Hello, About a year before he died, my Grandfather revealed to me that he had served in WW2 as part of a unit which travelled undercover to Berlin in 1941. Once there he worked with/as a radio operator to give intelligence to the Allies on the location of potential targets. In short, he claimed that he was recruited at 18, trained with the Royal Marines (I think) in Scotland before being despatched to Beaulieu where he received final training before travelling to Germany 'by river and foot'. He further claimed to have been in Berlin when it fell to the USSR who briefly held him (there's also a short torture story which I won't go into here). Back in Britain, at his debriefing, he was told to keep his experience secret for '100 years', in an attempt to ensure that it never got out. He repeated this story when prompted, consistently and accurately. I've yet to write to the MoD as I'm not sure if this was simply the rantings of a dying mind, or the actual truth. I suppose I really want this to be true, but up until this revelation, he had always maintained that his only military experience was in the Home Guard (as he was an essential worker). The little research I have done was at Beaulieu, who kindly searched their records with no luck. Given the expertise on this forum, I was wondering if this is either a fanciful tale or something more familiar. Thanks SR
https://www.gov.uk/requests-for-personal-data-and-service-records Have you tried getting a hold of his service record? It can taken up to a year for it to come through and can cost £30, but if your Gran is still alive she can request it in her name and will cost you nothing then. Have you tried his name in The National Archives as well? You never know what can turn up in there. Try posting his name and date or year of birth/area of birth and see if anybody can help find something in the archives somewhere.
