5th Reconnaissance Regiment(5th Recce) soldier search

Hi Paul, I am researching my uncles war records and have found out he was in 5th RECCE, I have a copy of The Fifth British Division,I was hoping
you could send me a copy of Wheeled Odyssey. yours in anticipation Scott Ruthven.

 

Scott,

We always warn against open display of a private email address, bad things can happen. Go to 'Edit bottom left and remove. The PM facility is used instead.

Jim Prout the opening post author has not logged in since 2022, as you have x5 post you could try a PM to him asking him to return.

 

Hi Scott

Send a private message (start a conversation) to Paul aka Recce_Mitch . He is in Australia so a bit of a time difference, but I'm very sure he'll get back to you pretty soon. He does log in often.

Lesley

 

David

It's Paul who has got Wheeled Odyssey .

Lesley

 

Scott,
P.M. with your email and I'll forward you a copy
Guy

 

Thank you Guy,some really interesting reading,
What amazes me is how many places I have been to when in the army where 5 RECCE were, from Pompeii car park,through from Belgium to the Hartz Mts. amazing.

 

Worth searching the IWM site for some first hand accounts, just a couple of examples, no doubt more:
McKerchar, John Stewart (Oral history) | Imperial War Museums
MacAuslan, John Mechan (Oral history) | Imperial War Museums

 

I have started listening to the recordings posted above by Tony56, so far I’ve managed the first two reels of the John McKerchar interview. He describes some horrific scenes that he saw in Neustadt involving what he thought were slave labourers who had apparently been on two liners that had been sunk.

Some of the survivors had come ashore and been murdered on the beach there. Two barges lying just offshore also contained murdered prisoners. He says there was no doubt they had been shot, the evidence in the barge was clear.

It’s all very harrowing.

The most telling point he makes, stresses even, is that the perpetrators were not the Gestapo or the SS; he points the finger at ordinary German marines.

I wonder if this was the same atrocity you think your father possibly saw…

He says that Neustadt appeared to be a processing/transit area for slave labourers and that there was no way that the inhabitants of the town could not have seen what was going on there.

 

Listened to the third and final McKerchar recording now, and he confirms the ship involved was indeed the Cap Arcona, along with the Deuthschland, sunk, he believes, by rocket-firing Typhoons.

He said there was a third ship too, the name of which he couldn’t remember, but that must be the Thielbek.

In this recording he says that the SS guards on the ship were machine gunning prisoners as they tried to escape the vessel, but he doesn’t go on to amend his original statement that he thinks it was marines who killed those shot on the beach.

He adds that he was told the captain of the Cap Arcona, having seen two Typhoons fly past, immediately ran up a white flag, but the SS officer in charge had torn that down and run up a SS flag (or just ordinary Swastika?) instead - seeing the latter, the Typhoons then attacked. I don’t know if that version of events is true, but clearly that’s what McKerchar was told.

 

Hi
New to the forum. I am looking for more detailed records on my Grandad - George Shields No 14518706.

I applied to the Nat Archives for his records and have the following, can anyone decipher what it means?

 

His number 14518706 shows that he enlisted with the General Service Corps.
80th Recce was a holding and training regiment, formed January 1943 and renamed 38th in October 1944.
NA = North Africa
SOS = Struck off strength ie left a unit
TOS = Taken on strength ie joined a unit
MEF = Middle East Force
BNAF = British North Africa Force
CMF = Central Mediterranean Force
21 AG = 21st Army Group
Looks like he was in North Africa (disembarked 25/10/43) with 1 Recce and 5 Recce 23/12/43
What you posted is his B102 form, only brief details, have you obtained his full service records?
1 Recce War Diary

 

Thanks, I have applied to MOD for his full records but they say it can take up to 12 months!

 

Some light reading for you.

Service Records application - MOD response timescale

MOD ALREADY TRANSFERRING WW2 SERVICE FILES TO UK NATIONAL ARCHIVES 2021

To be honest, there seems to be no rhyme nor reason to how long some applications take as opposed to others. Sheer luck seems to play a major role.

Welcome aboard by the way.

 

Tyneside Stuart.

5 Recce Regt were the reconnaissance unit for 5 Infantry Division so where ever the Division went so did 5 Recce Regt.

The places that I am familiar with that 5 Infantry Division were up to their necks in were the crossing of the mighty Garigliano in Jan 44 and their time in the Anzio beachhead from Mar-May 44.

The Division stayed in Italy until Feb 45 when they were switched to NW Europe.

If I can help your understanding of those two events, do Start a Conversation with me.

Regards

Frank

 

5th Division did leave Italy for about six months, leaving in July 1944 for the Middle East for rest and refit. The time was spent mainly in Palestine and Syria. It returned to Italy in February ‘45, but was not there long before it moved again, in early March, to Marseilles and thence to NW Europe.




Stuart, you might like to get yourself a copy of the Division’s history, written by one of the officers who was with it throughout the war. Some here, for example:

Fifth British Division by Aris - AbeBooks