I've just signed up to this forum, so please brace yourselves for some truly stupid questions. My dad (Alec Stanley Davis) was in troop "B" of 164 battery HAA, 59th Regiment (the Essex Regiment) and arrived in North Africa in December 1942 following the Opertion Touch landings. I made a start during last winter to piece together his time during WW2. If its of any use to anyone, you will find it here: Sergeant ACK-ACK I look forward to learning more.
Good to see another Essex-focused poster. Will have to brush up on 59th HAA because it isn't immediately ringing bells!
Steve. I had a look at the site that you have created. It is terrific. Shame that 59 HAA Regt RA did not come further north than Naples. Regards Frank
Thank you Frank. One of the few regrets I have is that I didn't talk to dad about the war. Although he wouldn't talk about it when we were young, I'm sure he would have been happy to during the last few years of his life.
Hello and welcome to the forum Steve. Lovely site by the way; your query re U/A/L/Bdr is Acting Unpaid Lance Bombardier. Ask any questions-there are no stupid ones, but you may get some stupid answers. Lesley
Thanks for the info Lesley. I wonder if those "Acting" as a rank were ever paid, or does the U/A/ combination always go together? I think my dad's records indicate he may have got some back-pay as a result of an Acting rank, but I need to recheck the details.
Thanks for the book extracts Charley. Much of this confirms what I'd read in Routledge (History of the Royal Artillery) and also from anecdotes in the Eagle & Gun Regimental Association's notes (I need to start another thread with questions about this association). But there is also some detail that I'd previously missed, so thanks once again. Can you tell me the ISBN number for that book?
a) I'm not familiar with Eagle & Gun--but I want to be! Is it perhaps one of the local association publications? (The main association's publication was The Eagle) b) Mine in a first edition in pre-ISBN days, but there's a modern reprint: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ESSEX-REGI...qid=1531501864&sr=8-2&keywords=essex+regiment It is an excellent and very comprehensive book on Essex's contribution to the war (and pre- and post-war eras), but there isn't much more than what I've posted specifically about 59th Regt.
Thanks Charley. I just posted a new thread (so as not to out-stay my welcome on this one) about the Eagle & Gun Association: The Eagle & Gun Regimental Association
Welcome, congratulations, a nice site to remember your father. Presumably you have his RA attestation?
Thank you Tony56. Yes I have the E501/Attestation from the TA, completed with the wrong date of birth, but the right age. I guess quite a few errors must have been made considering the amount of hand written documentation that was produced during that period.