Hi everyone, I am the youngest daughter of a Canadian soldier who spent 5 years in the military during WWII. My mom was a Scottish war bride. He was Pte. William Henry Langman (also known as Harry). My story... I'm researching my history and know that my dad was in Italy from approximately August 27, 1943 (landing in Messina) to April 10, 1944. I recently (after waiting over 4 years) obtained his military record (200 pages worth) from the Canadian Library and Archives. There are lots of medical reports during that time period but nothing indicates where he went after landing in Messina. Anyway, I'll post about this in the correct forum section... but my goal is to find out what parts of Italy he went to. On many of the documents it lists him as "Cook 'C'" and that he actually had a course for it sometime in 1940. That was interesting too (I'm an avid cook and cookbook author) so I guess the apple... you know how it goes. Anyway, I look forward to learning more about WWII. I was born when he was 48 and he never really talked much about the war and I wish I had asked mom and him more before they passed. I love research and trying to uncover details... so this should be fun.
Elle, We have several very knowlegable and helpful Canadian forum members. More important they know their way around the Canadian archives. I am sure one will reply soon. Good luck. Mike
From his service records, if you can post what unit he served with in Italy, it may be possible to post information on the path of that unit in Italy.
That's the thing... it's about as clear as mud. I will go through it all in the next while and post what I see. The only place I see unit is on the medical forms and I'm not sure if that is the med. unit's info or his info. Anyway, I will dig deeper and then share what I think I have. I do know that he was an RCR and then there are references to the following... RCASC x-3 list, RCR, 3CIB, Oct '43 3 IAF Bde., RGA S6, RGR (or maybe R6R?), RCASC X-4 (4br), 4BN posted to X9 and then X8. Honestly, I have no idea what it all means, but I think what I should do is make a timeline of all these references and go from there. If I can figure out what unit he was with and what the field hospital locations are, then I should be able to loosely map his time in Italy. I go to Italy every year and would like to be able to see some of these places too. Thank you so much!!
EllieEM, Welcome aboard. There is plenty of knowledge and expertise here. It is vital you add his full name, Date of Birth, Service Number and if known their unit. Members can check their resources and do some online research. Others may be looking now and in the future for them; we regularly have people join who have found a post or thread about a relative. It might be worth checking if there is a local newspaper article about him. On your current information he has not appeared here before today. It helps to add a ‘tag’ when you create a thread, only you can do this. It is for the formation / corps involved or a theme like intelligence. Searching tags can identify threads, otherwise it takes a bit longer. Some help available on: WW2 Soldier Research - Tips and Links for New Researchers (update) Plus: How to Start a new Thread / Edit Post / Upload Image
RCR is Royal Canadian Regiment who were in 1 Canadian Infantry Brigade in 1 Canadian Infantry Division. It is likely that he was a chef in the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps attached to RCR. Follow the movements of 1 Canadian Infantry Division - that is easy using what is available on the internet. If you want the specific detail of the movements of RCR then you would need the battalion's War Diaries. Regards Frank
Hello and welcome to the forum. I see you are in good hands already, so I'll leave it to the experts . Lesley
The war diaries for the 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade that included the Royal Canadian Regiment are available online starting here for September 1943, when it arrived in Italy from Sicily: War diaries : T-11072 - Héritage They continue here as well through December 1944: War diaries : T-11073 - Héritage War diaries : T-11074 - Héritage This is a great deal of material, but will give you a sense of the path of the Royal Canadian Regiment, if that is the actual unit. Also posting key pages from the service record will help members interpret them to find the unit.
Hi ElleEm - welcome to the forum! Hopefully all the abbreviations, etc will soon start to make sense to you Jules
I will do that later today or tomorrow. Thanks again and thanks for the resources. I am so grateful to have found this group. While what I received from his record wasn't all that I had hoped for, I am so much further ahead than I was a week ago. I've done the searches for news articles and there really isn't anything that I can find.
Hi ElleEm, I'm another one of the Canadian posters. I don't have anything to add but to say welcome! You might consider posting the image of the form that shows all those RCR and RCASC designations. There are lots of helpful people here who will chip in with information. I'm sure "X9" and "X8" have meanings that those who are familiar with these forms will know. I think people here like to chip in and help fill in pieces of the puzzle.
Thanks everyone!! I seriously appreciate all of this. I will scan/post some things in the coming week or so and that should help. Best of all... you've given me some hope about figuring at least a bit of this out. One thing that surprised me was that he had to apply for permission to marry my mom... and because she was under 21, her father had to sign the document. There was quite a bit of financial forms... everything from pay to Victory bonds. Then one awol (for a day or so in 1940 - not sure what that was about but they docked pay for it).
