53rd Welsh Division Documents Queries

Discussion in '53rd (Welsh) Division' started by Swiper, Feb 9, 2010.

  1. davidbfpo

    davidbfpo Patron Patron

    Spotted the item and added it here in case. I did glance through the thread.;)
     
  2. Fally, what a great posting, from what I can remember!! 91 - 95 (7 Armd - 2 BN REME) and 2005 - 07 SDG.
     
  3. Helen Ward

    Helen Ward Member

    Hi I hope I've posted in the correct place.
    My husband's uncle was in the 7th btn of The Royal Welch Fusiliers. He was killed on the 28th of March 1945 and is burried at Reichswald forest war cemetery in Germany. We don't know anything about what happened. We don't have his service records at the moment but I'm wondering if anyone has a copy of the war diaries?
    Many thanks
    Helen
     
  4. Osborne2

    Osborne2 Well-Known Member

    A very great number of ethnic Poles, (just to distinguish from ethnic Germans living in Poland as constituted post 1918 eg, Silesia, Danzig Corridor) were often first taken up by Germany as forced civilian labour, while ethic Germans living in Poland pre-1 September, joined up or were conscripted into units of the German Army. Some ethnic Poles were forced into the German Army by blackmail. I have found, for instance, one man being threatened as being reported to the Gestapo if he didn't join up. Others were Polish regular soldiers who were prisoners of the Germans and joined to avoid starvation in their camps.Polish civilian forced labourers were often sent to France, as they would find it more difficult to go back home from so far away. Likewise Poles taken into the German Army 1941 on wards and forced labourers often ended up there in static coastal defence units. The ethnic Poles were at first put in small numbers in German units so they were under a careful eye but as time went on whole battalions were formed as part of German regiments. Many of these appeared in Normandy. The ethnic Poles, (similarly Russians and other nationalities, like the Spanish for instance, forced into German service) did their best to desert as soon as the Allies arrived in France, knowing they faced a bullet in the back if seen running, or being shot if recaptured. The Allies had a system to process the Polish POWs they captured, vet them carefully, and offer them the chance to join the Polish Army based in Scotland, and many thousands did.
     
    stolpi likes this.
  5. AdrianDunne

    AdrianDunne Member

    Swiper Is there a master list of Officers that is accessible online? I'm doing research on a project and need to hunt down the commanding officers or battalions and up during the Ardennes and I don't know what I'm looking at when I look at the Army List. How did you learn to use the sources?
     
  6. Wapen

    Wapen Well-Known Member

    Hi Helen, Sorry for slow reply. Did you have any luck with the war diary? I have a partial copy I can send your way but for some reason I stopped taking pics after the 23rd. PM me and I'll send what I have, but here's the summary sheet with girds and casualties. Maybe you could get an dea of what happened by hooking it to
    Regimental Records of the Royal Welch Fusiliers Volume V, 1918-1945: Part Two, June 1940-December 1945
    20191016_164445.jpg .
     
  7. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Hello Wapen a very kind offer
    Helen has not been on forum for a few months might ge worth you dropping her a pm
     
  8. Mike Doyle

    Mike Doyle Member

    Just wondering if 6BN war diary was ever made available? Was there one? Thanks
     
  9. JerryPlatt

    JerryPlatt Member

    Thanks for the tip towards the book "No Triumphant Procession", which I was able to buy in Melbourne and it arrived today. Looks very interesting
     
    CL1 likes this.
  10. vanpeurr

    vanpeurr New Member

    Hello, does anyone know where I can find war diaries for the 53rd around April - May ‘45?
     
  11. Wapen

    Wapen Well-Known Member

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