Help with my granddads service records please!

From the AWM collection:

Burma. c. 1945. Guarding airstrips deep in the jungle, protecting RAF convoys to the forward area, men of the RAF Regiment have a 'fireside' chat with Group Captain J. H. Harris, the Command Defence Officer (right). A monkey crawls around the body of one man and a dog mascot sits at the feet of another.

Permalink: P02491.054 | Australian War Memorial



Burma. c. 1945. Guarding airstrips deep in the jungle, protecting RAF Convoys to the forward area, men of the RAF Regiment have a 'fireside' chat with Group Captain J. H. Harris, the Command Defence Officer (holding mug).

Permalink: P02491.053 | Australian War Memorial



Rangoon, Burma. C. 1945-08. Men of the RAF Regiment boarding a troopship in Rangoon en route to Singapore.

Permalink: SUK14671 | Australian War Memorial



Singapore. C. 1945-08. RAF Regiment and RAF Servicing Commandos took over Singapore Kalang airport soon after their arrival in the harbour following the Japanese surrender on 1945-08-15. Here is an RAF Liberator bomber aircraft on the apron in front of the control tower.

Permalink: SUK14737 | Australian War Memorial

 

Wow, thankyou, that would be fantastic!


I also have a question, I have some older photos as some older generations were also in the forces. I know you won't be able to tell me who they are, but would you be able to identify sort of the time, where abouts they are, what force they were in etc? I have about 4/5 which seem to be a group photo in a hospital setting.

Thanks everyone you have all been fantastic!

I would recommend starting a new thread - "Seeking identification of uniform and location from family photographs"

Contributors on this forum love a challenge - especially when the person asking the question actually reads the responses and keeps the thread going (you would be surprised how many people ask a question and then never come back to thank people for their input.....)

 

I would recommend starting a new thread - "Seeking identification of uniform and location from family photographs"

Contributors on this forum love a challenge - especially when the person asking the question actually reads the responses and keeps the thread going (you would be surprised how many people ask a question and then never come back to thank people for their input.....)

Thankyou so much for all of this information. Do you think he was in Burma at this time? As I can't tell. My dad did live in Singapore when he was 2/3 years old for 2 or so years from like 1962-1963 .

I can't understand how people can't reply, there are so many questions and its also manners to thank people for going to the effort of helping. I will definitely set up a separate thread for these other photos.

 

The Burma star had precise eligibility criteria, so as a member of the RAF Regiment he would have had to have been involved in the campaigns in India / Burma in 1944 / 1945

Most probably from there to Singapore after the surrender in August 1945 and if he stayed in the RAF post-war he might have even ended up in Japan as part of the occupation forces.




Another couple of shots from the AWM collection (the gun looks like the one in the photo you placed into the thread):

Rangoon, Burma. c. May 1945. With a golden pagoda in the distance, light anti-aircraft (ack ack) guns of the RAF Regiment move through a street on the way to Mingaladon airfield.

Permalink: P02491.071 | Australian War Memorial


Rangoon, Burma. c. May 1945. A crowded Dalhousie Street, as light anti-aircraft (ack ack) guns of the RAF Regiment move through the city on the way to Mingaladon airfield.

Permalink: P02491.072 | Australian War Memorial


Meiktila, Burma. c. 4 April 1945. While their Douglas C47 Dakota transport aircraft of No. 194 Squadron RAF is unloaded, three RAAF members of the crew chat to two RAF Regiment anti-aircraft gunners on the airstrip. Left to right: 426923 Flying Officer (FO) Denis John de Valera Sheahan, wireless air gunner of Stanthorpe, Qld, 427668 Warrant Officer Malcolm Uren, navigator of Nedlands, WA, 402630 FO Harley O'Regan, pilot of Hurstville, NSW. Hundreds of sorties are flown daily by Dakota and Commando transport squadrons from Akyab, focal point of the Central Burma campaign.

Permalink: SEA0212 | Australian War Memorial

 

The Burma star had precise eligibility criteria, so as a member of the RAF Regiment he would have had to have been involved in the campaigns in India / Burma in 1944 / 1945

Most probably from there to Singapore after the surrender in August 1945 and if he stayed in the RAF post-war he might have even ended up in Japan as part of the occupation forces.




Another couple of shots from the AWM collection (the gun looks like the one in the photo you placed into the thread):

Rangoon, Burma. c. May 1945. With a golden pagoda in the distance, light anti-aircraft (ack ack) guns of the RAF Regiment move through a street on the way to Mingaladon airfield.

Permalink: P02491.071 | Australian War Memorial


Rangoon, Burma. c. May 1945. A crowded Dalhousie Street, as light anti-aircraft (ack ack) guns of the RAF Regiment move through the city on the way to Mingaladon airfield.

Permalink: P02491.072 | Australian War Memorial


Meiktila, Burma. c. 4 April 1945. While their Douglas C47 Dakota transport aircraft of No. 194 Squadron RAF is unloaded, three RAAF members of the crew chat to two RAF Regiment anti-aircraft gunners on the airstrip. Left to right: 426923 Flying Officer (FO) Denis John de Valera Sheahan, wireless air gunner of Stanthorpe, Qld, 427668 Warrant Officer Malcolm Uren, navigator of Nedlands, WA, 402630 FO Harley O'Regan, pilot of Hurstville, NSW. Hundreds of sorties are flown daily by Dakota and Commando transport squadrons from Akyab, focal point of the Central Burma campaign.

Permalink: SEA0212 | Australian War Memorial

Thanks for these! Those guns really do look similar. Wonder what they are. I'm really starting to get a sense of what he was doing now, and its crazy just what he did, the life he lead and brought my dad, and my aunties and uncles along for the journey.

I have started the other thread by the way.

 

Cripes - just tried the IWM site (Collections search | Imperial War Museums) for the search term RAF Regiment and received 1000s of photos etc from WW2 and post-war in Cyprus & Singapore (1950 - 1967)

 

Cripes - just tried the IWM site (Collections search | Imperial War Museums) for the search term RAF Regiment and received 1000s of photos etc from WW2 and post-war in Cyprus & Singapore (1950 - 1967)

Oh my lord.. well, thats my laptop gone for tomorrow, my dad will be looking through it for hours trying to find something of his dad! You are a genius at this stuff.

 

Cripes - just tried the IWM site (Collections search | Imperial War Museums) for the search term RAF Regiment and received 1000s of photos etc from WW2 and post-war in Cyprus & Singapore (1950 - 1967)

Also quick question, Ive just thought, my grandad was in the RAF 1953-1965 so how could he have got the Burma Star, could he have got it being in the Army?

 

Also quick question, Ive just thought, my grandad was in the RAF 1953-1965 so how could he have got the Burma Star, could he have got it being in the Army?


Ahhh - I just presumed that as he finished in the RAF Regiment that he started in it. He was born in 1921 so would have definitely served in WW2 - his RAF service book just states "date of last enlistment"

I would have thought that he served in the RAF during WW2 and then re-enlisted in 1953, but he might have been in the army during the war and then decided to join the RAF for his second period of service.

 

Bugger - I just looked at the last page of his RAF service book again and it does state that he was in the army 1940 - 1946

Whole new line of investigation required....

 

Ahhh - I just presumed that as he finished in the RAF Regiment that he started in it. He was born in 1921 so would have definitely served in WW2 - his RAF service book just states "date of last enlistment"

I would have thought that he served in the RAF during WW2 and then re-enlisted in 1953, but he might have been in the army during the war and then decided to join the RAF for his second period of service.

Yeah he was in the Army in 3 different regiments before he joined the RAF, I know its a bit confusing as there are so many pictures and documents, my aim tomorrow is to draw up a brief timeline to make things easier to follow.