Hi there, just joined, feeling my way at the moment. just trying to trace anything of Guardsman R R Patch (5671372) he was taken pow in france on 10 June 1940, he was in the Grenadier Guards, under the command of Major Davis (known as Davis Rifles).
Hello & welcome to the forum. I've moved your post to it's own thread in the 1940 section of the forum so our resisdent 1940 guru can give your query the full works.
Hi and welcome to the forum - If you look on the Grenadier Guards sub forum you will see a thread regarding "Missing personnel" that member DBF has transcribed from files in the National Archives - you may well find your relatives details there. I had a look yesterday and there were numerous mentions of Davis Rifles - your post explains the obvious question I had ....... I am sure that one of the 1940 experts - Drew? - will be along shortly to tell you what GG were doing at the time of your relatives capture. Outside of the site I would flag up the following options for you 1. Apply to Grenadier Guards RHQ for his full service file. It costs £30. You will get attestation papers and details of your reltives postings etc. It took about 6 weeks for me to get my Dad's record from Coldstream Guards - rather than 12 months for non Guatrds applications to MOD. Even if you have your relatives red discharge book I found that my fathers Coldstream Guards papers provided more detail than was in his red book. From your relatives service number it would appear that he had previous military service before enlisting into GG as their service numnbers pre 1940 are ordinarily a 7 figure sequence commence with a 261????. i would guess that, like my late father, he had pevious Territorial Army service. There is a guide on the site to identifying an original regiment of enlistment from a service number. 2. Apply to International Red Cross (ICRC) in Switzerland for his POW record. It is an online free service but it takes about a year. It gives details from their records and you may get an original document but usually just a A4 precis of details from their files. There is a link on this ite but I don't have computer skills to put in this post- sorry. 3. Visit the National Archives and look for his returning POW questionnaire that may have been completed in 1945. Not all returning POW's completed one but if it is there it will have detail of your relatives experiences - POw camps etc. If you can't make it there you could post a request on the forum and a member may do a look up for you. 4. Ancestry UK list all British POW's in German Camps in 1945. If you haven't got an account you can visit your local library as they have access to the library edition of Ancestry. The entry will list the last camp your relative was in and will also give his POW number which will be helpful for Red Cross enquiry. On the other hand perhaps a member with an Ancestry acount will put the details on this thread? Good luck I am sure you will have an enjoyable and informative time on the site. Regards, Steve Y
If you look on the Grenadier Guards sub forum you will see a thread regarding "Missing personnel" that member DBF has transcribed from files in the National Archives - That was thread I moved post #1 from. It was easier for Andy to deal with in his 1940 section , sorry for confusion. Gdsm Patch is listed in this post #84 as a member of the Asscociation in 1947. http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/grenadier-guards/35271-grenadier-guards-unofficial-nominal-roll-army-number-order-3.html#post491292 His Number 5671372 is for block allocated to the SLI. That's who he originally enlisted into. Somerset Light Infantry 5662001 - 5718000 http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/research-material/8564-army-number-block-allocations.html
There may also be some clues in the following file that I've not got around to copying yet: WO 167/122 2 Infantry Base Depot 1939 Dec.-1940 June
