Hi all, A friend of mine has asked if I could ask the following question on his behalf:- "I’ve got a question for you, it’s about my grandad during WWII. He was in the Royal Armoured Corps and I’m trying to find out what he may have done in France before being invalided back home towards the end of 1944, he passed his tank driving licence in 1941 and his HGV in 1943 however, as far as I know he supplied fuel for the tanks which would make him a HGV driver. If a member of the RAC usually drove a tank transporter or fuel tanker, what did he do in the field e.g. in Africa or in NW Europe after the invasion? Would he have carried on being a supply driver or is that a job the RASC would take on, leaving the RAC soldier free to be part of a tank crew in battlefield conditions?" Thanks for any help you may be able to give. Cheers Steve
An Armoured Regiment would have two Echelons responsible for supplying fuel, ammo etc - one would pick up supplies from the dumps and the second provide supplies to the forward squadrons. The normal procedure would be for the Armour to lager up for resupply - though units often had their own SOPs.
Steve B As you state -" he passed his Tank driving licence in 1941" this would make him a Driver/ Mechanic capable of driving any Tank However something medical may have prevented this and he might have been attached to the Echelons along with the Driver i/c's in supplying the Tank crews- the HGV was not used in the Army only Driver/ Mech and Driver i/c…the RASC brought supplies from Docks etc to Corps - Division HQ's for sorting out to the regimental echelons… Cheers
Or the military system may have intervened.... The British Army has a long standing custom of training people intensively for one job and then posting them to something completely different E.g. Joe Ekins of the Northants Yeomanry was a very good tank gunner who disposed of four out of five of wittman's Tigers. Those were the last shots he fired as he was moved to some other role whcih did not employ his talents as a tank gunner.
"Or the military system may have intervened.... The British Army has a long standing custom of training people intensively for one job and then posting them to something completely different" As I can well attest to ! In December 1944, my unit, the 49th LAA was broken up and I found myself in the RAC re-training on Sherman tanks. After my time as a Driver/Op with the 78 Div I would probably have been happier with a posting to the Pay Corps but the Army knew better and, as it happened, I have never regretted my time in action with the 4th QOH. Ron
All very well to decry the British Army's Intervention BUT - usually when units were broken up - they were required in different roles as opposed to anti-aircraft- when the enemy had NO luftwaffe to shoot at…Gunners might have been required as Tank Commanders s if he had gotten rid of four Tigers - he would have known what they looked like for example… Cheers
