British Unit Histories

Discussion in 'Research Material' started by Paul Reed, Feb 29, 2004.

  1. MyOldDad

    MyOldDad Senior Member

    I have quite a lot of unit, regimental and divisional histories for British and Commonwealth units in WW2, mainly for NW Europe and Italy. Am happy to look up specific requests for info for forum members.
    Hello Paul,

    I am researching my father's wartime experiences (as per my introductory post).

    I would be very greatful for any info regarding any of the following:

    11th Btn Argylls - 51st Recce Btn/Rgt - 14th HLI - CTC ME (Egypt/Libya?) No2 Dryshod Training Wing - CTC CM (Sicily/Italy?) No3 Dryshod Training Wing - CTC M Dundonald, Troon 1945/6.

    Thanks,
    Tom.
     
  2. MyOldDad

    MyOldDad Senior Member

    Likewise for 51st Highland Division , 52nd Division, and all Bernard Fergusson's books on the Black Watch and the Chindits. Scapa Floe and Royal Oak information, Norway 1940, BEF France and Belgium 1940, War diary of the 1st Royal Scots 1939 to June 1940, the Scottish Regiments and sundry others.

    Aye
    Malcolm
    Hello Malcolm,

    I am researching my father's wartime experiences (as per my introductory post).

    I would be very greatful for any info regarding either of the following:

    51st Recce Btn/Rgt - 14th HLI

    Thanks,
    Tom.
     
  3. Paul Reed

    Paul Reed Ubique

    Hi Tom - I will post some references to some books you might find of interest later this week.
     
  4. MyOldDad

    MyOldDad Senior Member

    Thanks Paul.
     
  5. Union464

    Union464 Member

    Interesting thread.
     
  6. JonnyCaro

    JonnyCaro Junior Member

    Hi, very interesting thread and very good of you to offer to try and help people find out information on their relatives. I wonder if you can help me ? My grandad was RSM William John Tomsett number 6451032 of first Battalion Royal Fusiliers ( City of london regiment ) I am trying to trace his whereabouts during ww2. The rest of his regiment helped at Monte Cassino but he received no Italy star but instead got the France and Germany medal, which I am told is unusual ! I have visited the archivist at The tower of london and he initially thought maybe he had gone off to the SAS as in his certificate of service it states SAS qualifying course ( But on speaking to an SAS chap he advised that stands for Small Arms School !! ) Also shows 7.7.44 to 30.7.45 as N.W.E. Any help greatly received. Thanks Jon
     
  7. bofors

    bofors Senior Member

    Hi Paul

    Do you have any info for my Father's regiment?
    It was 39th battery 14 LAA from 06/05/42 to 21/11/43 and then
    13th LAA till 23/02/46
    I realise the first part was in North Africa and you may not have anything on that.
    In Italy I am interested in where and what he did, especially to the end of the war and after as I have heard that he looked after POW's and was involved in transporting them back to Germany. I presume he did this as he was trained at the 52nd AA Driver Training School after he joined up.
    Also as an aside, with my research I found that drivers were usually Gunners, so giving him the rank Lance Bombardier, would that mean he was more skilled than some of the rest of his crew? Also does anyone know what position on the gun he would have been at.? Did they assign positions according to rank/and were drivers usually put in the same position?
    Also apparently he was wounded there but the MOD say not, is there any way I can prove it? Would the battery officer keep records that can be accessed?
    regards

    Robert
     
  8. tmac

    tmac Senior Member

    Hello Robert,
    I’m no expert in this, so please don’t take my contribution as gospel – but I might be able to help with a few things about the make-up of a Bofors crew. According to the Coleraine Battery 1939-1945 website http://coleraine-battery.tripod.com, the order on the gun for a seven-man Bofors crew was:
    1. Gun commander (Sergeant)
    2. Layer for elevation (Bombardier)
    3. Layer for line (Lance Bombardier)
    4. Loader / firer (Gunner / Driver)
    5. Ammunition supply (Gunner / Driver)
    6. Ammunition supply (Gunner)
    7. Target spotter (Gunner)
    However, I don’t think that order was strictly adhered to, especially when it came to ranks. My father, whose rank was Gunner in F Troop, 92nd LAA, was layer for elevation on his Bofors and the loader / firer also had the rank of Gunner.
    Layer for elevation was the man who raised and lowered the barrel by means of a hand crank. Layer for line was the man who traversed the barrel from right to left, or left to right.
    Both these men were seated either side of the gun, just forward of the breech mechanism. The gun was fired by means of a foot-operated trigger, which was pressed by the loader / firer on orders from the gun commander, the sergeant.
    The two ‘ammo numbers’ – No 5 and No 6 – continually filled empty clips (known as ‘chargers’) with fresh shells and handed them to the loader / firer, who placed them into the breech. Being an ammo number was a strenuous job, and they were often hard put to keep up with supplying clips of shells because of the gun’s high rate of fire.
    My father’s old comrade recalled his job as loader / firer: ‘The sergeant would shout, ‘Enemy aircraft!’ and the gunlayers would track the plane, elevating and traversing the gun barrel. When they had it sighted, No 2 would say ‘On!’ and No 3 would say ‘On!’ and the sergeant would look at the direction of the gun and he’d say, ‘Fire!’ and I’d fire.
    ‘It fired on automatic. You could have single shots, but if you kept your foot down, it fired on automatic – 120 shells a minute. It was noisy and after firing for 20 seconds or so, it became a bit misty. I don’t know how No2 and No3 could see the plane once we’d started firing, because the cordite fumes used to come out of the end of the barrel and make it difficult for them to see.
    ‘There’d be a rope attached to my foot and the sergeant would be behind. He’d be looking at the sky or looking around at whatever we were firing at. And if he wanted to stop, he’d shout, ‘Stop!’ and pull the rope. So he’d pull your leg off the firing mechanism and you couldn’t fire any more.
    ‘As soon as he pulled that, I’d bend down and put the gun into Safety and I had to shout, ‘Held!’ to tell everybody the gun was safe.’
    The gun crews were supposed to use the aiming apparatus – the ‘Stiffkey Stick’ – to track enemy planes. But I think that in many cases, especially in emergencies, they just fired over open sights.
    For the Normandy invasion, the Bofors gun crews of F Troop – which had the special task of protecting the bridges over the River Orne and Caen Canal – were increased from seven men to nine men per gun and every man learned to do the job of every other man. I don’t know if the crews of other Bofors units were similarly increased.
     
  9. Paul Reed

    Paul Reed Ubique

    Hi Paul

    Do you have any info for my Father's regiment?
    It was 39th battery 14 LAA from 06/05/42 to 21/11/43 and then
    13th LAA till 23/02/46
    I realise the first part was in North Africa and you may not have anything on that.
    In Italy I am interested in where and what he did, especially to the end of the war and after as I have heard that he looked after POW's and was involved in transporting them back to Germany. I presume he did this as he was trained at the 52nd AA Driver Training School after he joined up.
    Also as an aside, with my research I found that drivers were usually Gunners, so giving him the rank Lance Bombardier, would that mean he was more skilled than some of the rest of his crew? Also does anyone know what position on the gun he would have been at.? Did they assign positions according to rank/and were drivers usually put in the same position?
    Also apparently he was wounded there but the MOD say not, is there any way I can prove it? Would the battery officer keep records that can be accessed?
    regards

    Robert

    There are very few LAA Histories and I don't have one for this unit, or know of one, sorry.
     
  10. Rob Dickers

    Rob Dickers 10th MEDIUM REGT RA

    Hi Paul

    Do you have any info for my Father's regiment?
    It was 39th battery 14 LAA from 06/05/42 to 21/11/43 and then
    13th LAA till 23/02/46
    I realise the first part was in North Africa and you may not have anything on that.
    In Italy I am interested in where and what he did, especially to the end of the war and after as I have heard that he looked after POW's and was involved in transporting them back to Germany. I presume he did this as he was trained at the 52nd AA Driver Training School after he joined up.
    Also as an aside, with my research I found that drivers were usually Gunners, so giving him the rank Lance Bombardier, would that mean he was more skilled than some of the rest of his crew? Also does anyone know what position on the gun he would have been at.? Did they assign positions according to rank/and were drivers usually put in the same position?
    Also apparently he was wounded there but the MOD say not, is there any way I can prove it? Would the battery officer keep records that can be accessed?
    regards

    Robert

    Ford Bofors Tractor.
    Did he drive one of these
    Rob.

    [​IMG]
     
  11. red devil

    red devil Senior Member

  12. bofors

    bofors Senior Member

    Hi everyone

    thanks for your replies and especially tmac, interesting read and gives me some more idea on what he did and what it was like.
    Rob, I dont know which one he drove, he did not tell me before he passed away.
    Wish I had asked!!! I think it was a Bedford in North Africa, from what I have researched so far, but not sure.

    thanks and regards

    Robert

    PS Any thoughts on the other questions I asked?
    Ta
     
  13. Rob Dickers

    Rob Dickers 10th MEDIUM REGT RA

    No6 (Aust) Bofors tractor. These are some of the official factory images of the GMH produced Bofors artillery tractor, designed to tow the trailer mounted Bofors anti-aircraft artillery. [​IMG][​IMG] Two pictures of the C60S-based #6 Bofors tractor. This example is fitted with the Australian "sunshine roof" modification which interestingly has camouflage pattern unlike the rest of the truck which was probably painted khaki green. Note the finger marks on the door. Unlike the example below this is not fitted with a winch.
    This may well be the pilot model, and was photographed at Wesley College, Melbourne. It carries "trade" plates.
     
  14. bofors

    bofors Senior Member

    Hi Rob

    thanks for the photos

    regards

    Robert
     
  15. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Bofors

    I see you say :

    Hi Paul

    Do you have any info for my Father's regiment?
    It was 39th battery 14 LAA from 06/05/42 to 21/11/43 and then
    13th LAA till 23/02/46
    I realise the first part was in North Africa and you may not have anything on that.
    In Italy I am interested in where and what he did, especially to the end of the war and after as I have heard that he looked after POW's and was involved in transporting them back to Germany. I presume he did this as he was trained at the 52nd AA Driver Training School after he joined up.


    I spent 12 weeks at the 52nd Training Unit at Whitby at the end of 1942.

    If you need any further info on that unit come back to this thread.

    Ron
     
  16. bofors

    bofors Senior Member

    Hi Ron

    Yes please, it would be interesting to read

    regards

    Robert
     
  17. merlin11

    merlin11 Junior Member

    I looking at trace my late Fathers journey through WW2. I know he was in the East Yorkshire Regiment around 1941 to the end of the war including Palestine. The bit I am looking for is when he joined up. He was in the Durham Light Infantry and all I can remeber him telling me was that he was in France (I believe part of the BEF), his unit got badly shot up and was eventually evacuated to England vis Dunkirk before the big rush. His unit was then disbanded and he was moved to the E.Yorks. If anyone can give me more info on his early days I would be very grateful.
     
  18. LDGH

    LDGH Junior Member

    I have quite a lot of unit, regimental and divisional histories for British and Commonwealth units in WW2, mainly for NW Europe and Italy. Am happy to look up specific requests for info for forum members.
    Hi, I'm looking for info on The East Yorkshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion-3rd Infantry Division during the months of Sept. - Dec. 1944
    Thanks
    LDGH
     
  19. Heimbrent

    Heimbrent Well-Known Member

    Welcome to the forum and good luck with your reasearch
     
  20. Mike Leonard

    Mike Leonard Junior Member

    Greetings, Paul

    Would you happen to have anything on my late Grandfather's unit, 82 Battery 25th LAA Regt, originally in North Africa, Sicily, Normandy with 50th (Northumbria) Div until 50 Div were eventually repatriated from northwest Europe, when 25th LAA stayed on and joined 53rd (Welch) Div for the canal and river crossings into Germany, ending at Hamburg with the German surrender?

    I'm aware of a regimental history existing, because Philip Reinders of Royal Artillery Units Netherlands website has a copy which he spotted on Ebay. He thinks it was produced by the regiment and given to former members. I've been looking out for my own copy since, but no luck so far. I've also recently learned of the existence of battery diaries. WW2talk member ramacal's been kind enough to send me the Kew reference numbers. I'm not able to return there for a little while, (I went there to view the regimental war diaries) but looking forward to seeing those battery diaries when possible.

    Regards Mike Leonard
     

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