Hi All, I hope someone might be able to help regarding the above unit in Normandy during 1944. My father, Cpl. Sam Whitaker, was the ration NCO in 612 until he was flown home from Venlo in Holland after having his appendix out in the field hospital there spending the rest of the war at Aldershot. I would dearly like to be able to put more of a picture of their operations in Normandy from late June '44 onwards to help with following his footsteps there in August this year. I have checked the usual sources, books, Div history etc etc and sadly found very little of note. Do any War Diaries exist for them in 1944 if so where might I find them? Are there such things as day to day operational maps for particularly operations 'Epsom' and 'Goodwood'? There appears to be a couple of diaries at Kew one under 612 F.S. for 1945 and another for 612 'Coy' in 1944 could these be the same unit?? Furthermore, and this is a real long shot, does anyone have any photographs of them? Hoping someone could help however little. Peter,
Hi Peter and welcome to the forum There's two war diaries covering the whole of 1944 for this Company: WO 166/15316 612 Field Company 1944 Jan WO 171/1658 612 Field Company 1944 Feb-Dec I wouldn't be put off by the name not being Field Squadron, many files at Kew and incorrectly named. These should give you a day to day account of what the Coy/Sqn was doing and where they were doing it. There may be some maps in the files, although this is unlikely. Have you searched Epsom and Goodwood on the forum? I've copied some files on these Ops for members and they have been uploaded on to the forum. Regards Andy
Thanks Andy, I checked the War Diaries this week at Kew and copied the whole of 1943 and 1944 - excellent as you would expect. The detail in lots of cases confirmed what my late father had told me over the years but also included very many finer details even down to the LST they used to get to nan green on Juno beach. Peter
