G C Martin Royal Engineers

My father enlisted on 11 March 1940 in Weymouth Dorset. As a carpenter and joiner he expected to join the REs, but was told there were too many tradesmen enlisting and was made a dispatch rider. While he enjoyed riding his motor bike he felt it was an insult to be doing that. He obviously was 'difficult' seldom kept a stripe for long! Then in 1943 he got the transfer to the REs and fairly quickly got three stripes. I have his army records but can't make head nor tail of them. There are two things that intrigue me. He spent some time in Northern Italy as part of a bridge building team. 'We extended the bridge by day and Jerry bombed it by night' what I can't work out is where he was based/billeted; i think I was told it was in the Po valley. He seems to have been there for a while because, according to my mother, he had an affair there. She told me the name of the village but I have forgotten. I can't work it out from the hand writing on the records. The second thing I can't work out is that he said that at the end of the war they were moved to Austria where they built prefab huts for displaced people. Then he seems to have been given leave before going to Greece to do the same job (still in the Army), this i can see as his C/O gave him a reference for his time there. He was discharged in 1946.
His name was Gerald Charles Martin DOB 11/3/1916, Army Number 2591679. I would appreciate any help and am happy to copy the relevant pages of his records+

Roy

 

Roy,

He was originally enlisted in the Royal Signals; having joined before early 1942 when the Army system changed.

His name and number have not appeared here before.

I would be surprised if an Allied bridge being built in the Po Valley in April 1945 was bombed by the Luftwaffe, as their capability was much reduced by then. Shelled by artillery yes. Plenty of RE-built bridges were erected and shelled.

The British occupied the southern provinces of Austria after WW2, Carinthia comes to mind, plus East Tyrol and Styria. Each province had a HQ. See for context: Austria | BAOR Locations.

The British intervention in Greece started in September 1944, with a period of violence mainly in Athens in December 1944. A summary is on: Docs – Middle East 1930-1947 – Greece 1944 Gus Myles is our in-house expert.

Please do upload the records you have and the expertise can help. Incidentally the RE officer writing his reference might help to identify his unit in Greece.

 

Thank you David,
I have encountered a problem, all the images of his army record are too big, I now have too work out how to reduce the size. Sorry I am taking so long with these records. Now I am ancient everything seems to take a lot of time!
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me once you see the records
Roy

 

His medal card. Apologies for the lack of clarity, I don’t have membership of Fold3 so can’t get a better image:


(image from Ancestry)
I used to work with a girl who came from Wool.

 

Many thanks Martin. What was the girls name? I must say I left Wool in 1953 so I probably wouldn't have met her.

 

David,
I think I may have found what I am doing wrong, I had the scanner set on Colour. Once I have had a cup of coffee I will have another try!

 

Set it on B&W and it is still to big. Advice please?

 

She was quite a few years younger than me and I was born in 1960. Barrington was her surname.

 

All I do, and I’m using an iPad so probably different anyway, is take a screenshot of each page of the file I was sent and upload one pic at a time here, like the below. Sadly, my own technical skills are somewhat lacking, wish I could help more, but there must be a few teccy wizards here, I’m sure.

On the medal forum when I want to upload a photo, as they have a quite strict size limit, I can opt to choose either a small, medium or large version, and I try each one until the site accepts it, but not sure how that works here, as usually on here it’s much easier for me, I don’t need to fiddle about, I just click upload, choose my image and, bang, the photo is here. It likely also depends on whatever system or computer you’re using.

 

Presuming you’ve saved what TNA sent you to your own files, have you tried using the “Choose File” option, rather than the photo one? That just worked for me with the whole file (mine is about 30+ pages):

 

Thanks Martin,
Still reducing the file size, I will try to attach my latest effort. I don't remember a family called Barrington, but then I had left long before then.
I must be doing something wrong when I attach the file as the file is now only 1,865 kb and it still won't accept it.

 

Thanks again Martin, The records are the hard copies that I got from the Army Records Office. I am scanning them. I will have another try with one sheet. Doesn't seem to be a problem. Can you please let me know if it is readable before I do the others?

 

Sorry in my haste I didn't rotate it.

 

Another try

 

Another!

 

Hopefully it has worked this time

 

Roy,

Those scans in Post 16 appear to be legible. Is there more?

 

David,
There is quite a lot more, but the five pages I have sent seemed the most relevant. I have been doing a bit of gardening and am now having a cup of tea. Once I clear up outside I will send the rest.

Roy

 

David,

These seem to be the remaining pages that all or in part cover his time overseas.

Roy

 

It was always a long shot Roy.