Brigade) was formed in 1942 and included the 6th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers and 2nd London Irish Rifles. They served in North Africa and later in Sicily and on the Italian mainland.
