Hi, I'm trying to find out info on my Grandfather. Fred Davenport - his tags read 20739I CE FJ Davenport. As far as I know he was a member of 171st Coy. RASC Armoured Brigade and was a driver for a major. He may have been present at Dunkirk although I'm not sure how reliable that info is, but I have a photo of him holding a flag that reads Krieger-Verein, Barum Ungegend. I believe this is a German veterans association flag. Barum is near Hamburg. I can't seem to find anything online about the 171st. Any help what be much appreciated.
Here's the units war diaries that are available at the National Archives in London. It looks like they were formed or renamed from another unit in 1943. I suspect you best bet would be to apply for a copy of his service records from the MoD to confirm if he was at Dunkirk and who with. WO 166/13035 171 Company 1943 Jan.-Dec. WO 171/2401 171 Company 1944 Jan.- Dec. WO 171/6214 171 Company 1945 Jan.-Dec. WO 171/9782 171 Company 1946 Jan.- Mar. Cheers Andy
Severin The following snippets may of interest. I believe 171 Company were part of the RASC assets of 11 Armoured Division and in the final days of WW2 were in support of 29 Armoured Brigade, a task which continue for a further 12 months when the Brigade were in the far north west of the British Occupation Zone in Schleswig Holstein, close to the Danish border. I have yet to establish exactly where the Brigade were on VE Day but believe it was somewhere in the Bad Segeburg area to the west of Lubeck The entire Division moved north of the Kiel Canal after the final German Surrender. 171 Company to the small town of and railway junction of Jubek, north of Schleswig, south of Flensburg where they were to remain till disbanded in Spring 1946.. Barum is a small farming community to the north of Luneburg, south of the River Elbe. It is very close to Artlenburg where 11 Armoured Division crossed that River in the final days of the war.
Severin, I'm researching my Great Uncle Charles Alex Barlow, who served with 1Bn Cheshire Reg in NW Germany before his death on 16 Apr 45. Both your Grandfather and Alex served as part of the British Liberation Army and in particular 11th Armoured Division. As part of my research I recently brought 'Tauras Pursuant' - A history of the 11th Armoured Division from Ebay. The book clearly once belonged to someone who'd served in the Division and in particular 171st Coy RASC, as a number of newspaper articles from 1944/45 and other documents came with the book. Of special interest to you was the 171 coy 'Tattler' a timeline with locations and dates from D-Day to VE-Day as they supported 11th Armoured across NW Europe. At the back of he book is the Roll of Honour for all the fallen of 11th Div. The RASC lost 26 killed, with 11 being killed in a single day at ‘Icker’- on 06 Apr 45. Some of the articles are attached for your review -whilst I plan to scan the rest next week on a A3 scanner, then post them. I hope you find them useful. Garry View attachment 124435 View attachment 124436 View attachment 124438 View attachment 124440
Wow! Garry this is brilliant. Thanks so much for that. Really interesting stuff. Can't thank you enough
