606 regiment royal artillery

Discussion in 'Royal Artillery' started by gazipswich, Jun 3, 2012.

  1. gazipswich

    gazipswich Junior Member

    hi im trying to research where my grandad fought during ww2 and cant find much out. i have a copy of his t/a service records but it just says north west europe and baor . please help thanks
     
  2. 4jonboy

    4jonboy Daughter of a 56 Recce

    Hello and welcome to the forum.
    Would you care to scan his records and post them so members can help.

    Lesley
     
  3. dryan67

    dryan67 Senior Member

    Here is a little on the origins and service of 606th Regiment, RA.

    46th (The Lincolnshire Regiment) Anti-Aircraft Battalion, R.E. (T.A.)
    HQ, 382nd-385th Coys: Grimsby

    The regiment formed part of 39th AA Brigade in September 1939 and part of 57th AA Brigade in February 1941. It transferred to the Royal Artillery on 1 August 1940 as 46th (The Lincolnshire Regiment) Searchlight Regiment, R.A. (T.A.) with 382nd-385th Batteries. 385th Battery was disbanded on 25 February 1944 and 384th Battery became independent on 20 September 1944 (disbanded on 8 October and cancelled on 1 November). The regiment was converted to 46th Garrison Regiment, R.A. (The Lincolnshire Regiment)(T.A.) on 4 November 1944 and then reorganized as 606th (The Lincolnshire Regiment) Regiment, R.A. (T.A.) on 12 February 1945. It served in Northwest Europe from November 1944 until the end of the war.
     
  4. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    The best bet would be for you to look at his units war diaries that are held at the National Archives at Kew. If you live to far away I can copy them for you-Just click on the red link below in my signature.

    I'll be at TNA again in less than 2 weeks.
     
  5. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Here's the two 606 war diaries

    WO 171/5053 606 Regiment 1945 Mar.- Dec.

    WO 171/9174 606 Regiment 1946 Jan., Feb.

    I would also consider checking the previous unit's last war diary for continuation from Feb 1945.
     
  6. gazipswich

    gazipswich Junior Member

    Attached Files:

  7. 4jonboy

    4jonboy Daughter of a 56 Recce

    Thanks for posting.
    Members should be along soon to fill in the gaps!

    Lesley
     
  8. gazipswich

    gazipswich Junior Member

    thanks for help. ive wanted to know more for years but never got round to it. only thing i dont understand is i have a burma star medal of his apparently but his record doesnt mention burma
     
  9. gazipswich

    gazipswich Junior Member

    Any help welcome I would like to know where exactly he was during war as I can't understand these records
     
  10. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    Just looking through the scanned documents to see if I can offer any help……

    First off, I would have to say that the Burma Star is a red herring – I can see no reason for it to belong to Gunner Edward George Cobbold 1799985 RA – he spent the first few years of the war in various units / training centres in the UK and then to NWE as part of the BLA (British Liberation Army ?) in November 1944

    The references to 100 Radar Battery & 606 Regiment start in July 1945 so it is the bit in between on scan 0015 I am trying to look at.

    On the 15th of November 1944 he was posted from 50 – 42 RHU – as far as I can see a RHU is a Regimental Holding Unit, as can be seen here from the BBC pages (BBC - WW2 People's War - WW2 MY TEENAGE YEARS, 1939 TO 1945 (Part 2))

    The bitter Battle of the Bulge had eventually proved a costly disaster for the Wehrmacht, and British forces, including the 51st Highland Division, had now pulled back to Holland from the Ardennes. While we reinforcements moved into No. 50 Regimental Holding Unit at Knokke on the Belgian coast,

    The bit that should hold the key is the next dated entry from the 27th of November which reads “Posted from 103RHU XIV list and TOS” – Taken on Strength of which unit? Am I missing something there?? Can someone smarter than me look at the entry and let me know what I can't see.....
     
  11. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    Unless 103RHU was the Regimental Holding Unit for 103 HAA Regiment - which would tie in with the annotation that he moved from LAA to HAA administration.
     
    gazipswich likes this.
  12. gazipswich

    gazipswich Junior Member

    thanks for help dave. what does regimental holding unit mean?
     
  13. gazipswich

    gazipswich Junior Member

    do you know of any one local to me in ipswich that is a historian that i could pay to fully research this for me? many thanks
     
  14. 51highland

    51highland Very Senior Member

    Welcome and enjoy.!!! Good luck in your search. My Father-in-law joined the Royal Artillery in Ipswich in 1938. He signed up in the old RA drill hall, which until recently was the Carribean club in Ipswich. He lived in the Rope walk area of Ipswich. He was evacuated from Dunkirk and finished serving in Burma on Priest self-propelled guns.
     
  15. dryan67

    dryan67 Senior Member

    If it is 103rd RHU (referring to 103th HAA Regiment), the 103rd Heavy AA Regiment fought in NWE:


    103rd Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, R.A. (T.A.)
    RHQ, 322nd-324th
    Raised: 20 May 1940 at Oswestry

    The regiment was serving under command of 33rd AA Brigade in Liverpool in February 1941. 420th Battery was regimented on 7 July 1941, but left on 19 April 1942.
    Two 3.7” guns of the regiment landed at Normandy on 6 June 1944, the only Heavy AA guns on D-Day. By D+1 it had three troops under 80th AA Brigade on the beaches. The regiment remained in the Normandy area under the brigade until late August 1944, when it transferred to 75th AA Brigade. It then moved to Dieppe on 12 September 1944 under 80th AA Brigade. It moved to Boulogne on 15 October 1944 and came under 103rd AA Brigade. By December 1944 the regiment had moved to 101st AA Brigade in Brussels and after December 1944 it moved to Scheldt South and came under 105th AA Brigade. At the end of the war in Europe it was serving under 5th Royal Marine AA Brigade in the Ostend area.
     
  16. dryan67

    dryan67 Senior Member

    The entry fold 103RHU, as well as many others, refer to being posted X(IV). The 103rd entry leaves out the parentheses for some reason. This term X(IV) is used in other areas of the record. What does this term mean? It is not referring to XIV Army in the Far East for sure.
     
  17. gazipswich

    gazipswich Junior Member

    hi I'm now starting to try and research this again. any help would be much appreciated
     
  18. Historic Steve

    Historic Steve Researching 21 Army Group/BAOR post VE day

    Can help with the 606th (5th Battalion Lincolnshire) Infantry Regiment RA post VE Day, with Line of Communication possibly in Belgium, the firm records starts 5 Oct 45, when posted to 147th Infantry Brigade of 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division with the responsibility for No 7 Civil Internment, Camp Roosevelt formerly Blücher Kaserne, Hemer east of Iserlohn and remained until disbandment 5 Feb 46, hope this helps

    Best of luck with your research
     

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