Private Benjamin Price, 1st Bn, North Staffs, is my wifes grandfather. He survived the war but unfortunately died in a plane crash just outside Marseilles on Jan 15th 1946. We have quite a bit of information about the crash and we are going to visit Marseiles in January 2016 to mark the 70th Anniversary. We are taking our 76 year old father, who was a babe in arms when his dad left to go to war, never to return. We have never visited his grave, which is in Mazargues War Cemetry, Marseilles. Benjamin was on Dakota KN557 which left Catania Airfield, Sicily on an air trooping flight to Bordeaux We think Benjamin was in India but we are not sure We don’t know what he did in the army There is little information about the North Staffs late 1945 We believe he was returning home from India, via Palestine when the plane crashed We don’t know why he was on this plane, after all he was just a Private Newspaper articles state there was POW's on the plane but we dont believe he was a POW We do have lots of information and pictures on the crash and Benjamins service records, which are quite difficult to read. Lots of gaps to fill in, can anyone help.
As you have his service records please post them on here so the members can help de-cypher them for you.
Looks like he was originally in the 1/4 South Lancashire Regiment from April 1940 and transferred to the North Staffs in May 1943. I can't work out what battalion though on the paperwork - Some one with good eyes will post the answer.
To me it looks like "G.H.Q. 2nd Ech (I) North Staffs" from Lee's site WO 172/888 1 North Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's)1942 Oct. - Dec. WO 172/2547 1 North Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's)1943 Jan.- Mar., May - Dec. WO 172/4917 1 North Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's)1944 Jan.- Dec. WO 172/4918 1 North Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's) 'A' Company1944 Aug.- Oct. WO 172/4919 1 North Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's) 'C' Company1944 Aug.- Oct. WO 172/7664 1 North Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's)1945 Jan.-Dec. If there were POWs on the plane, he could have been serving as part of escort/guard... just a guess though.
Concise details of this loss.... 15 January 1946 271 Squadron Dakota IV KN557 The aircraft's position was fixed incorrectly and the pilot was given the wrong course to steer. The Dakota struck high ground at 1000 feet in poor weather near Marseilles, France There were 25 fatalities.
26 men listed on CWGC as buried in Mazargues War Cemetery, Marseilles for that date 15th January 1946. http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead.aspx?cpage=1 Found old thread on rafcommands about this crash. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?7386-accident-of-Dakota-IV-KN557-15th-January-1946 also on the forum. http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/36395-remembering-today-15146-leading-aircraftman-gwilym-daniels-1384200-271-sqdn-royal-air-force-vr/
If he was GHQ 2nd Ech I suspect the 1 North Staffs diaries wouldn't be appropriate,. Going on what I know regarding the BEF Orbat GHQ was the highest formation and the top of the command structure. Lord Gort was at GHQ and telling the Corps etc what to do. 2nd Ech wasn't even in France as I recall they were overseeing things from Kent with the top brass in Margate. So I wonder if he was part of the GHQ 2nd Ech staff or was 1 North Staffs Regiment GHQ 2nd Ech's defence battalion?
View attachment Benjamin Price.pdf Thanks for your help so far. Here is some more information and some pictures, news clippings etc
