2nd Bn. Gloucestershire Regiment 1939/40

Discussion in 'British Army Units - Others' started by jjrc1991, Jul 11, 2015.

  1. jjrc1991

    jjrc1991 Junior Member

    Hi,

    I'm researching a man who served with the 2nd Bn. Gloucestershire Regiment. I'm presuming he was conscripted at the very start of the war and was sent to France as part of the BEF. He died on 19th May 1940 and is buried in Beveren-Ijzer Churchyard, Alveringem, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

    Does anyone have copies or transcripts of the Bn. diary for the month of May 1940 in order for me to understand what was going on at the time. I'm presuming that this unit was, at the time, pulling back towards the Channel ?

    Regards

    Jeff
     
  2. dryan67

    dryan67 Senior Member

    Here is the page for the period from David Scott Daniell's regimental history. It is in regard to the 2nd and 5th Battalions. There is not much detail and the war diaries will probably be more informative.
     

    Attached Files:

  3. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    What's his name?
     
  4. jjrc1991

    jjrc1991 Junior Member

    Corporal Cecil Winfield - possibly 'B' Coy.
     
  5. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    I thought I had the Missing Men file for the regiment, they can contain good info on BEF casualties, I'll get it copied by the end of the month. That said I have the war diary and a couple of personal accounts by officers. I'll have a look later for you.

    Can Admin/Mods move this to the 1940 section please :)
     
  6. jjrc1991

    jjrc1991 Junior Member

    Thanks Drew, I really appreciate that.

    Jeff
     
  7. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Jeff - What makes you think he was B Coy?
     
  8. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

  9. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Looking in the war diary and a couple of other reports the battalion got hit hard on the 19th May by the Luftwaffe in a traffic bottle neck suffering around 100 casualties. The diary says B Company got away before the attack though and this happened in Tournai which is a good 50 miles south of where he is buried.

    My best guess at this stage is he was either wounded earlier than the 19th and died of wounds or the same day whilst being treated at a medical facility.
     
  10. jjrc1991

    jjrc1991 Junior Member

    Hi Drew,

    I have a letter written by him, to his parents and on it he says he is with 12 pln, B Coy. It dates from November 1939 so I guess things could have changed?
     
  11. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    I'll have another look. This units war diary is the thickest BEF diary and comes in two parts so it'll take some time.
     
  12. neil hunt

    neil hunt Member

    I was looking at this today on the CWGC Website...I carried out a search for all 2nd Bn Casualties for 1940 and came up with a long list...Cecil Winfield was of interest, as I thought he may have been with Lt Fane's Group...however, this would seem to have been incorrect.
    Noticed that for this Cemetery they state, that the six WWII Casualties Buried there, are all from the Retreat to Dunkirk...making the 19th unlikely.
    There are two 2nd Bn Gloucestershire Regiment Buried there and one of the Documents on the CGWG Site from 1955 showed that both had 19/05/1940 as their date of Death...however, for L/Cpl Harold Sysum the date had been crossed through and changed to 29/05/1940.
    It looks likely that the date for Cecil Wingfield is wrong...and I would say that as the 2nd Bn left Cassel the night of 29-30...that the date of Death for both of them is more likely to have been 30th or 31st May 1940.
     

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