James Pearson who was a Glider Pilot, he was pilot of a Glider carrying a detachment from 9th Field Company RE to Sicily when they were cast off early - he was captured but later when being moved by train he and 2 other jumped but he broke his hand so after a bit when he needed treatment the group split and he went his own way, he stayed on the run for 4 months until recaptured.
7019451 Robert McAdorey an Irishman who served with 6th Battalion the Parachute Regiment, he was captured 4/6/44 on Operation Hasty - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Hasty
2615745 Joseph MARTIN, Grenadier Guards and served with them in the BEF the joined the 1st Parachute Battalion and served with them in Africa, Sicily & Italy - he was wounded and captured at Arnhem. On embarkation for North Africa he was with the 3" mortar platoon HQ Company, mot sure if he stayed with mortars all through
1867103 Sgt Albert Edward "Duke" WINDSOR, he was a member of 9th Field Company RE from their days with the BEF right through to Norway, while they were part of the Airborne forces he took part in Operations in Italy, but I am not sure about Sicily and Arnhem - I am still digging into these.
2042679 Roland STONES, who was with 3rd Airlanding Anti-Tank Battery, he joined at some point in 1944 and I'm not sure if he was involved in Normandy, the Ardennes or the Rhine crossing.
I have been looking through the various threads that deal with these Paybooks and have found them fascinating (the Crowther VC one is outstanding). I collect the German equivalent (Soldbuch) and was wondering if the British versions ever listed the man's actual units? I have seen some entries that state Royal Engineers or Royal Artillery etc but unless I have missed it I haven't seen a more specific unit or a timeline of units and did notice the instruction 'Title Of Unit Must NOT Be Entered' but was that for just the title page or the Paybook as a whole? And if they don't list the specific units how do you find out where the man served, is it a case of having to locate his Army records?
WW1 up to Pre-WW2 they included the mans unit, on Windsor's book above you can see top right it has units - this space wasn't include in later printings (I think from the mid-30's) and they seem to have usually blanked out any entries already there - On occasion you see the man's photo and this normally has a unit stamp, but again its usually inked out - the Part 2 pay section again often has a unit stamp early on but later blanked out, branch or arm of service is quite often mentioned (RA Field etc). As you can see from Anderson & Butler's books they have the unit written in pencil at the top - this seems fairly common on casualty books. In the main to get the full story the entries in the book don't tell you much about the unit - there are hints like rank being gunner or signaller or training being gun number or things like that but they still leave it quite open - the only real way to get the full story is from other sources - in most cases they come with other paperwork that may mention units, but usually just gives a regiment or corp - if your lucky you get leave passes or things like that with an actual battalion or unit stamp that narrows it down - casualties you can check the CWGC, POW's you can hopefully get the questionnaire from their release if it exists, sometimes you hit lucky and someone gets mentioned in a book or online - or you ask on here and someone turns up info. For where he served the books usually list medal awards so you can get a general idea if its lists Africa and Italy star for instance. Army Book 439's the officers record of service - like Crowthers - list units and dates, but I'm not sure if they were carried on the officer the same way as OR's carries the AB64 or if they stayed behind. Army Records will add a lot but as they are basically still restricted they are more potentially than actually useful at the moment. Hope this helps Alistair
Thanks for the reply and for answering my query. It seems that it must be difficult to collect to a specific unit (or battle) if the Paybook doesn't come with supporting paperwork to help shed light on an actual regiment/battalion etc.
1577726 Joseph William GRIFFIN, he was granted the parachute badge 7/5/44, but beyond that I don't know his Airborne service - he was originally RA then transferred to KSLI 15/12/43.
5683148 Maurice DOWDEN, no idea what unit he was with at the time but he was granted the parachute badge 20/6/43 (he had been Buffs and later was REME)
2061910 Terence Francis George LOVELL of the 1st Airborne Division Workshop REME, he landed at Arnhem on the 18th and gets a few mentions in "With Spanners Descending", he made it back safely over the Rhine. If anyone else has any other information on him I'm interested or if he gets a mention in any other books.
3532633 J M Thickett of 2nd Airlanding Anti-tank artillery who was taken POW at Arnhem - I'm hoping someone can narrow down which crew he was with and which gun he was on
7359124 Leslie Wyndham Griffiths, he was with the RAMC and qualified as a parachutist in November 1943
7015948 Henry Orlando RIDGLEY - a member of the Signal Corps, but in the photo he has a Para Badge - I think he was granted his wings May 44
3597845 Leonard SCULLY of 26 Anti-Tank Platoon 1 Border, at Arnhem he was a jeep driver and towed his 6 pounder (either YPRES or SOMME) to the brickworks at Renkum where his jeep was destroyed and the gun spiked, I'm unsure how he spent the rest of the battle but he made it back safely over the Rhine - in When Dragons Flew there is a photo of a jeep and gun in Renkum so its 50/50 if its him in his jeep
Hi Alistair, His service number is 21 after my Dad’s! He joined 5th Border TA 21st May 1935 and enlisted Regular Army (Coldstream Guards) the day after his 19th birthday - 29th January 1937. Steve
I wonder if they knew each other, as he was Regular I imagine he was with a different Battalion but not sure if they would have crossed paths at some point - I have started checking my books to see how they compare to others in my collection and I have 2 pairs that are consecutive numbers - 1 pair are twins so I knew about that, the other pair were a total shock when I found them recently, I have a few others within 10.