Cemetery address is:- Kromstraat 6133 Sittard Netherlands GPS Location is:- N 50 59 21 E 05 51 16

Victoria Cross:

DENNIS DONNINI

Rank: Fusilier, Service No: 14768011, Date of Death: 18/01/1945, Age: 19, Regiment/Service: Royal Scots Fusiliers 4/5th Bn. , Awards: V C, Grave Reference H. 10., Son of Alfred and Catherine Donnini, of Easington Colliery, Co. Durham.

 Citation: The citation in the London Gazette of 16th March, 1945, gives the following details : In North-West Europe, on 18th January 1945, a battalion of The Royal Scots Fusiliers led the assault on the German positions between the rivers Roer and Maas. When Fusilier Donnini's platoon was ordered to attack a small village, it came under intense fire from the houses and he was wounded in the head. On recovering consciousness a few minutes later he charged down the road, threw a grenade into the nearest window, and with the survivors of his platoon ran in pursuit of the Germans. The British soldiers reached the cover of a wooden barn only thirty yards from the German trenches. From this cover Fusilier Donnini first went out under intense fire to carry into safety a wounded comrade, then a second time and though again wounded, he advanced firing a machine-gun until a bullet hit a grenade that he was carrying and killed him. His great gallantry and self-sacrifice in drawing the enemy fire on himself enabled his platoon to capture the position, and his comrades to overcome opponents more than twice their number.