I had two relatives who serviced in the Royal Engineers during the war. Both served in North Africa, in the 8th Army. I do not have their service numbers, or campaign medals, or indeed much detail. Is there an easy way to gather more info of their service, or indeed which field unit they service in. Any direction, or leads appreciated. Both survived the war, if that is the right word. Thanks. Bydand
Without going down the route of acquiring their service records from the MOD, it's pretty hard to find reliable info regarding WW2 soldiers at the best of times, especially if they survived the war. There's links on the forum of how to acquire Service Records. Other than that, if you post up any info you have (Names, D.o.B's, where they lived etc) and any photos, then members may be able to glean some info from those, or suggest other avenues to explore
Hello and welcome Bydand You only need the FULL date of birth to apply for service records, here is the link Get a copy of military service records - GOV.UK Lesley
Bydand Post what information you have so we can help, several RE units served in the desert, my fathers was one of them
Good Day Oldman, As luck would have it, digging through some old scans of mine. It would appear, that Granddad, was in the 128 T.E.E , E&M Coy RE.( Aways helps to read the title fully) Which I think ,Translates into Tyne Electrical Engineers, Electrical and Mechanical Coy RE. The scans below are from a large Map, hence had to scan it in sections. 1., Happy Memories 29th December 1948, (Now) by Robert ??????? I suspect a member of the company post War. 1,2,3,4 are the scans of this Map from the 1939-45 World Tour. My, how things have changed in these places over the years!! I will post these scans in a folder in the galley, with the unit title, it may be of interest to others. and I shall make a new thread asking on the Unit History of the 128(T.E.E E&M Coy R.E). Ubique, Everywhere..... Not Half.
Hi. There was a RE Order of Battle on the internet a while ago but had since disappeared. I luckily kept a copy. In it it deoesn't say much more than: 128th Electrical & Mechanical Company Royal Engineers (Tyne Electrical Engineers) converted by December 1941 as 128th Electrical & Mechanical Company Royal Engineers (War Office Reserve; Relieved 1 Jan 1942). No other details of service known. Hope this helps Gus
Hi What a fantastic Map. Cairn Ryan (6 on map) is on the West Coast of Scotland near Stranraer. Shui'aiba (7 on map) and Zubayr (8 on map) are in Iraq, just south of Basra. Looking at the dates it looks like they were part of convoy WS-14, bound for Aden (WS14A), Bombay (WS-14B) and Singapore (DM2). WS (Winston Specials) Convoys in WW2 - 1941 Sailings Found a reference saying that on 25 Jan 42, the ships CLAN CAMERON, EMPIRE CURLEW, EMPIRE PEREGRINE and EMPIRE WIDGEON broke off from Convoy WS14B and sailed independently for Basra. Hope this helps Gus
Great Stuff Gus. The Tyne Electrical Engineers has opened up, much more on Google. I,ll start a new thread with the correct Unit Name.