Royal Artillery Notes

Discussion in 'Research Material' started by Chris C, Aug 23, 2019.

  1. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Hi all,

    I was looking at AFV Technical Reports in the digitized Canadian microfilm files, looked at what was in a couple of nearby reels, and came across these Royal Artillery notes.

    I am currently making an index in Google Drive, though it's quite rough. You can use this to see where different reports start, which might be useful for finding information useful to you. I am taking the step of making this index editable and trust that no one is going to trash it. If anyone wants to add more detailed information, I encourage it! Or if anyone wants to help in finding the start of more reports and add more, that would be great too.

    R.A. Notes Index

    Here is the microfilm reel in question:

    http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c8277/1?r=0&s=2
     
  2. Gary Kennedy

    Gary Kennedy Member

    Thank you very much for posting that link, and the recce work done on the index. I only had chance for a brief look through, and not being technically minded much of the detail is over my head, but there were some interesting paragraphs. I'll definitely be looking up the info on amendments to WEs.

    Gary
     
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  3. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    There is a lot of info on that site but no one is making a public index. It seems wrong to me!

    I don't know if much of it makes sense to me either but I hope I will find a detail or two about the Archer or the 17 pounder.

    Cheers,
    Chris
     
  4. Gary Kennedy

    Gary Kennedy Member

    It looks like the 1945 issues, 24 to 33 inclusive (dated Jan to Oct 1945) can be found in the Canadian Archives;

    Archives Search - Library and Archives Canada

    I think that would cover a large part of the period when the 17-pr SP equipment was being used in 21AG, but not the latter part of 1944 when it began to appear.

    Gary
     
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  5. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    I started to come across late-numbered reports in the online file (like, number 34, at page 4015, while trying to determine just how much material is there, so I am just going to keep plugging away at it and see if it has everything.
     
  6. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    For now I think I am done indexing. (I got through the whole section up until A.A. Bulletins.

    I added columns to my spreadsheet on the right hand side which show a paragraph to go to for each "R.A. Note" from 1 to 38. I think they extended beyond 38, as I saw receipts for 39 and 40, but I did not find those reports.

    The file ended with some conference material like the minutes from the December 1944 standardisation conference.

    Note there were also three indexes by subject so you can use those to search for material in the reports and I have listed them in my key.
     
  7. Gary Kennedy

    Gary Kennedy Member

    Thanks for your efforts. I did have a plod through myself and as you'd noted, there are editions out of sequence, so it looks like you've found the full set for the war years. I think the latest I saw was for 1947.

    I was struck by the amount of coverage given over to Anti-aircraft and Coastal Artillery matters, which certainly underlines just how seriously enemy air attack was viewed. I didn't see much on the 17-pdr SP Valentine (Archer) myself, but hope you found some info on them in there.

    Thanks,

    Gary

    P.S. - was there anything in a similar vein produced for the RAC at all?
     
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  8. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Hi Gary,

    I think there might have been but I am blanking on them right now.

    Separate from this were a series of Liaison Letters. (Not sure if they duplicated text wholesale, or not.) I discovered AFV Liaison Letters To the Dominions in the Canadian archives on my last visit. And last night someone put me on to the fact that there are some RA Liaison Letters that were digitized but I haven't looked at those yet.

    I have yet to actually look through the RA Notes for any mention of the Archer. I think I saw something from around July 1944 about some of them being sent to Italy. I already knew that (AAI said they would accept 8 in June), but I am unclear on just how long it took to ship them there.
     
  9. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Side note to this: I was just poking into the file for HQ RCA of First Canadian Army and came across "First Canadian Army Notes No 2" reflecting on experiences in NWE. I will make additional posts here in case I find No 1 or any following Nos.

    War diaries : T-15434 - Héritage
     
  10. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

  11. Gary Kennedy

    Gary Kennedy Member

    Nice find Chris, thanks for posting the links. There's supposed to be a series entitled Royal Artillery Bulletins in the online collection as well, in C-8279

    Secret and Confidential Subject Files, Army - Reports from 21st Army Group - Royal Artillery bulletins - Library and Archives Canada (bac-lac.gc.ca)

    While C-8279 is available in the DND series files, I can find only one trace of said Bulletins in there;

    Department of National Defence : subject files,... - Image 3816 - Héritage (canadiana.ca)

    The only other place I could find the specific title mentioned was in Nigel Evans' website.

    Gary
     
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  12. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    That's very unfortunate, Gary. From the first link, which doesn't mention File/Volume/Box, I would actually assume that the papers were not kept after being converted to microfilm. And unless a big error happened during digitization, I would have to guess they have been lost.
     
  13. Gary Kennedy

    Gary Kennedy Member

  14. Richelieu

    Richelieu Well-Known Member

    Chaps, 21AG RA Bulletins 8 onwards are available in CMHQ file 55/2037/9 (ends, or should that be begins, page 666).
     
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  15. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Thank you, I think I got a bit of useful material there! :)
     
  16. Gary Kennedy

    Gary Kennedy Member

    My thanks as well, one more thing on the the 'to do and digest' list!

    I've been trying to make a more systematic search of the CMHQ and DND files recently. If you put the reel number in the LAC search engine in the 'exact phrase' box it can pull up all the subjects within that reel. Sometimes though you effectively get a nil return, with just one or two subjects listed when it should be more. I tried it with C-5790 and there's no mention of the bulletins that are actually in there. Is there a finding aid for use with the reels at all? There is one for the establishment related items but that only covers C-4905 to C-4974 in 1946 series files.

    Gary
     
  17. Gary Kennedy

    Gary Kennedy Member

    Well I might have answered my question, sort of. C-5770 includes an index, reel pages 4 to 85 inclusive. That appears to show all the subjects in reels C-5770 to C-5847 inclusive. What it doesn't show you is where those subjects appear in the 71 reels available (and it seems 7 reels are not available at all).

    Gary
     
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