Gunner Harold Forden WW2 service history

Thanks

 

Thanks for the information appreciate it. I never really understood why he was in or around Tobruk at this time as I thought it was just the South Africans.

 

Tobruk wasn’t just South Africans, there were a lot of British support units there too. However, I do not believe that the 124th Field Regiment, RA, was in Tobruk. It was in the Gazala line defences, which at their northern most extreme were near Tobruk. That’s not where 50 Div were located, as they were in the middle of the line, which effectively finished at Bir Hackeim to the south.

On breakout, excepting the 9th Bn Durham Light Infantry and some ‘odds & sods’, the 50 Div attacked westwards and then moved south/southeast, around Bir Hackeim and then due east towards the wire.

 

Forum member Keith Brigstock is a mine of information on the 124th Field Regiment, RA; see link: 124 th (Northumbrian) Field Regiment Royal Artillery (TA) By Keith Brigstock. - ppt download

 

Cheers Steve great information. I’m enjoying getting back into this.

 

Hi Steve ref the Green Howards and 124th Field Regiment support would it be worth me contacting their museum to see if they had any info about this? I don't live far from Richmond and I know they have the museum but I don't know if it would cover regiments that supported the Green Howards? I know they charge for research but didn't know if this would be covered.
Thanks

Paul

 

Paul,

The museum might have books especially, may be even ephemera on those crucial days. At least you could find if the battery or just your Dad was in Tobruk.

 

Thanks David,

 

Hi I’ve been going through my Dads attestation form, Question 19 says: Have you received your notice papers, my Dads response is yes.
Can anyone tell me what the notice papers are and have you got an example you could show me? Thanks in advance

Paul

 

Hi Im working through my Dads service records. Has anyone heard of CRS Beckington. It says admitted to and released from CRS Beckington?
Also
Posted to X List (II) (Sick) and
Posted X List (III)C Missing DCL 306/42
Posted to Y List

Under this Column:
No. of Part II
Order or other
Authority
There are lots of Numbers, at first I thought they were dates but it doesn't work out. Do they relate to something specific?

As always thanks in advance

Paul

 

Hi,

CRS is the Camp Reception Station - the first line medical facility on camp.

If you use the forum search facility you will find information on both the X & Y lists.

Your query re orders probably relates to unit Part 2 Orders which have long been destroyed.

Steve

 

Thanks Steve, did you see my earlier question ref his attestation papers under que 19 have you received your notice papers? Any idea what these were?
Cheers

 

I’ve had a look through the original papers.

I see he is shown as arrived back in U.K. 14th May 1945. My father was also a regular soldier taken POW in Libya and his record shows the same return date to U.K. but I have his returning POW questionnaire from U.K. National Archives that is dated 12th May 1945 so there may be a similar inaccuracy in the record.

My father was also attached to one of the Chilwell Motor Transport Groups pending his discharge to Class B Army Reserve. They were large vehicle storage depots situated around the country.

I have seen various returning POW service records and can say that a Chilwell MTG posting was quite common for returning regular soldier POW pending discharge. If my father’s recollections were typical then duty at a MTG was not an onerous posting.

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VRD = Vehicle Reserve Depot. My fathers last posting was at 11 VRD which was on the Quernmore Estate, Caton near Lancaster.

Steve

 

CRS is Camp Reception Station. From: Second World War Abbreviations and Acronyms - Researching WW2

Wiki shows Beckington is a Somerset village: Beckington - Wikipedia

There is a short WW2 history for the village on: Beckington Village | Somerset | England It does indicate some activity, with a camp before the far larger preparations for D-Day in mid-1944. There is US history that refers to two units using a camp there. See: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Report_of_Operations/CsEbAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

A RAMC soldier, a Private was there:

From: BBC - WW2 People's War - Diary of locations WW2

Although there is CWGC grave in the village church it is for a local soldier, from the Royal Artillery who died in 1946. From: Bombardier John D. Ritchings | War Casualty Details | CWGC

A local resident, Colonel Alfred Spitteler, who served in the Indian Army Medical Service till 1929, retired to the village, dying in 1955 and his obituary shows:

From: https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/1/4924/local/admin.pdf

Ilfracombe is not near to Beckington though, it is 118 miles away.

Incidentally one woman ATS member refers to

Link:Memoirs - Pearl Patricia Rushton | Headley, Hampshire, UK

In a pre-WW2 RAMC document refers to a CRS as:

From: https://militaryhealth.bmj.com/content/jramc/56/5/339.full.pdf

A similar role appears when referring to POW Camps.

 

You may not be able to make out the small print under the Q19 you quote but the gist of it (from my fathers own record) is asking the recruit if he had received the paper (not papers) stating his liabilities on enlistment and who has given him the notice.

I haven’t seen a specimen notice but assume it was spelling out the obvious terms of enlistment so the man could not say he did not understand what he was committing to on enlistment. The man also kept a copy of the enlistment paper (they were completed in triplicate with 3 self carboning copies).

Steve

 

Thanks for all the information, I’m learning every time I access the site.
Regards

Paul

 

Thanks Steve, really appreciate it. Keep learning every day.

 

Hi Steve just checked my copy of my Dads POW questionnaire. His date says 13.5.45, his army record shows repatriated 14.05.45. I just assumed this was completed on route home.
Your records are similar to my Dads so wonder if they travelled back to UK by the same route.
Thanks for sharing the info.
Regards

paul

 

My father was marched out of Austria when his Stalag 17B work camp was evacuated to avoid the advancing Russian army in early April 1945. His group was abandoned by their German guards in late April only to be found by advancing US forces as they marched into Czechoslovakia in early May. He was passed down the line to Regensburg to be reequipped in US army kit. He was flown home in stages with short stops in Nancy and Cherbourg.

Several thousand men were arriving in U.K. each day by plane and they were passed into POW Reception Camps where they would be processed within 48 hours and sent home on 6 weeks leave (usually extended). During their leave they would be called for a medical (45 Division) at a military facility near to their home and medically classified for future service.

In my father’s case (similar to other Brigade of Guards POW personnel) his leave ended in early August 1945 when he was required to attend Number 2 Selection & Training Regiment RAC at Paxhill Camp, Sussex for a series of physical tests and psychological evaluations before being selected as suitable for MTG duties (guarding equipment in vehicle depots).

Steve

 

My Dad ended up in Stalag IVG which was a series of work camps. I’ve never been able to find the actual date he was liberated. Sadly my Dad died when I was 8 so never got to speak to him about any of this. I’ve only learnt what I’ve managed to research and by getting help from sites like this. It was his POW questionnaire that identified the Italian camp he was in up until then it was unknown.

Thanks again

Paul