Fally, what a great posting, from what I can remember!! 91 - 95 (7 Armd - 2 BN REME) and 2005 - 07 SDG.
Hi I hope I've posted in the correct place. My husband's uncle was in the 7th btn of The Royal Welch Fusiliers. He was killed on the 28th of March 1945 and is burried at Reichswald forest war cemetery in Germany. We don't know anything about what happened. We don't have his service records at the moment but I'm wondering if anyone has a copy of the war diaries? Many thanks Helen
A very great number of ethnic Poles, (just to distinguish from ethnic Germans living in Poland as constituted post 1918 eg, Silesia, Danzig Corridor) were often first taken up by Germany as forced civilian labour, while ethic Germans living in Poland pre-1 September, joined up or were conscripted into units of the German Army. Some ethnic Poles were forced into the German Army by blackmail. I have found, for instance, one man being threatened as being reported to the Gestapo if he didn't join up. Others were Polish regular soldiers who were prisoners of the Germans and joined to avoid starvation in their camps.Polish civilian forced labourers were often sent to France, as they would find it more difficult to go back home from so far away. Likewise Poles taken into the German Army 1941 on wards and forced labourers often ended up there in static coastal defence units. The ethnic Poles were at first put in small numbers in German units so they were under a careful eye but as time went on whole battalions were formed as part of German regiments. Many of these appeared in Normandy. The ethnic Poles, (similarly Russians and other nationalities, like the Spanish for instance, forced into German service) did their best to desert as soon as the Allies arrived in France, knowing they faced a bullet in the back if seen running, or being shot if recaptured. The Allies had a system to process the Polish POWs they captured, vet them carefully, and offer them the chance to join the Polish Army based in Scotland, and many thousands did.
Swiper Is there a master list of Officers that is accessible online? I'm doing research on a project and need to hunt down the commanding officers or battalions and up during the Ardennes and I don't know what I'm looking at when I look at the Army List. How did you learn to use the sources?
Hi Helen, Sorry for slow reply. Did you have any luck with the war diary? I have a partial copy I can send your way but for some reason I stopped taking pics after the 23rd. PM me and I'll send what I have, but here's the summary sheet with girds and casualties. Maybe you could get an dea of what happened by hooking it to Regimental Records of the Royal Welch Fusiliers Volume V, 1918-1945: Part Two, June 1940-December 1945 .
Hello Wapen a very kind offer Helen has not been on forum for a few months might ge worth you dropping her a pm
Thanks for the tip towards the book "No Triumphant Procession", which I was able to buy in Melbourne and it arrived today. Looks very interesting
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/h/C137480 I have Feb and March but the rest are here