4th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers

Just received this from the National Archives, wasn't expecting it to show which company he was in which is really helpful.

 

Hi all,
Does any one know where No 1 Motor Transport Battalion The Rifle Brigade was based on or before 6th January 1940. its the unit my grandfather was in prior to his transfer to the 4th Battalion the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers.

Many thanks

 

Hi,

Just for my future reference can you say how much NA charged for the WO416 POW Index Card please?

Steve

 

Hi Steve,

The record cost £1.20 as a digital down load but I think I also had to pay a fee for the 'page check' i thinkk this was £8.40

 

Dear Trux,

Would you know how the individual sections were numbered/identified with in the platoons ? I know that the companies of the 4th battalion were X, Y and Z and have identified my Grandfathers company as Y Coy, this consisted of 4, 5,and 6 Platoons. It is possible he was in 4 or 5 platoon as these suffered the most lost on the day he was captured, while it is unlikely I'll be able to identify which section he was in I am interested in learning as much about his battalion as I can.

regards
Dean

 

Mike,

Do you happen to know the name of the troop ship the 4th battalion RNF MT column troops sailed on ?

 

Hello, I have just come across this thread regarding 4th Battalion R.N.F. and note with interest the comments made by Dean Darvill regarding his grandfather.
Incredibly my father also enlisted into the Rifle Brigade in June 1939 and was transferred to the RNF. and served in “Y” company under Lt. John Baynham, firstly as his runner and then as a Lance Cpl section commander.
The reason so many non Geordies were with the 4th Battalion was that their numbers had to be made up with cadres from regular battalions to bring them up to strength before joining the B.E.F.
They were a Territorial Battalion and some of the men were either not fit enough for regular service or just didn’t fancy it.
According to my father they spent the Phoney War digging an anti tank ditch on the French Belgian border. When the shooting war started they moved forward into Belgium. Attacked by planes a number of times they eventually reached a line of defence.
“Y” company officers all went into a cafe on a crossroads for a meeting. My father as a runner was waiting outside the cafe together with a group of other ranks. They then heard the sound of loud engines and a Corporal said “that will be our tanks moving up.” With that a huge German tank burst through a hedge, put a shell into the cafe and crushed all the motorcycles and sidecars. With that all the British troops scattered.
My father shortly afterwards met up with Lt. John Baynham, covered in dust, but unhurt. The company had lost all its transport and a good many men. The journey to Dunkirk began from there. They walked all the way from the Belgian border making many stops to successfully fight the German troops but as soon as their tanks showed up they were forced to retreat again.
My father was lucky enough to get back to Britain in the evacuation and after a period of retraining went with the 4th Battalion to North Africa. Here the battalion was badly cut up at the battle of Sidi Rezegh with many men captured by the Afrika Korps and sent to Italy as prisoners. Among them was dad. He did manage to get away in 1943 but that’s another story. Matthew Cooper.

 

Dean, in all likelihood they were based at the Rifle Brigade Depot at Winchester, Hampshire. The depot was called Peninsula Barracks. The building is still there and although no longer a barracks it houses the GreenJackets museum which is well worth a visit. The 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade went with the B.E.F. to France where almost to a man they were killed or captured in the defence of Calais. Matthew Cooper

 

This would have been on 21st May as part of the Arras counter-attack. Battalion HQ was at Vimy.

 

Rich Payne, thank you so much for posting those two pages from the war diary. I have never seen anything at all from the battalion diary. My father wrote down his memories for his grandchildren when he was in his 80’s and it certainly seems to match up with what he remembered. Do you also have the war diary for the battalions time in North Africa? Is it possible for anyone to get hold of a copy?
My father wrote a wonderful story about the battalion holding an honour guard for Emperor Haile Selassie whilst they were on leave in Cairo. Would love to read about that. Many thanks. Matthew Cooper

 

Matthew, I'm afraid that I'm rather 1940-biased and I have very few scanned diaries from other campaigns. I'd suggest that you send a personal message to Andy - http://ww2talk.com/index.php?members/drew5233.6786/#profile-post-54909 He visits Kew regularly and copies diaries for a very reasonable price per page.

It's extremely rare to have "other ranks" mentioned by name in war diaries, but they do give a unique insight into how things were viewed at the time.

 

Hi Dunkeswell,
Apologies for the slow response, thanks for posting your father's recollections, my grandfather was also in Y company but I have been unable to identify what platoon or Section he was in. As your father was Lt John Baynhams runner he may have been in Company HQ as 4 platoon was commanded by 2/Lt Fairhead, 5 platoon was commanded by Lt Johnson and 6 platoon was commanded by Lt Smith. I have a lot of documentation from the Battalions time in France if you would like copies.

Regards
Dean