1 Battalion, The Buffs - Greece, 1946

Hi,
My wife’s Dad served in 1st Battalion, The Buffs in Italy (May 1944 to Dec 1945) – we have a transcript of his diary covering this period (makes interesting reading).
When he was alive he also talked of being in Thessalonika, Greece after his time in Italy (during the time of the civil war) – this would be during 1946. I have found one burial for a member of 1st Battalion, The Buffs in a cemetery there dated 25 Aug 1946 [CWGC site]. However, I haven’t been able to find any information on when 1st Battalion, The Buffs went there and came back.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Mike

 

I have found the information I wanted. An e-mail from the National Army Museum has confirmed that "the 1st Buffs arrived in Salonika on 25 January 1946. In March 1947 the battalion was disbanded in Greece, the men either transferred to other units or sent home to the UK as cadre."

 

Hi Mike and welcome to the forum - Having been to Thessalonika myself its not very high on the list of places to return too.

I would get a copy of the Battalions 'war' diary (I'm sure they will be one) and I would suspect if one does exsist there will be quite a bit of information in it due to it being written after WW2. The diary if one exsists will be held at Kew in the National Archives.

Cheers
Andy

 

Hi Mike and welcome to the forum - Having been to Thessalonika myself its not very high on the list of places to return too.

I would get a copy of the Battalions 'war' diary (I'm sure they will be one) and I would suspect if one does exsist there will be quite a bit of information in it due to it being written after WW2. The diary if one exsists will be held at Kew in the National Archives.

Cheers
Andy

Andy is correct, the war Diaries will help you.

My late fathers diaries are online on this forum and cover his time in Greece from December 1944 through 1945.

Regards
Tom

 

1 Buffs were indeed disbanded or at least reduced to a cadre in 1947. However, in 1948 they were reborn; technically they were amalgamated with the 2nd Battalion (then in Hong Kong), but in practice all that happened was that the 2nd Bn took the colours and title of the 1st Bn. Much the same happened to the 1st Royal West Kent too!

Chris

 

Just to complete this thread.
I was at the National Archives last week and photgraphed the War Dairy for the 1st Bn Buffs from the begining of June 1944 (when my wife's father joined it) until June 1946 (when the Buffs were at Kilkis in Greece).
During this period in Greece they were undertaking guard duty of Main HQ and Vehicle Park. The war diary entries are sparce for this six months, apart from detailing people joining/leaving to hospital etc.
The diaries for the earlier period in Italy have confirmed the diary we have and have filled in a number of relativcely blank periods.