What I've found so far thanks to Wikipedia Meanwhile, the HQs of 1st and 2nd London Corps Engineers had re-amalgamated in 1943 and become 18th (1st London) GHQTRE.[4][19][75] In the North West Europe campaign it had the following units under command at various times:[75][86][88] 74th Field Company 84th Field Company 91st Field Company 173rd Field Company 213th (North Midland) Field Company 940th Inland Water Transport Company) Of these, 74th, 84th and 91st were former Chemical Warfare Companies converted into Field Companies in 1943, while 173rd (a former Railway Tunnelling Company) and 213th had been brought back from the Italian Front. On D-Day, 18th GHQTRE provided the RE HQ for 101 Beach Sub-area (5 and 6 Beach Groups) supporting 3rd Division's assault on Sword Beach:[86][87] 84th Field Company 91st Field Company 8th & 9th Stores Sections 50th Mechanical Equipment Section 205th Works Section 654th Artisan Works Company 722nd Artisan Works Company Two Advanced Park Sections of 176th Workshops and Park Company 49th Bomb Disposal Section 999th Port Operating Company 1028th Port Operating Company After the success of the landings, 18th GHQTRE reverted to commanding its own units, except 940th Inland Water Transport Company, which transferred to 9th Port Operating Group after D-Day.
The only mention of them in the 'History of the Corps of Royal Engineers Vol IX' is that they were 'available' for the bridging and route clearance in preparation for GOODWOOD in July. Drew should be able to sort you with the war diary, they are usually fairly thin for RE Fd Coys.
Cheers. The relative I'm researching died on 14th June which I think was before GOODWOOD. I can't figure out whether he went ashore on D-Day in the days after. I really need to put in a request for his service records to see if they shed any light on what he was doing up to his death. From an obit posted by another member I gather he was in the desert for the first 4 years of the war.
His service records should record, amongst other things, the unit he was with and the date he left the UK in 1944.
Going by the war diary refs numbers it looks like the unit was actually a Chemical Warfare Company until late 1942. They deployed overseas to the Middle East (North Africa, Palestine etc) around June 1942 and returned in January 1944 to prepare for the invasion of NW Europe.
One reasonable hope is that his death could be mentioned in the war diary. The smaller the unit, and the further back it is, the more likely it is that individuals get mentioned. Obviously, that's not guaranteed...
Yeah, that would tie in with what I've found so far (which isn't much admittedly). There is a big thread on Sword Beach on this forum but I didn't turn up any info there either. I'll post an update when I get hold of his service records.
