Hi I believe my Grandad, Gnr Frank Harold Hyde (Serv No 1566213) served with RA between 1940-1946 and i am attempting some research based on the documents currently held by my brother which refer to an ID card for Mechanical Transport Drivers relating to 347 HY AA. Bty. I am sure this refers to a heavy anti-aircraft battery but don't get much info when searching the Internet. My Grandad was from the North London area and i would welcome any further info that could help me clarify his units history. Regards Timmy Hyde
hello Tim welcome to the forum have you applied for his service records link below Ministry of Defence | About Defence | What we do | Personnel | Service Records | Making a Request for Information held on the Personnel Records of Deceased Service Personnel The RA experts will be along shortly and will be able to advise you further
Hi and welcome. I just checked RA unit diaries listed for 1940 and the nearest was 247 Heavy Anti-Aircraft (HAA) Battery Royal Artillery. As clive has suggested get a copy of his service records-Tehy will contain all the Whats, Why's and When's. Good luck Andy
hi and many thanks for ure quick response! my brother has some of my Grandads personal papers and he is sending them to me so i don't quite know what i have got to deal with at mo! thanks for the link, i will have a look at it. Regards Timmy
many thanks Andy, i have asked my bro to check the docs he has in case he has mis-read the number! Regards Timmy
No worries Timmy-Bare in mind I only looked in 39-40 France section. They may have been posted elsewhere to Africa or the Far East or formed later in the war.
thats a fair enough point Andy but at the moment i am looking for any new leads or possibilities! i'm new to this but feel passionate about finding out more to share with my family and remember the man i knew as a child. any feedback or advice is always warmly received!
Hi Rob I literally only have what my brother has sent to me at mo and he has read these off old documents. he is sending me the originals so there may be a discrepancy in the old writing! Tim.
i found nothing relating to a 347 HAA Bty in all my internet searches so i am thinking that there may be a problem with my brothers eye sight!
Don't post original documents - Many a heart has been broken on here by documents being lost in the post. I suggest you get him to copy them for you and keep the originals. Once they are lost they are lost forever.
I've checked through my library and reference material and can find nothing either. HAA Bty numbers do go above 347 so it is possible although numbers are often missing from the sequence for no apparent reason. Looks like we will have to wait for more information.
I found 3 casualties for 347 Battery, 111 HAA Regiment on the CWGC Database. 2 buried in the UK, one in Cologne Southern Cemetery. Also, the war diaries listed at Kew, show 111 HAA in the UK from 1939 to 1944, then to North West Europe. Disbanded February 1946 in North West Europe. Hope this helps.
Tim welcome to the forum when you get the documents from your brother if they are not to personnal could you post them so we can review and perhaps really help your research.
Now we have a regiment I can add a few details but not much. On 25 June 1944 111 HAA Regt is listed under GHQ AA Troops still in England. They were part of 5 (Royal Marine) AA Brigade. 5 (RM) Bde was at Antwerp about Oct 44 defending the area against V1 attacks. By Feb 45, 111 HAA was still at Antwerp but under command of US 50 AAA Bde. Around Apr 44, the regt were part of 103 AA Bde and when the bde was relieved at Antwerp it became an infantry brigade and all AA equipment was handed in. They then moved to Fallingbostel under 2 Army command where among other tasks they took over the newly found Belsen camp.
Love to know what happened to all that equipment handed in by the AA Units and presumably others. A lot of it taken to Antwerp, presumably to go back to the UK.
this is fantastic info chaps so many thanks to you all for taking the time to help. i will indeed post the documents on the site when i get them (if i can work out how to do it)!
