I have a question about the accuracy of Service Records. I have been through my Dad's records with a fine tooth comb and matched his whereabouts by date to match the Regiment he was with (75th (H) Heavy Regiment as closely as I can. However, he left a few scribbled notes where he mentions 46th and being part of the 8th Army alongside US 5th to Sicily/Salerno/Naples. He also mentions being 'sent back to Camp 155 Libya with dysentry and malaria' and then leaving via Transit Camp Tripoli with Desert Rats.... But none of these things tie in with the dates when he was, according to his Service/casualty Records, in N Africa and Italy. I am assuming the Service Records have to be accurate. Am I correct in this? Sadly he died in 1985 so no way of finding out other than by guesswork. Heather
Heather, Generally service in North Africa and in the Italian Campaign shows up in Service records as M.E.F. which is Middle Eastern Forces. At least it has in those I have seen in my Great-Uncles case, and other's on the forum. Does this reflect what is in the records you have? Maybe you could post images if they don't and we can all jump in with ideas and interpretations. Mark
Service records were mostly based on documentary sources, eg posting orders, regimental Part 2/3 Orders. Of course there's always scope for transcription errors and no doubt some source documents got lost in transit.
Hi Mark I have scanned and attached (hopefully!) pages from my dad's Service Records that have any dates of mention of places/regiments relating to that period of his service. Any help would be appreciated. Regards Heather PS There were a couple of pages I couldn't upload as too big. I will take a look and see if I can get them to a smaller size.
Let's start with the final two sheets 1a has him in North Africa April 43 to Nov 45 CLEARLY WRONG!! 3a According to his medical examinations he was in North Africa April 43 to March 44 (not sure about this either!) then Italy March 44 onwards. My fathers records were just the same and had him in North Africa when he was in Sicily and Italy. Lesley
BFBSM While service with 8th army in Egypt - Desert etc was classed as Middle East Force (MEF) BUT - service in Italy was always classed as Central Mediterrean Force (CMF) - the other end of Africa - was 1st Army's area and thus was classed as British North African Force (BNAF )...no matter what other threads might report Cheers
Hi Lesley. Yes, I had spotted that. On another sheet that my dad signed though it had it right. Regards Heather
I am assuming the Service Records have to be accurate. I can only go by my Dad's service records. I found the various bits of paperwork were basically consistent but needed a bit of interpreting to make proper sense. The bottom line was that while his regiment was with the US Fifth Army in Italy his service records show BNAF or simply NA. This got summarised in his history sheet as North Africa. When his regiment returned to Italy having been withdrawn to MEF for a while the TOS/SOS stamps still said BNAF but his regiment was now with the 8th Army and following entires referred to CMF. This got summarised as AAI. Exploring this forum I've found service with regiments under the US Fifth Army in Italy showing up as BNAF is not at all unusual in service records. I am obviously not in a position to say whether this is actually how things were supposed to be recorded or whether it was strictly speaking incorrect. G.
