I will go there on Friday. Sorry I don't know where to look for the bases, dumps and depots at the French end. Yes I always used to find on previous visits to the Library, that when I got home I started a loist of the other things I should have looked up! Roy
Hi Mike, I didn't get to the Maritime Collection until today - explanation below. When I did the staff were very helpful, but the Lloyd's List did not produce any sailings to Brest, just a handful to Le Harve. I will type what I have and send it. What I did chance upon was a series of MB convoys, which you may already have? The series shares the code letters with convoys for Colombo and Port Moresby! What I can glean for the Southampton Brest series is: MB1 Sld 10/9 arr 12/9 Castlemoor and Eurymedon latter marked BEF transport; Castlemooor was a tramp ship, I think. MB2 14/16 No data MB3 No data (I didn't note the dates). MB4 17/19 No data MB5 19/21 No data MB6 21/23 Ashantian, Benalder, Colonial, King William, Matheran, Melrose Abbey II, Strategist ( all ex Melrose Abbey sound like cargo ships. MB6R Brest Plymouth, all the above. MB7 23/25 no data. MB8 27/28 no data MB9 29/30 no data the series continues into October and maybe beyond if that period is of interest. Lean pickings I'm afraid. On Thursday, the day we were due to sign the contract for our new home the seller pulled out; you can imagine the domestic havoc! Hopefully as they used to say of the old British Tanker Company - Better Times Coming. Roy
Hello Mike For 51st Division the embarkation plans were detailed in the war diary WO 167/315 - 51 Division Adjutant and Quartermaster (A Q). It has much more detail about the move than the Divisional HQ war diary. It might be worth having a dig around files like that for extra information. 51st Div's file mentions 50th Div and III Corps so their diaries may have similar detail. Here are the BEF war diary numbers WO 167/150 II Corps Adjutant and Quartermaster (A Q) WO 167/172 III Corps Adjutant and Quartermaster (A Q) WO 167/192 1 Division Adjutant and Quartermaster (A Q) WO 167/205 2 Division Adjutant and Quartermaster (A Q) WO 167/219 3 Division Adjutant and Quartermaster (A Q) WO 167/231 4 Division Adjutant and Quartermaster (A Q) WO 167/245 5 Division Adjutant and Quartermaster (A Q) WO 167/257 12 Division Adjutant and Quartermaster (A Q) WO 167/263 23 Division Adjutant and Quartermaster (A Q) WO 167/267 42 Division Adjutant and Quartermaster (A Q) WO 167/276 44 Division Adjutant and Quartermaster (A Q) WO 167/290 48 Division Adjutant and Quartermaster (A Q) WO 167/301 50 Division Adjutant and Quartermaster (A Q) WO 167/315 51 Division Adjutant and Quartermaster (A Q) WO 167/327 52 Division Adjutant and Quartermaster (A Q) WO 167/335 1 Armoured Division Adjutant and Quartermaster (A Q) Cheers Adam
Roy, I must offer you my abject apologies. Although I look at the forum several times a day I somehow missed your post. I assumed that you were heavily involved in moving house. I can only attribute my lapse to old age, stupidity and the fact that that our financial advisor, having left it to the last minute because of the various political and economic crises, sent some 200+ pages of documents to read and sign. Plus forms to fill in. I know that most unusually I did not look at the forum for a couple of days. A belated thank you for your efforts. Every little helps to build a picture. I have managed to make some progress by cross referencing the various bits and pieces that I have. A careful study of Winsers books gives some facts about individual ships which has enabled me to add some more to the lists. Unfortunately many are listed as sailing from Southampton to France without saying which port and no mention of convoys. A minor stumbling block is the fact that some sources give the date on which ships sailed from Southampton. This is not always the day on which the convoy sailed from the Solent. I have not moved house for 47 years and am not tempted to do so. I am sure it used to be easy. Look at the adverts, look at house, agree a price, move in a month later. Mike.
Adam, Thank you very much for your suggestion. I do like a good War Diary to read. Often the appendices contain a lot of detail. Mike
