Hello all and thank you all truely for your replies.Been at work so not been able to reply until now. I will in the next few weeks been sending off for his War records again and will be quoting the freedom of information act.all this makes me wonder if I can't find anything on him under national archives and forces war records. Jedburgh22,thank you for that information of what the me's stand for,I had been looking into that with no leads and assumed it was an important part of the puzzle.from what I have said and you have seen on His war record,would it be fair in your opinion to assume he work for SOE?I have also been talk to family today and they said,he him self said he was not SAS but secret service.did SOE refurr to their selfves as such?I understand secret service to be Mi6?am I correct?also I understand the lines were always blurred between special units and irregular organisations for example SAS and SBS members would swop and change and be one of the same.I knew it was strange that his record didn't have him posted to an actual battalion,and knew this to be some kind of sf task force,much as is the working today.also you say there are no records as were destroyed,is this a fact for my Granddad or in general for SNCO's of the SOE? Ramacal,it is a small world for sure.are you still up that way or relocated?it is possible our family knew each other once and served together.from the areas of service you have given me,how did you find them out?we know he was in Sicily and all over north Africa also.I will know more when we get full service records. Drew,thank you for your reply.ile be sending for them soon. Ron,ile be looking into your site as soon as I have posted. Mike L,I think from the story's I know and the things I see on his service record,it is fair for me to assume he was such,it is just difficult to cut the red tape and find the truth as such.it makes sense now why he wouldn't say a word until he was near.I agree,I am in the right place,less than 24 hours and have pice a lot more of the puzzle together. Thank you all for you time. Mike
Stay away from War Forces War Records. His service records are held at the same place as yours, Manning and Records in Glasgow. No one else has access to them and they are not in the public domain.
Hello Mike The ONLY place you will obtain his service records are from the MOD in Glasgow. The National Archives and the pay-per-view sites don't hold these records, so please don't waste your money. As has been said before, when you receive the service records, post them up on the forum, then members will be able to decipher them. After that you can apply for the war diaries which were written for the units on the records. Lesley
From what his record sheet says he moved from Aux Units to SOE - I would recon he moved from N/Africa to Italy and would have been based at Bari there. The majority of the SOE OR Records were destroyed to save space - a great mistake on the part of the FO. SOE was a separate Intelligence Service to MI6 - though quite a lot of SOE personnel moved over to MI6 when SOE was disbanded in 1946.
Lol thank you to you both for you fast replies.I'm using a tablet and its slow to type on and I keep typeing to the Max lol.we have tried both and forces war records came up with nothing and national archives said they couldn't release anything on him unless I quote the freedom of infomation act as they are calssified until 2020 some thing and we need to provide proof of death before they will release what they have. We already have his war record as such,but it is sparse and vague at best.he didn't claim his meddles and after he died my uncle did and also resived his war recorded but bits were missing as we knew he had been other places.I have posted his war record we have up there.
Jedburgh22,your reply didn't show up before I posted so that's why I didn't reply. Thank you for you post's,they have helped me greatly.all you have said I already asumed but didn't want to be clutching for ropes that arnt their.the biggest thing for me was funding out what the me's were.I knew finding out that would bring some blanks together. Do you think it possible to ever find out what operations he took part in ect?did SOE operate under there true names or fictional id's. Thank you.Mike
SOE operated under their own IDs in the main, some people who had been POWs or were known to the Germans were given false names to use, I am at a loss to know why the Archives said material was closed - the only SOE files to remain closed are PFs but their descriptions are known. As to Operations would mean a dedicated trawl through the files to see what turns up Steven
Steven,I have tried to find his name and such under the known things about SOE over the net but no such luck.I am knew to all this researching,is their any such data on the net with operatives name? If we applied for his records now,is it likely to state he was SOE?or do they always belong to the parent unit?is it likely anyone from the records world will state he was such or is it all a big puzzle you put together from the information they do give?my Grandma wants to know what he really did as he wouldn't talk about it.it is my intent to get as much as I can and print it out for her as a present. Mike.
Mike Forgive me for repeating myself and what others have said, including our Veteran, Ron. It is imperative you request his FULL records from the MOD before presuming/guessing what he may have done. Uusually the MOD provide much more information than the typed list they used to do a few years ago. These are my father's records obtained a few years ago, and like Ron's, they contain a great deal of info. [sharedmedia=gallery:albums:70] Lesley
Mike Just a little bit of friendly advice: May I just add that these things take time, you may have to wait about 3 months or more for the service records to arrive. The family story in my house about my father was that he was in the Parachute Regiment-well he was-but not until after the war. Like you, I trawled the internet looking for clues, but only by getting his service records did I find out exactly what he did during the war. You have to piece things together bit by bit and it all takes such a long time; I know you are itching to get to know all about everything at once, I was the same, but until you apply for his FULL set of service records, you will never know what is in them. Please take the advice of the members on the forum, but it is entirely up to you. Lesley
Hi Mike I've been following your thread with interest, and like you a relative Newby to the forum. I also was told some tales about my Father during the war although he did not say that much. As the guys on the forum have said until you have the army records from Glasgow you can not truly find out what and where he was. For me it has taken nearly two years to research my Father it has taken patience and a lot of help from the Forum. Hope you don't mind me butting in, please keep us posted and good luck with your research. All the best Lotus7. PS My Father was also with the Lincolns
All advice is been taken and aprechated,I hope I don't come accross as if it isnt?I also am not jumping the gun with any of this.I have grown up knowing sertain things and then when I joined the Army 8 years ago,things began to click and fall into place.I have researched bits and pices over a number of years but due to over seas work commitments have had gaps and not dug as deep as I could have.after returning from Afghanistan last year and spending a lot of time on stag thinking over things and piceing things togeather,me and my Mum have been looking into things again. I joined here as I have come to some dead ends I couldn't get past.jedburgh22 has opened a few of these doors to me and confirmed things I already believed to be.I have already got a copy of his war record,it was from 1992 and seems to me a little patchy.since then many more things have come into the public domain so I hope when I,in the next few weeks send off for his records again,will receive one with a little more substance in it.I know for a fact he parachuted down,some times in a pair or three,some times on his own and he met with local partisan groups,organised them,and exchanged information with them.this alone tells me he was not in the line infantry.also the records we do have place him sertain places and these places were as I already suspected names for SOE operations units. So I hope I haven't come across as an Eger fool clutching at straws and guessing rather than waiting for more records.I have bassed my current assessments on the facts I currently have.my research is on going and shall be for some time,and only when I have collated all avaiable evidence shall I truely know the truth. Mike.
Hello lotus7. Thank you for posting.I have also in the past followed other peoples posts with interest and now have finally posted my own to help me further my knowlage. At the start of my Granddad's war record it says he is believed to have served with the Lincolnshire regiment,however it wasn't until 1945 that he was actually posted to a battalion,witch I found interesting. Was your farther a Lincolnshire lad?
His records would not say that he was in SOE but would show the various Military Establishments he was part of which were the Code for SOE in the records. He would have done his parachute training at the SOE Parachute School at Massingham I would imagine.
The old record we have,puts him at such places and that fits with the story we know.he was at one point at "Special training school,holding unit no 1". I had wondered if this was were he did his jump training,ring way possibly?are you familier with this unit number? I was going through some post last night reference SOE,I see you are the resident guru lol.I can't thank you enough for your help.I don't suppose my Granddad's name pops up anywere in your records? Many thanks,Mike.
