Thanks to help from this forum I have discovered the War Diaries for 1945 (J-D) and 1946 (J-Disband) for my father's unit, 800 Infantry Troops Workshop. I have just had the opportunity to visit Kew - what an impressive place! At the start of 1945 the records indicate nothing other than a continuation from the previous( ie Dec '44) and a complete complement of officers and other ranks is shown. At that time they were based in Helmond, Netherlands. I know that they landed in France (somewhere near Caen, I think) on June 26 '44. I assume that ther must have been a War Diary for this period (June - Dec '44), but can find no other references to 800 ITW and really do not know where to look. Please would anone have any suggestions about what to look for, or am I on a wild goose chase? David
dgbshifnal Best place to start would be with his service record this is obtainable from Glasgow and will give you most of what you need - it is however written in " Army " and might want some translation so come back here in early 2015 and we can help - someone will be along in a minute with the address for Glasgow Records Office… cheers
Link as requested: https://www.gov.uk/requests-for-personal-data-and-service-records#how-to-apply-for-service-personnel-records TD
Thanks to both Tom and Dicky for replies. Little bit more effort on my behalf and then, as suggested, come back here, Regards, David
David, A lot of the NW Europe REME workshops were renamed/renumbered in October 1944. It is likely that I might be able to identify what 800 Infantry Troops Workshop were previously called if you give me a couple of days to remember where I saw a list of them! Cheers Tom
I found some infm re the re-designation that might help a bit in the war diary of 30 Corps DDME (WO171/361): 5 October 1944 ...Third Line Workshops and Recovery Sections re-designated as follows (Authority 21 A Gp/3793/A(Org) (2) dated 28 Sep 44. Gds Armd Tps Wksp to be 811 Armd Tps Wksp. 11 813 8 Tk 823 Tk 50 Inf Tps Wksp 804 Inf Tps Wksp 43 802 43 Lt Rec Sec 853 Lt Rec Sec 50 855 8 Hy Rec Sec 835 Hy Rec Sec Gds Hy Rec Sec 831 I've got a strange feeling that 800 might have been previously called No. 3 Inf Tps Wksp (which would make 800 =3, 801 = 15, 802 = 43, 803 = 49, 804 = 50, etc which aligns with the details above). I've got the war diary of that particular Wksp already on my other laptop and will dig it out and see what it says. Cheers Tom
David, As I suspected, 3 British Inf Tps Wksp REME was re-designated as 800 Inf Tps Wksp on 7 Oct 44 under instrs from 21 Army Group dated 28 Sep. The war diary for 1944 is WO171/2863. I've got the narrative sections only for June - Oct 1944 inclusive if you would like them. Cheers Tom
Tom, How kind of you to go to so much trouble; thank you very much. Ironically I now go past Kew quite regularly to visit my Dad's sister, who lives in Richmond. I shall pop in soon and call down the documents you identified for me, Regards, David