8th Army, 1512 H.A.A. Regiment, R.A.S.C. Platoon, B.N.A.F., Beja

Hi to all
My first time on this forum.
I am attempting to find exactly what my grandfathers title/position was in 8th Army, 1512 H.A.A. (Heavy Anti Aircraft) Regiment. R.A.S.C. (Royal Army Service Corps) Platoon, B.N.A.F (British North Africa)
Beja. All this information written on back of a photo that depicts the platoon. His time was 1942/1943.
His name being William Mason. Would appreciate any help with this, my email is glosatt@hotmail.com. I reside in New Zealand, William immigrated with his family 1949

 

Welcome and good luck

 

Glory Queen

A number of corrections are in order before we go anywhere

1)- Beja is in Algeria west of Tunisia - ergo 1st Army NOT 8th Army

2) -Time is nearer to 1943 than 1942 as some elements of 1st Army landed in Algiers in November 1942

3) - Might be an error to have an RASC platoon attached to an Heavy Ack Ack battery - but someone had to supply the ammunition and food etc

4) - his position was more than likely that of a driver in a platoon of 30 men one being a young officer - sergeant - corporal

I would suggest applying for his service record from Glssgow which will give you chapter and verse of what he was up to during those days - the address should be on the left of the forum

Cheers and good luck

 

Hello and welcome to the forum. It looks like the National Archives has two war diaries covering this unit on the dates you mention:

WO 175/977 1512 Platoon 1942 Nov.- 1943 June
WO 169/12030 1512 Platoon 1943 July- Dec.

Cheers
Andy

 

Hi

I've been researching a similar unit.

First, Tom Canning is correct, definitely 1st Army.

Secondly, quite likely he was a driver but regarding the numbers of men, the 'Field Return of other ranks' for the 11th LAA regt Platoon RASC in August 43 gives a figure of around 100 men so quite a lot more than 30.

Also, as he says, must be 1943. See attached Brigade order 're designating' various RASC Transport Units including 58th HAA Regt Platoon to 1512 dated 12th Feb 43. I've copied chunks of the 22 Brigade diaries and I'll see if they crop up in there elsewhere. If you search for 58th HAA Regt Pl you may be able to get back to the units original formation here in the UK which I would guess would be around late 41, early 42.

As Tom says, getting service record would help you a lot as it should give precise dates of his joining or leaving this unit.

From what I can deduce from my fathers (similar) unit diaries, these platoons had some sort of dedicated artillery / ammunition supply function that was generally matched to a specific Heavy or Light AA Regiment but could supply others in the vicinity as well. They seem also to have been grouped under a RASC Brigade and again they would have been answerable to a number of AA regiments. Quite why the renaming took place I don't know but my guess would be that once in the field, these regimentally matched designations became confusing and perhaps led people to believe they 'belonged' to the Regiment of the same name when by then they were operating and answering to a wider range of commands as circumstances dictated.

If Drew5233s suggested war diary references contain similar entries to ones that I have seen for the 11th LAA Regt Pl RASC then they will give a reasonable account of where they were and what they were up to. If you're very lucky you may see your Grandfather mentioned by name but mention of 'other ranks' ie non officers can be patchy. From my fathers unit diaries you have to be naughty or ill or killed to get a mention!

I would love to see the photo.

 

3 pages from the diary of the 22nd AA Brigade Company RASC that mention the 58th HAA Regt Pl
RASC

If you were to obtain the file WO 175/977 1512 Platoon 1942 Nov.- 1943 June I would be interested to know which ship they sailed on to North Africa