226414 Joseph Robert Francis SMALLEY, 10 Rifle Brigade: ItalIan Campaign

Hello all,
Casualty
My uncle Joseph Robert Smalley joined the Rifle brigade in 1942 he was a 2nd lieutenant and was captured in Italy in October 1944 and died in stalag V11A in December 1944. He served in the 10th battalion (2nd battalion The Tower Hamlet rifles) and I believe became part of the 61st infantry brigade.
I was wondering if anybody could advise me on the battalions movements and in what area of Italy he may have been captured and would I be right in assuming he would have been in North Africa before the Italy campaign? For interest I have added a photo of him on the left the others are unknown to me.
I am new to researching and would be grateful of any guidance.
Many thanks in anticipation, Steve

 

Best place to start is with his official service records, the MOD is the ONLY place to get them:
Get a copy of military service records

 

Many thanks Tony56 for the sound advice steve

 

Do a forum search .
There's a few threads on them.

http://www.ww2talk.com/index.php?search/5240593/&q=10th+rifle+brigade&o=relevance&c[title_only]=1

 

Thank you Owen for the advice....Steve

 

You should also consider obtaining the Battalion War Diaries from the Nation Archives at Kew:


WO 166/4517 INFANTRY: 10 Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own).1941 Jan.- Nov.
WO 166/8846 10 Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own) 1941 Dec.-1942 Oct.
WO 169/10288 10 Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own) 1943 July- Dec.
WO 170/1470 10 Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own) 1944 Jan.- Dec.
WO 170/5064 10 Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own) 1945 Jan.- Mar.
WO 175/518 10 Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own) 1942 Oct.- 1943 June

if you are unable to get to Kew yourself, there are members here who may be able to help, specifically Drew5233 and PsyWar.Org .

 

Thank you BFBSM, I’m not far from Kew so will definitely take that advice on board.
Thank you again...Steve

 

Hi Joseph, I dont know if you have been to kew yet so I uploaded the war diary entry for the day your uncle was captured
Regards
Craig

 

Hi Joseph, following some further digging it looks like a 2nd officer was captured in 2/10/44 but its not clear, the reason I started looking again is because the monthly casualty return states the only missing officer for the month of October was Lt Mathew
Regards
Craig

 

Find my Past has him posted as Missing, 26/10/44

 

Hi Craig,
Many thanks for your efforts and no I have not got to Kew yet because I have been waiting since January for his military records!!
They cashed my cheque in August and emailed to say they were very behind and have heard nothing since.
Thank you again.

 

Well done 51highland although the war diary page has no missing officers on the 26th Oct, I'm guessing my first post was right, strange he's not on the casualty list though, maybe because it was so late in the month.
More digging looks like he was taken on strength on 6/6/44 and given a platoon command the same day, (exert from the Officers return for end of June 1944, whole page to large to upload)
Craig

 

Hi Craig,
That’s great info. What does taken on strength mean?

 

Hi Steve
its the day he joined the battalion, his army records will show his movements (if you can read and decipher them).
My dads took 6 months to come, if you need any help with what they mean give me a shout, I spent ages (with the help of the kind
people on here) trying to decipher dads
Craig

 

Hi Craig,
I really appreciate your help with my search.
As and when I get his records I will contact you and take you up on your kind offer.
I guess there is more delay with these records due to Covid-19.
Many thanks again, Steve