Hi Folks, Anyone have any idea which Barracks/local area the 66 PTW would have been based. All I can find was that it was in Colchester? If no one has an exact answer speculation would be welcome! Also, was PTW training the same format for everyone? EG As described here http://195.188.87.10/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/13/a1097813.shtml Thanks Dave
Dave.... Don't know anything about Colchester but the six weeks initial training in the General Service Corps became mandatory in early '42 - after Alanbrooke became CIGS - in order to sort out the square pegs out of the round holes - but the writer in th BBc series has is slightly incorrect as the sorting out was held during that six weeks to ascertain where one would be best suited for the job he could do - in other words they knew where he was best suited BEFORE joining a training regiment ....in his case as a wireless operator in the RAC... in fact his training was curtailed owing to the fact that the fighting in France/ Belgium was taking too many casualties and reinforcements were urgently needed... my training for the same trade in RAC took nine months....the other factor is that Potential Officers are sorted out in the training regiments - NOT the six weeks initial training - otherwise fairly standard stuff... Cheers
Primary Training Wings were attached to 'parent' Corps Training Centres or Infantry Training Centres (ITC). With one exception, Infantry PTW numbers were the ITC number plus 50. 66 PTW ought therefore to be related to 16 ITC at Oxford which served the Ox & Bucks LI and the Royal Hampshire Regiment. The ITCs were originally formed by combining the pre-war regimental depots to make better use of training facilities. Colchester was the location of 17 ITC (and 67 PTW, presumably) 1943-44. It served The Royal Sussex and Royal Berkshire Regiments. There may have been other trainiong establishments there, though. PTW and Primary Training Centres (which were independent of other training centres) all followed a common basic syllabus. Perhaps more importantly, it provided a 6-week period to assess the recruits and decide to which arm or service they should go.
Thank you Tom and thanks for sharing your first hand knowledge. Always appreciated. Thanks Idler. Yes he was 16 ITC OBLI also in Colchester. I never coped the +50 thing - that is really interesting. When you say attached, do you mean physically. Would really like to find the location but coming up empty on Google. Thanks again guys Dave
It's likely that a PTW would be physically close to its ITC but the main point was that the ITC HQ also administered the PTW. Some of the ITCs moved around during the war, so it's conceivable that No.16 was at Colchester at some point before 1943 or after 1944. The regimental histories sometimes deal with their depots and ITCs in some detail, but not all by any means. The other source for detail would be regimental journals.
Thanks Idler for the clarification. I will have a look at the map and try to pin-point locations near the ITC As far as 16 ITC itself is concerned I have some photocopies of newsletters from Jul 1942 to Mar 1944 written by Gaid Sakit (The pen name of Lt Col JEH Neville - Commanding Officer 16 ITC). It seems they were turfed out of Cowley to make way for the Americans in summer 1942*. From there they moved to Le Cateau Barracks, Colchester (a former cavalry barracks apparently in a bad state of repair) . In the newsletter dated December 1943 they seem to have been merged into what he called the Light Infantry Training Centre at Goojerat Barracks, Colchester. He writes: "Now to nursery news: The item of greatest moment can be deduced from close scrutiny of the address. We are all light infantry men at last - singing the same tunes from the same hymn-book. Only very few and unimportant words differ. The great marriage took place on the 12th and 13th November, when we moved here an absorbed the Somerset and the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry from 15th and 14th ITCs respectively. When the band and bugles led the Somerset Light Infantry in I realised that the Regiment here would have to look to its laurels. The DCLI are just as good and I prophesy a very hot pace and competition, oozing esprit de corps and spirit born of common traditions and customs. Our friends - the Hampshires - have joined 14th ITC and were very loath to go." I have only given it a speed read so apologies if I have misinterpreted anything but I hope it helps with your list, Dave * There may have been some animosity. In a later latter he wrote: "Item. What is the difference between a cow chewing cud and an American chewing gum? The answer, of course, is none; only that the cow looks more intelligent. This is Birgadier Stapleton's, not mine."
Well the majority of people here have service records belonging to someone. Perhaps we can start a thread/database of PTW and ITC regiment locations where everyone contributes?
