Infantry Battalions in Tunisia, War Establishment

That helps thanks

 

Glad the experts turned up - thanks for the insight. It's a resource I've never got round to looking at, and at 50k pages perhaps I'd better not!

 

I/1931/8E/1 of 7th May 1941 is indeed identical with II/1931/12F/2 of 4th June 1941. 8E/1 was for the sole, standard, Inf Bn to be added to the Sp Gp of the 1941 era Armd Div (the two Motor Bns having been permanently appended one each tot eh two Armd Bdes). It is odd the ACI dates are different, but there was a war on.

Re 2-pdr Atk Pls, there was an amendment to 12F/2 in Aug42, which gives minimal help, but states that

"Bns which are issued with 2-pdr A.Tk. guns may hold the following additional ranks and appointments :-

Serjeants 1
Lance-serjeants 3
Corporals 3

(the number of privates will be decreased by 7)."

No indication of number of atk guns, or transport more annoyingly. Re guns, I've always assumed six based on the number of L/Sjts and Cpls. Where the personnel came from is open to interpretation; my guess is one man per Rifle Sec, which would match ME practice and garner 36 warm bodies and should have been enough for a provisional Atk Pl. Interesting re the comments of the MMGs being placed with the Carrier Pl, wonder if that influenced the later developments in the MG Bns?

II/231/1 should be the renumbered I/1931/8D/2 of 21st Feb 1940, but had been amended in several respects. First off, all Motor Pls were now a Subaltern's command, and more importantly a 3-in Mortar Det (one mrtr) in a 15-cwt had been added to each Motor Coy. I've seen refs to the Motor Bns of 6th Armd Div having 2-pr guns (subsequently switched for 6-prs), and I'll have to assume the same arrangement persisted as for the Inf Bns.

WO24 isn't too complicated, it only took me about 8 years to crack the ref system and which WE applied to what formation (thankfully I was born to late to assist at Blecthley Park)...

Gary

 

Actually, it was a 15-cwt and a carrier for the Mortar Dets with the Motor Coys, also a carrier for Bn HQ.

Gary

 

Hi Aixman,

Just found this topic

I don’t understand why II/232/1 is the result of re-numbering I/8E/1 and II/12F/2. From files attached to your post #8 I see that I/8E/1 and II/12F/2 were re-numbered as II/233/1, not II/232/1. Can you clarify ?

Regards,

 

Sorry for causing confusing. I tried a correction in post 18 ...

So with effect from 15.09.1942:
II/12F/1 (An Infantry Battalion (Higher Establishment)) becomes II/232/1 (no more versions available)

I/8E1 and II/12F/2 (An Infantry Battalion (Higher Establishment)) both become II/233/1 (from version 2, effective 30.04.1943: An Infantry Battalion)