Looking for some Service Record clarification, which I appear to have overlooked. Grandad was 12L, then Phantom. According to the record on the promotions, reductions etc section, he was posted 54th T.R. (Supernumary) in 1941 with nothing else until being drafted back for North Africa. Is this normal procedure? Why would he be deemed supernumary? No other mention of this in the long listing of movements though. Would he likely have been transferred to 54TR, away from his Phantom unit for the entirety of 41-43 until he was sent to North Africa? What would he have been doing? Thanks
Supernumary means that he was additional to their normal establishment. Sometimes means someone is being parked with a unit until the powers that be can find one that needs him but it could mean that he had some useful special knowledge that it was useful to transfer to the training staff. Sometimes when someone was detached to do this the problem was that the hole he left in his original unit got filled up and he ended up a bit in limbo for a while
Thanks Robert, I wonder if it was a temporary thing and his return to the unit wasn't noted? Seems odd to be away for 2 years due to the establishment being full only to be drawn for embarkation when one squadron was being sent to North Africa? Rather than thos who had been filling the establishment in the first place.
It's possible that the imminence of a move to North Africa caused a bit of a shake out and some were deemed not quite suitable (perhaps on grounds of health). If he'd been effectively loaned to the training regiment they'd ask for him back
I ha e received clarification elsewhere, everyone in Phantom was posted as supernumary to the 54th, as Phantom wasn't a regiment, it needed to be attached somewhere. Thanks for the help though, still helps explain the lingo a bit better.
