Help, please: Missing unit war diary: 579 army field company, RE

Good morning all,

Briefly:
I’m researching my grandfather’s war and have come across a wee bit of a problem. Essentially, I cannot find the war diary of 579 army fd coy, RE from December 1942 to April 1943 and also that of June 1943 in the National Archives catalogue. I’m hoping to visit Kew tomorrow, and would be very grateful if anyone has any idea of how I can find them in the catalogue.

In more detail:
My grandfather’s service record shows that he was posted to 579 on the 22nd December 1942. The unit embarked for overseas on the 18th January 1943, and arrived ‘North Africa’ on the 1st February. I know the unit must have been near Medjez el Bab, in Tunisia, on or around the 9th April 43 because its commanding officer, Major Arthur Harry North Dalrymple Prendergast, MC died on that date and was buried in the cemetery there (thank you Geoff, whoever you are, it’s a marvellous search engine). On the 17th April 43, the paper trial picks up again with 579’s war diary (archive number WO 169/10678) and begins with the appointment of Major Truelove as commanding officer (perhaps because the death of Major Prendergast necessitated a new diary). There are two further fatalities: Sapper Donald R Lines on the 21st April 43 (from Geoff’s search engine / CWGC), killed by the accidental explosion of an enemy grenade (as noted in the war diary) and Lance Serjeant Alfred H H Moseling on the 7th May 43 (thanks again Geoff), killed whilst disposing of a butterfly bomb (war diary again). Both are buried at Medjez el Bab. From the 17th May 1943 to the 31st May 1943, the last days of the diary, the unit is engaged in training in Bougie under the command of 21 beach group, seemingly for some form of water borne invasion – there is swimming practice, beach driving practice, disembarkation training etc - which I'm not sure they ever took part in.

There the diary, so full of promising information, ends. On the 17th June 1943, my granddad is reported in his service records as being admitted to 220 Field Ambulance but transferred to 69 General Hospital (which was then in La Reunion, Algeria, just south of Bougie, thank you Sue and Scarletfinders) on the same day. Just under two weeks later, on the 29th July 43, he was transferred to something called ‘A’ Officers Convalescent Wing (later referred to as a ‘convalescent depot’) and remained there for three and a bit weeks till the 21st August 43. He did not return to his unit, but rather meandered around GHQ troops, had temporary postings to two other units, and, for the vast majority of the time, worked in training units as an instructor for the rest of the war.

I would very much like to know what on earth happened to him that meant that he had to spend a month and a half off sick. I seriously doubt it was any kind of blast injury – his service record says he suffered no wounds. I suspect he was either injured in training – perhaps a broken leg or something – or caught something nasty – a bad flu with bacterial complications perhaps? But I’d love to know. It must have been horrific to be sick enough to be in hospital so far away from home.

Two associated questions:

• While eventually it is possible to track down Major Prendergast’s MC in the London Gazette (11 July 1940, p 4262), it’s not possible to do it through searching for his name on their search engine and I can’t find the commendation in the archives at Kew. Why can’t I find his commendation in the catalogue for Kew? While my granddad was not in the unit (nor even uniform) at the time, I’d love to know more about the people he knew and I imagine this Major Prendergast must have done something pretty special to get the MC and it’s just more detail. You don’t seem to find much information on the everyday stuff that everyone had to do, so I'm focusing on the special things people did where there seems to be more available info. Granddad died when my dad was little so we know very little about him.
• Early 1943 seems to be a bad time for RE units losing their war diaries – also missing, for example, are periods for units 264 and 248. Is this perhaps because they had a change of command from the UK, where they were in late 1942, and N. Africa, to which they moved in 43? Is there a box of them somewhere, am I entering the wrong search terms, or did they just all get lost somehow?

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for any answers anyone may have.

Yours,

Rosalind

 

Andy (Drew5233) is your man for finding war diaries! Send him a PM

Lesley

 

Rosalind, I've had a good search but without any luck I'm afraid. It could well be those months of the diaries, like their CO, did not survive.

Lee

 

Rosalind

When they moved overseas then the War Diary changes from UK, to BNAF (British North Africa Forece), this will mean a change in the National Archieve numbers.

The training for landing Etc, would be Sicily or the later invasion of Italy

 

Rosalind, I've had a good search but without any luck I'm afraid. It could well be those months of the diaries, like their CO, did not survive.

Lee

Slim possibility it could be a typo in the file name mate, like those two Arty files I found the other week or they could be in the other files and the dates not recorded.

Have you checked this one for starters?

WO 166/8237 579 Coy. 1942 Jan.-Nov.

 

Slim possibility it could be a typo in the file name mate, like those two Arty files I found the other week or they could be in the other files and the dates not recorded.

Have you checked this one for starters?

WO 166/8237 579 Coy. 1942 Jan.-Nov.

Could be a typo for sure but suspect the date of death of the CO is relevant and that the preceding pages were lost with him.

Here's everything I could find for them:


WO 166/3816, ROYAL ENGINEERS: COMPANIES: 579 Field Company. (1940 May - 1941 Dec.)
WO 166/8237, 579 Coy. (1942 Jan.-Nov.)
WO 175/678, 579 Coy. (1943 Apr., May)
WO 169/10725, 579 Army Fd. Coy. (1943 July- Dec.)
WO 170/1727, Companies: 579 Coy. (1944 Jan.- Dec.)
WO 170/5254, Companies: 579 Coy. (1945 Jan.- Dec.)
WO 170/8133, Companies: 579 Coy. (1946 Jan.- June)

 

I wondered about a typo - I will indeed check the file (probably) ending Nov 42 and indeed that (probably) beginning July 43. I was just thinking that perhaps they have been bundled into a big file. I'm not all that up on the details or what they're called, but doesn't it all form a sort of tree - with the individual pair of boots on the ground at the bottom, then a section, then a company, then a something else, then something else, all the way up until they are part of the 1st army or whatever. I thought perhaps (hoped is probably a better word) that maybe the details are in there but when they got sent to Africa they got put into a new grouping and that the records were in there. Probably terribly naive.

The loss of the file with the CO does seem likely, doesn't it? Although I would have thought that they'd be forever having to send copies up the chain exactly because it was a war and people and things get damaged. I suppose they were a bit busy so maybe not. But then Major Truelove, who took command of 579 in April 43, remained CO until at least 1945 (when he got a medal) so what happened to the diary for June 1943?

I imagine those who do this all the time are quite used to bits of paper going missing but I'm horribly frustrated.

Thanks for the interest. I'll let you know if I find anything interesting tomorrow.

Yours,

Rosalind

 

Rosalind
Another thought is that early 1943 the Royal Engineers went through a change in unit numbers, my dads went from 6 Field Squadron to 626 Field Squadron, others went as well.

It would be prudent to look in the previous files and the current files to see if the paperwork is not attached to other months in those files

 

And the answer was: I still couldn't find it! However, I did find some stuff from later in his career with the SME in Capua and later still training the Greek army in Athens in 1946. I photographed the unit diaries for these - are they wanted on here and do I just create a new thread with a link to them online somewhere? Seems fair to offer what I found but I wasn't sure if it'd be wanted.

Yours,
Rosalind