195th Airlanding Field Ambulance 6th Airborne Division

Well 17months after joining WWII talk and creating this post - i am back to pick up the trail of tracking down the baby boy that my grandfather delivered on the 17/06/44 in the MDS at Ranville.

Life events have taken over the last year and a bit but I am making it my duty to find the person my grandfather delivered, or his family in the sad event of his loss.

Any help would be most appriciated.

I am going to contact people in the local area in France through a range of mediums

What I need is for someone to confirm the exacty location of the house / chataue that was formily the German HQ and then captured by 13th Para Bn on 06/06 before being turned into the MDS on 07/06

I am aware that it became a school for disabled children after the war and in 2001/2002 was taken over by a local electricty company.

I would also like to find birth records from the local area of all males born on 17/06/44 - does anyone know how I would find this.

Once I have a name - I can work on tracing down the individual or his family.

All I want to do is to meet the man (or his family) look him in the eye, shake his hand and for him to know that my grandfather delivered him under the most exceptional circumstances.......

 

Hi Jay,

I'm pretty sure the small chateau you're looking for is at 6 Rue du General de Gaulle, Ranville. You can examen it quite closely with Google Street View. Blot Raoul (SARL) is the electrical company that currently occupies it. Their vehicles can be seen in the yard from the other entrance just down the street.

In this Pathe video after the 2:30 mark there are a couple of interesting scenes taken in front of the MDS sometime in mid-June, 44.

Invasion Scenes 1944 - Pathe

Hope that helps a bit ... :smile:

 

Jay,

You've probably seen this already, but I'll add a couple of pictures of a model of the 195th ALFA MDS.
Originally from Herzlich Willkommen's site.

Pegasus Bridge – 6. Juni 1944 / Teil 3 | FIGUREN UND GESCHICHTEN

Regards ...

 

Hello Jay

I hope you are still researching the baby boy born on 17 June 1944 in the Ranville MDS. Lt Col Watts' book "Surgeon at War" page 101 names the baby as Gerard Lorin. After the srticle in the Independent in 2002, I contacted the journalist Jamie Donald, whose grandfather was Ian Gilliland. Jamie told me later that they had located Gerard and were attempting to arrange a reunion with Dr Watts in 2003. Subsequently I lost contact with Jamie, but tried to locate Gerard myself using facebook (even oldies like me use it!). I sent a message in English and French to all the Gerard Lorins listed in France (sometimes grandparents join facebook to see photos of their family), but had no response. Did you have any more luck than I did?

By the way, my late father was with the 195 ALFA in that building when the baby was born, and would have attended the christening, hence my interest.

I have only just come across this website and joined, having tried to keep up with all recent information exchanges on 195 on the Internet. When I first started researching in 1998 there was nothing online, and I had to go to Museums and Archives to access the war diaries and histories. I attended two 195 reunions and met some of my father's old colleagues.

I do hope this helps, and we can share more of our grandparent's / parent's war experience.

Best wishes

Malcolm

 

Hello Malcolm and welcome,

I've sent Jay a PM, hopefully it catches his attention.

Regards ...

 

Try the white pages

http://www.pagesjaunes.fr/pagesblanches/pfLeverAmbiguite.jsf?idLieu=R25

 

In case you wasn't aware already 99.9% of war diaries contain text only-quite rare to find a pic in any of them.

 

Here's the war diary-It looks like it covers most of WW2 so it will be very thick, I'd guess well over a 1,000 pages.

WO 177/793 195 Field Ambulance 1940 June- 1942 Jan., Apr., June- 1946 June, Sept.- Dec.

 

Cee

Thanks for your welcome and for sending my message to Jay (I wasn't sure if I could do this - all forums / message boards seem to have their own conventions for this!)

Regards

Malcolm

 

Brithm

Thanks for your suggestion and link. Yes, there are three Gerard Lorins in Normandy. In the UK I could use the electoral roll (192.com) to get more data to select which it might be.
I will wait for Jay to respond, before writing to them (my French is not good enough to handle a phone call) as he may already have traced him.

Regards

Malcolm

 

Hi Malcom, great to hear from you and what a break through in now having a name to follow.

Came as a nice suprise as I had picked up the trail again in the run up to the 70th anniversary and what will be Gerards 70th Birthday. I have bombarded facebook with a translated message in an attempt track down Gerard.

The book you mentioned, Surgeon at War sounds good, I will be ordering a copy.

It would be great to speak at some point and share stories and photographs. Maybe our relatives are on some of them.

It would also be great to go to a 195th reunion although I cant imagine that there is many of them left.

Cheers

Jay

Thanks also to Cee for notifying me by PM of this development

 

Hello, Jay

The 195 reunion I attended in 2001 was the last, as few, if any, of the veterans now survive. I was therefore very fortunate to be invited to attend in 2000 and 2001, having made contact (after 35 years) with my father's colleague. I had the opportunity to meet and talk to about eight or nine veterans, some of whom remembered my father. I had spoken to a number of them by telephone prior to the reunion, and was fascinated by their accounts of their experiences in Normandy and elsewhere.

I think I have now traced the journalist who wrote the Independent article in 2002, and am awaiting a reply from him (he is back from holiday tomorrow). I have asked if he has any contact details for Gerard, bearing in mind that it was twelve years ago when I was last in contact.

'Surgeon at War' should be available from Abebooks or similar. It is an excellent book.

I will keep you posted with developments.

Regards

Malcolm

 

Hello again, Jay

I have heard from the journalist. He confirms that the planned meeting between Colonel Watts and Gerard Lorin did not take place (my recollection is that Colonel Watts had an accident and became very frail before his death in 2010). He has tried to find the notes he made at the time without success, but suggested contacting the Pegasus Museum, which I have done, and one particular Gerald Lorin on Facebook, which I have done. This particular Gerard was one of three to whom I sent a message on Facebook three years ago, without a successful outcome.

I have not heard from the Pegasus Museum yet, as I suspect they will be dealing with thousands of queries following the D-Day 70 activities.

Have you had any response to your messages on Facebook?

Regards

Malcolm

 

Guys,

An article from the Gloucester Citizen - Thursday 14 September 1944 on 195th Airlanding Field Ambulance orderly Cpl A Lodge who delivered a baby in Normandy.

Brithm

 

Nice find brithm ...

This must be one of your clippings as well from Twitter ...? Another story on Cpl. A Lodge on a trip back to Ranville in 1949. There's no mention of the birth, but it still may be of interest.

 

Hello, brithm and Cee

Thanks for finding these two cuttings which I have never seen before. My father attended many of the 195 reunions in Gloucester, and I have a photo from one of them, I think 1949, which includes the signatures (autographs?) of General "Windy" Gale and Colonel Anderson. Bert Lodge was the organiser of these reunions, quite a challenge in the early years when quite a number turned up (50 in 1949). Bert and my father were of similar age (slightly older than the rest of 195, being 37 on D-Day!) I understand that Bert died in 2000 at the age of 92.

With thanks

Malcolm

 

Hey,

-Do you find "Gerard Lorin" ? If not, I can search to help you, my french is better than my english.

-About the 195th Airlanding, does anybody have information about the party who landed on the beach ? This unit landed in the same time as 249th Field Company RE...

Cordially,

Xavier from France...

 

To all those who are following this.....

I received a message on facebook in June from a Mr. Gerard Lorin in french. I ran it through google translate and reads as follows:-

Hello,
I am aware of your message late and by accident. This is actually my father who was born June 17, 44 has Ranville by a British doctor. My father has also become a doctor for 40 years. My father unfortunately died January 17, 2015 .
Best regards

son gerard lorin

A lovely and very fitting end to a story I think..... my grandad always wondered if he survived the war and if so what became of him

 

Dear Jay,

I work about the story of the 249th Field Company Royal Engineers, a unit of the 6th Airborne Division.

I think, with no doubt, that a part of the 195th took the same road that the 249th to join their assembly area after disembarking at Bernières-sur-Mer.

Did your grandfather participated in the DDAY ? Did he landed by boat or by glider ? If it was by boat, did he never tell you information about the others airborne units who landed with him on Juno Beach ?

Regards,

Xavier

PS : You can see a part of my work here 249th Field Company RE on D-Day and Battle of Normandy

 

Found on ebay Old Comrades Association, 195th Airlanding Field Ambulance, Annual Reunion 1952.

Some recognisable names.