146 Regiment RAC

Discussion in 'RAC & RTR' started by Alders1, Oct 1, 2012.

  1. Alders1

    Alders1 Junior Member

    I have recently come into possession of the medals and other items relating to HIS service belonging to Cpl George Armitage of 9th Batt Duke of Wellingtons Regiment. This regiment was subsequently converted to 146 Regiment Royal Armoured Corps in 1942.
    I know that the regiment served in India and took part in the Arakan campaign but I am struggling to find anymore information.
    Can anyone help?
    Cpl Armitage was part of HQ squadron.

    Many thanks
     
  2. Tom Canning

    Tom Canning WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Alders

    your best bet is to get in touch with the HQ of the "Dukes" in York as you are quite right the 146th RAC was formed from the 9th battalion as was 145th RAC from the 8th Battalion - in late 1941- but we -145th -went to North Africa and Italy and so lost touch with the 146th out in Burma

    Cheers
     
  3. wtid45

    wtid45 Very Senior Member

  4. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    I have the Regts history upstairs-anything specific you are looking for?
     
  5. Alders1

    Alders1 Junior Member

    Thankyou for all those who responded to my thread.
    Drew, I was interested to know what role the 146 Regiment RAC had during the Burma Campaign, especially HQ Squadron that Cpl Armitage belonged to.
    His service book shows that he entered the 'Arakan Theatre' in late 1944 and left it in early 1945.
    I would be interested to know what role the 146 regiment played in Arakan during this time.
    Any information would be very much appreciated.
    I have a vast amount of photo's and other items that belonged to Cpl Armitage and I have displayed them in a album (didn't like the idea of it just sitting in a shoe box)!
    Any information I can obtain I will incklude in the album.

    Regards
     
  6. KevinT

    KevinT Senior Member

    Thankyou for all those who responded to my thread.
    I have a vast amount of photo's and other items that belonged to Cpl Armitage and I have displayed them in a album (didn't like the idea of it just sitting in a shoe box)!
    Any information I can obtain I will incklude in the album.

    Regards

    Please post these photos, to either this thread or to your own members album.

    Cheers
    Kevin
     
  7. sol

    sol Very Senior Member

  8. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Thankyou for all those who responded to my thread.
    Drew, I was interested to know what role the 146 Regiment RAC had during the Burma Campaign, especially HQ Squadron that Cpl Armitage belonged to.
    His service book shows that he entered the 'Arakan Theatre' in late 1944 and left it in early 1945.
    I would be interested to know what role the 146 regiment played in Arakan during this time.
    Any information would be very much appreciated.
    I have a vast amount of photo's and other items that belonged to Cpl Armitage and I have displayed them in a album (didn't like the idea of it just sitting in a shoe box)!
    Any information I can obtain I will incklude in the album.

    Regards

    Thats a bit too much-20 ish pages. Nothing more specific?
     
  9. Alders1

    Alders1 Junior Member

    Thanks again for the replies, I will get the photos uploaded in the next week, I will try and get my Grandads photos loaded up as well, he was attached to the RWAFF.

    Drew, do you have any information on what 146th RAC HQ squadron was involved in during the Arakan campaign between Nov 44 and Feb 45?

    Many thanks
     
  10. Roddy1011

    Roddy1011 Senior Member

    Hi to all -

    If anyone has any vehicle WD Nos for 146 RAC vehicles, pse do let me know...I have not come across a single one in 12 yrs of research !

    Roddy
     
  11. KevinT

    KevinT Senior Member

    Hi to all -

    If anyone has any vehicle WD Nos for 146 RAC vehicles, pse do let me know...I have not come across a single one in 12 yrs of research !

    Roddy

    Hi Roddy,

    Me neither, just one M3 Lee named AVE A DUFFY.

    Cheers
    Kevin
     
  12. dryan67

    dryan67 Senior Member

    Here is a bit of a summary of 146th Regiment, RAC's service in Burma:


    50th Indian Army Tank Brigade – 1 November 1941 to 1 January 1943
    The 9th Battalion, Duke of Wellington's Regiment left Liverpool on August 28th, 1941 and arrived in Bombay on October 25th, 1941. It was then converted to 146th Armoured Regiment on November 1st, 1941. It moved to Kirkee Barracks in Poona on arrival and came under command of 50th Indian Army Tank Brigade. It was located in Dhond until July 13th, 1942 and then in Lohardaya under XV Indian Corps until January 1st, 1943,
    The regiment drew its first three Valentines in November 1941. By October 1942 it had been equipped with Valentines and had an armoured car troop in Ford Indian Pattern Carriers. Six Universal Carriers were added as part of the mortar troop in November 1942.

    50th Indian Tank Brigade – 1 January 1943 to 31 August 1945
    The regiment moved to the Ratu-Ranchi area on January 1st, 1943, where it became attached to the 36th Indian Infantry Division. ‘A’ Squadron was attached to the 72nd Indian Infantry Brigade, ‘B’ Squadron to the 29th Infantry Brigade and ‘C’ Squadron as the divisional reserve. ‘A’ Squadron was located at Madh Island, Bombay with its brigade. When the order of battle of the 36th Indian Infantry Division changed the division was allotted only two squadrons. When it went to Burma it took only a small HQ of 146th Armoured Regiment along with ‘C’ Squadron of 149th Armoured Regiment in Shermans and ‘B’ Squadron of 146th Armoured Regiment in Lees. This squadron left Kirkee on February 2nd, 1943 and moved to Calcutta on February 8th. This squadron returned before entering the Arakan and the regiment was located during the first six months of 1944 at Pashau Camp in Poona, where they gradually converted from Valentines to Lee/Grants.
    The regiment left Kirkee and arrived at Chittagong on November 12th, 1944 and formed a regimental group with ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ Squadrons along with HQ and ‘A’ Company of the 2/4th Bombay Grenadiers and a Field Troop of 27th (Bombay) Sappers and Miners.
    When the regiment returned to Ahmednagar, India on February 28th, 1945, ‘A’ Squadron remained in the Arakan until May 1945 before rejoining it. ‘A’ Squadron was attached to 71st Indian Infantry Brigade from January to February 1945 and under 4th Indian Infantry Brigade from February to May 1945. The regiment left 50th Indian Tank Brigade in August 1945 and joined 254th Indian Tank Brigade until October 1945.
    Part of ‘B’ Squadron trained with DD Valentines in early 1943. When Lee/Grants arrived they were first given to ‘C’ Squadron. In May 1943 it absorbed ‘B’ Special Service Squadron. ‘C’ Squadron (along with 2 Troops of ‘A’ Squadron) was detached in 1942-43 to the Arakan and served with eight Valentine Tanks. In October 1944 Grants started to arrive and the Valentines were regulated to the training role in the regiment. ‘C’ Squadron took over Lees due to lack of sufficient Grants. When the entire regiment served in the Arakan in 1944-45, it was equipped with Lee Tanks. Upon return from the Arakan the regiment was re-equipped with Shermans in May 1945.

    254th Indian Tank Brigade – Late August 1945 to 31 August 1945
    The 146th replaced the 7th Light Cavalry in the 254th Tank Brigade at Ahmednagar in late August 1945.
     
  13. Alders1

    Alders1 Junior Member

    Dryan,

    Exactly what I was looking for, thankyou very much for your help
     
  14. rekilli47

    rekilli47 Junior Member

    Hi to all -

    If anyone has any vehicle WD Nos for 146 RAC vehicles, pse do let me know...I have not come across a single one in 12 yrs of research !

    Roddy

    My father served in 27th. lancers from 1941 then 12th. after 27th. was disbanded. He was in Poona in 1946. I have a photo of him standing by his truck no. 45 0430. I have several photos, a couple of which are groups. I would upload if I could work out how.
     
  15. rekilli47

    rekilli47 Junior Member

    Further to my earlier post, here are some photos of 146 RAC taken in India, March 1946.
    Vehicle numbers are visible on the first two photos, third one is unfortunately pretty well obscured. Dad is the one with the relaxed dress code.
    Fourth one has an inscription on the back which says :- Andy with squadron mascot. I don't know anything about Andy but who knows, someone may recognize him.
    http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=94550&stc=1&d=1353696992
    http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=94551&stc=1&d=1353696992
    http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=94552&stc=1&d=1353696992
    http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=94553&stc=1&d=1353696992
     

    Attached Files:

  16. Roddy1011

    Roddy1011 Senior Member

    Further to my earlier post, here are some photos of 146 RAC taken in India, March 1946.
    Vehicle numbers are visible on the first two photos, third one is unfortunately pretty well obscured. Dad is the one with the relaxed dress code.
    Fourth one has an inscription on the back which says :- Andy with squadron mascot. I don't know anything about Andy but who knows, someone may recognize him.
    http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=94550&stc=1&d=1353696992
    http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=94551&stc=1&d=1353696992
    http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=94552&stc=1&d=1353696992
    http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=94553&stc=1&d=1353696992
    Rekilli47 -

    Unfortunately your links do not open - except one that became an advert for Vauxhall Motors !

    Can you give them another go ?

    Thanks

    Roddy
     
  17. rekilli47

    rekilli47 Junior Member

    Roddy1011
    I have added attachments and everything works at my end. Hope that helps.
     
  18. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Same vehicles & garages as in new member's album.
    here.
    http://ww2talk.com/forums/gallery/category/12-general/
     
  19. andychappers

    andychappers New Member

    Hi, I've been doing some additional research into my Grandad's involvement in the war. When I was in year 9 which was 2005/2006 I interviewed him for a school history project and from that this is what I found out:
    He enlisted at Warwick in June 1944 and trained in Britain for 3 months and then sent to Europe. Starting at Belgium and moving up through Holland and onto the German border where they surrendered. (Not sure if this was with the 146 RAC? He mentioned something about this being as a supply?)
    After a few weeks leave he was sent to India. By the time he was due to leave Japan surrendered from the war. Still sent out to help with the partition, spent most of his time in India helping with the partition between the Indians and Pakistanis, lasted for nearly 2 years before they left so almost 1947?
    He was in the Duke of Wellington Regiment, 146 RAC and I have a photo of the Regiment on parade in January of 1946. (He said it was to celebrate the end of the war in Far East)

    Sorry about some details being vague I am transcribing my oral report and he was in the early stage of Alzheimers at this point so his memory was a bit patchy. That's why I'm here, I would be very interested to find out any details about the regiment and what he would have been doing. He was a radio operator or possibly the loader, I believe and his name was Arthur Dowler. Any help would be greatly appreciated if anyone is still looking at this thread! I will attach the photos that I have of him etc onto here in another post and hope they help someone!
     
  20. andychappers

    andychappers New Member

    Here are the photos and descriptions:
    Picture 1: My grandad with 'his fellow guardsmen'. My Grandad is on the right of the photo as we look at it.
    Picture 2: The full regiment photo I mentioned before. The arrow points to my Grandad
    Picture 4,5,6,7,8: I apologise for the poor quality of these, I have the originals somewhere but this is the best I can do, from what I can tell they are various photos from his time in India.
    Poona August 1946: This date was the one he had written on the back and he is in the middle of the photo
    Grandad in war time...:This has no date or location but I can only assume they are a football team and as they all have the same kit they must have been quite organised? Maybe a Regiment team? My Grandad is the bottom right as we look at it.
    The final photo is labelled 'Me, Pat and Boo on a Jap tank, Poona 1946'. My Grandad is on top of the tank and I'm not sure which is Pat or Boo.
    I did attempt to ask his about these photos but unfortunately his memory was too badly damaged by Alzheimer's so he had no recollection of the photos so if anyone can shed more light on these that would be fantastic or if anyone recognises anyone in the photos even better!
     

    Attached Files:

    sol and 4jonboy like this.

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