Hi all, Anyone got an idea why a service book would have been destroyed mid war? The obvious presumption would be because of damage of some description, any other reason? Below is a pic of my grandads book, written in pencil top left inside the opening page is DUPLICATE - original destroyed in my presence then appears to say major 18-5-43 And any idea what the 5MDU meant on the opposite page?
Could it mean not that the original was destroyed as some kind of punishment or example, but rather the officer witnessed its destruction in an accident or combat and was attesting to the fact that the loss was unintentional and a duplicate should be issued without any formal charge for the bearer? I have, for instance, read a note to the effect that a month's war diary was lost when the intelligence officer's vehicle was destroyed from the air.
Silly me I can see if I read the title 5 MDU Could be demobilisation unit or perhaps dispersal unit TD
No.5 Military Dispersal Unit at Queen’s Camp, Guildford? First image below is called ‘The Last Lap’ and is the final cartoon from a booklet called Westward Bound: Advice and Help for Your Journey Home, shows the MDU abbreviation. Second is a stamp in my grandad's Release Book showing 'Military Dispersal Unit No. 5' from the day he was demobbed.
If a book was in a really rough state it was often replaced and a new book issued and details copied over - the majority of books were replaced at some point - I'd say this entry is just the officer confirming he has observed it being destroyed, I think this was to stop old books making there way out and being used as fake ID etc - often men discharged during the war had books stamped "DISCHARGED" - like passports these days, if you get a new one when your old one is defaced and made unusable. Having said that I know a couple of Border Regiment veterans whose books were replaced after being soaked (one in the Med off Sicily and one swimming the Rhine from Oosterbeek) and who got to keep their old ones as souveniers. Alistair