I'm undertaking some research to determine the names of the 10 men of 61 Battery 14 AR RA who were reported as missing after the battle of Assche on 18 May 1940. I'm wondering if anyone has access to WO 417/12 War Office Army Casualty Lists Other Ranks 201-226, 1940 May 10 – 1940 June 08 and can check for any 14 AR RA men missing or captured on 18 May. I'm aware that FMP has this file but I don't believe they have the search criteria to narrow down the search to a manageable number. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
You are correct, difficult, if not impossible to narrow down the search to be of use. They will only be indexed under 'Royal Artillery' and in WO 417/12 for the year 1940 there are 824 hits. The other problem is that they are unlikely to be reported all together, names were not published until the NOK had been advised so they are likely to be spread over several lists. See the Hansard link here for background information: Casualty List No. 1 The front page states that it covers the period 10/5/40 to 8/6/40 so perhaps joining up and trawling through may not be an impossible task but there are 345 pages in total. Suggest you choose a wet weekend!
Decided not to wait for the snowstorm and opted for several days of wet weather. After scanning through about 250 pages I found the men in question. Of the initial 18 missing men, 4 were wounded and captured along with another 7 men being captured with another 7 men being able to avoid capture and return to the regiment. Of the wounded L/Sgt. G.G.C. Heath suffered a fractured skull and died several days later on 21/05/40 in a Brussels hospital. (I found his casualty card) Given that the battery lost a lot of equipment including 7 Hotchkiss 25 mm AT guns , 7 of their Bedford 15 cwt trucks and 5 other trucks it seems likely that some of the German victors must have snapped a few pictures of the carnage. So far I've yet to find any.
