My Grandfather was in the RASC. I have a photo where I see 266 PET Depot RASC. I know he was a driver. Attached are his medals as well as a photo of him stood in front of some kind of memorial - not sure where this is but I would love to know and get the chance to visit - my guess is it is in Africa - Egypt or Libya as I know he got the Africa star and supported the 8th Army. Anyone who knows anything about 266 PET RASC - would love to learn a little more. Thanks in advance!
Welcome to the forum. Have you applied to MOD for copy service records? Request records of deceased service personnel At the very least these will confirm with which units your grandfather served. Depending on your interest, you could use that info to obtain copies of relevant War Diaries and trace his footsteps throughout the war. Good luck.
Hi Waiting for the waggon by D.J. Sutton (History of RASC in WW2) is a good book. If you need more details there's The Story of the Royal Army Service Corps, 1939-1945 by G Bell. It is a monster of a book and rare as hens teeth so I would suggest you check if your local library has a copy as I found one in mine. Hope this helps Gus
There are 2 war diaries listed on National Archives website for ''266 Petrol''. They are both for North-West Europe 1944-45 though 266 Depot | The National Archives 266 Pet. Dep. | The National Archives
I think I can make out the words 'New Zealand' and dates 1916 1918 so does that help to suggest a location presuming it's a ww1 memorial. Also possibly a wreath visible
Also wo171 suggests north west Europe so definitely need service records to ensure you are going down the right track
There is a section on petrol companies in bells book. I'll check it out in the next few days. If I recall a rather eye opening anecdote about repairing broken pipelines.
Thanks so much for sharing this - you nailed it!!! I really want to visit this site and stand where my Grandfather stood in that picture.
Thanks to everyone who replied - really helpful. Some great ideas and leads here. I will certainly follow up on all the suggestions. Many thanks indeed.
I've included a couple of images showing some of the activities of a Petrol supply unit. The story I referred to earlier (on page 635 of the Bell book) was an incident at Il Fronte near Taranto in which RASC officers entered a closed tunnel system awash with petrol in waders and diving / breathing equipment to find and close off the source of a major leek from the tanks above. It makes chilling reading considering what could have happened with the slightest spark or static discharge. ATTACH=full]253780[/ATTACH]
