My father was born and adopted in 1946. I've spent the last 12 months trying to find out the identity of his biological father using AncestryDNA. I have narrowed it down to two brothers who were in the Royal Engineers. I would be grateful for any help deciphering the attached service record. To put it delicately, I need to know if the gentleman concerned could have been present in the Surrey/West Sussex area in the first half of May 1945. I wonder if there was opportunity for leave back to the UK at any point in that time? Thank you in advance for your help. Neil
Assume you want to keep the names anonymous? If you had names forum members would be able to add further but understand you do not want to put their names up Looks like 965 IWT Op Coy (Royal Engineers) Inland Water Transport (IWT) do you have the full records Do you have the war diaries? if they are available
Thanks for the reply CL1. Yes don't want to embarrass anyone. Would names help? I just have a series of cards like this detailing deployments from 1939 to demob which I found on a genealogy site. I posted the one for the 'relevant' time period but could post others if that would assist. Cheers, Neil
My father in law was in 966 Inland Water Transport. Other IWT companies as well as 966 were in Northern Europe at that time I will send a message to Mike, aka Trux who should be able to help you. Lesley
Hi, You’ve posted material from the RE Tracer Card collection from findmypast. In essence it was part of a central index card system on which were recorded (in military shorthand) some - not all - details of a man’s movements. Fuller details were recorded on other forms in the man’s service file - principally the Army Form B103 that is usually provided by MOD. If you still have access to FMP have a look at the Scots Guards service files for men who served during WW2 to get an idea of what information is available. Sadly MOD release only a small part of a man’s service file. From all the service files I’ve seen posted on this forum it has been very rare to see men given home leave whilst serving with British Liberation Army in North West Europe between June 44/May 45 - except for compassionate/welfare grounds. Men could be returned to UK for medical treatment following injury or sickness and that will usually show up on the B103. Your best way forward is to request the service file from MOD and hope a leave period is recorded on the B103 provided. You need to be aware that 3 copies of B103 were maintained and updated from source documents. From looking at Scots Guards service files I can say that there were occasions where the 3 forms had slight differences. MOD only provide one copy so you can only hope it is the one that records a period of leave. Other forms in the file may record leave details but MOD don’t release them. Good Luck Steve
Neil, Leave was certainly possible. By May 1945 some 412,000 British troops in 21 Army Group had been on leave to the UK. I think the only way to be certain if and when a person was in the UK on leave would be through the persons pay book. Unfortunately this will not be available. I have my fathers pay book and it shows his leave and his whereabouts when he drew pay. Inland Waterway troops were kept very busy even after the war had ended but that should not have prevented leave being taken. Mike
Thank you Steve for the information. The B103 would be the application to the MOD for a copy of his service records? I think it is a £30 fee and you have to wait 25 years to apply for the full records as a non-family member? The RE tracer cards for the other brother are not on findmypast. The 25 year deadline for the second brother will pass this spring so maybe I will apply for both sets. Thank you Mike for the information. It seems from both your and Mike's comments that, even with a full set of service records, we will not necessarily be able to rule either one in or out? Neil
If it’s of any consolation MOD are in the early stage of the process of transferring service files to the care of the UK National Archives. Full files will likely be made available to the public in due course but I’ve no idea of timescales though. As you have surmised unless you can examine the whole file you can’t be 100% sure of the answer to your query. Steve
Many thanks for that Steve. Not too worried about the cost, but will have to hope that a piece of information arises that rules one of them out. Any idea why the second brother's cards would not be on findmypast? Perhaps the 25 year moratorium? Neil
My understanding is that the full run of RE Tracer Cards were not retained. Similar issue with RA Tracer Cards. Steve
