Morning Everyone, Whilst looking into this gentleman : Sapper Joshua Thomas Young 2126890 - see here: http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/royal-engineers/18466-royal-enginneer-joseph-osborne-3.html I notice his was serving with the 274 Field Park Company when he died. We know he was Pals with 3 other men that definitely served with the 285 Field Company. This got me to wondering if men were transferred between companies regularly (maybe as a result of time spent hospitalized etc) or if generally speaking men were returned to their original unit? Is there any record of a 'group' of men being transferred from the 274 to the 285 Field Park Company.....particularly after June 1944? Or maybe I guess....both Companies could have been working together??? Regards, Ronnyson
I might hazard a guess that it was just standard practice. I dont know much about Field companies but they probably got shifted about a bit as a matter of course. On the other hand its also likely to be injury related. The hospitilization system of the early/middle war periods was basically that if you got injured and recovered you were put into a reinforcement pool and then sent out again with little hope of returning to your original unit, let alone Battalion. Some men served in quite a few units this way, but if you were a guard, you at least got sent back to the same regt
The (usually three) Field Companies in a division and the Field Park Company (who had additional stores, equipment and facilities for use by the division) were under the command of the same Commander, Royal Engineers. I can imagine there were any number of situations where they would have been working alongside each other or where particular skills were needed.
It was not common practice to move Sappers from Com to Com. But there were several reasons why it would happen. One... they needed his expertise! Every sapper is a craftsman in his own right. Secondly for any reason the CO thought was needed. Simple as that. Sapper
Many thanks to you all..... I guess we may never know for sure. We do know one of his mates went to find his grave in 1984. So he remembered him then.. As we do now. Ronnyson
