90th (City of London) Field Regiment

I have just posted this photo in another thread, but thought it should go here as well. This is my father's unit: A Troop, 357 Battery in Holland.

Can anyone tell me the precise location and date - I know there are a few other photos of other RA units taken at the same session.

 

Second photo of my father from same session - Signals Section (he was Driver / Operator).

 

I have just posted this photo in another thread, but thought it should go here as well. This is my father's unit: A Troop, 357 Battery in Holland.

Can anyone tell me the precise location and date - I know there are a few other photos of other RA units taken at the same session.

Great photo. Thanks for sharing. That must be ATTACKER II in the background.

I take it you know of this excellent site? There are troop photos here too.

90 Field Regiment

That looks to be the same background and the photos states that is possibly "Roosendaal, Holland 1944"

If you have any more please share.

Cheers
Kevin

 

Yes, I have seen that site, Kevin, thanks. Some of the officers / NCOs also reappear in other photos posted on there, so definitely same time and place. My dad's memory had this as "Holland 1945" (can't blame him for forgetting, and he's no longer around to check details with) but I'm hoping to scrutinise the regimental diary for the 90th to track their movements through Europe.

I have very few photos from NWE campaign apart from these: just two passport booth shots he had done in Brussels and Antwerp respectively (but this would be during his time with his first regiment 191st which was disbanded in December 1944). I'll dig these out and put them on the 191st thread. Post war my dad bought a camera and was posted to Burma with 27th Field Regiment - got lots of unique photos of his troop on firing practice etc. but that's a different regiment (and thread I suppose).

 

Just a thought - my father was posted to the 90th on 20th January 1945, so this was definitely 1945, not 1944.

 

Just a thought - my father was posted to the 90th on 20th January 1945, so this was definitely 1945, not 1944.

Hi Oates,

Sorry. I wasn't doubting your fathers dates, the photos for 357 Battery on that site do have a ? against Roosendaal and looking at the diary on the first page it seems that they didn't move there until December 1944 anyway. So with Christmas coming, cleaning up the colours, R and R, bombing up ( is that a US term ?), arrival on new crews etc that would take them into January. So if your father wasn't posted to them until the 20th and with his photos and the diary dates / photos it looks as though they were there for well over a month.

cheers
Kevin

 

Hi Oates,
Checked out the photos you posted but can't see my father. He was wounded at Nijmegen in October 1944 and was flown back to hospital in Swansea. so the photos are probably from 1945 as you note.
Curt

 

The photographs show the Troops wearing the 50th (Northumbrian) Division shoulder flash (like my avatar) and Fifty Div reverted to a Training Cadre on 30 November 1944, and the 90th Field Regiment, RA, left Fifty Div on that date.

The War Diary shows the 90th Field Regiment, RA, at Roosendaal, Holland, on that date.

I think this could be the 'end of term' photographs taken at Roosendaal on or around the 30 November 1944.

Best,

Steve.

 

The photographs show the Troops wearing the 50th (Northumbrian) Division shoulder flash (like my avatar) and Fifty Div reverted to a Training Cadre on 30 November 1944, and the 90th Field Regiment, RA, left Fifty Div on that date.

The War Diary shows the 90th Field Regiment, RA, at Roosendaal, Holland, on that date.

I think this could be the 'end of term' photographs taken at Roosendaal on or around the 30 November 1944.

Best,

Steve.

Steve

The information in my earlier post (#5) pretty much proves that these photos were not taken earlier than 20th January 1945.

 

Its an interesting one on the TT div sign. My dad 'inferred' that it was an unofficial practice that was overlooked as 50 Div were very highly regarded and it was a bit of an 'old sweats thing'. If you look closely - they wear the 1st Corps sign on both arms - but only a single TT sign on the right arm.

Dad referred to the building in the background as a 'school' - it certainly has that look about it.

Chris

 

I notice the TT insignia is worn lower down the arm by some of the men.
The 1st Corps spearhead being worn higher.
http://miliblog.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/clothbritpostwarcorps/1-corps-printed.jpg

I'm wondering if those chaps with the 50th TT badge were allowed to keep it on after they'd left the Div.

When were they allowed to wear collar & tie with battledress ? I know it was late war .
I'm thinking it maybe just Post-War to be honest , any opinions?

My father was in NWE until July 1945, so could be post VE day.

 

I would suggest that the date of the photos is mid 1945 - the variety of shirt colours (some of them will likely be private) while the use of anklets, web and boots rather than shoes may well be May 1945, with some smartening up creeping in. Some of the chaps wearing closed collars also reinforces this.

These are only my thoughts, though, not gospel!

 

Also, don't forget, the 50th Div still existed in May 1945.

 

Hello Guys,

I think you are right about the photograph being post 30 November 1944; even though Fifty Div were now a Training Cadre and effectively in suspended animation in the UK, until being sent overseas again circa 31 August 1945 as British Ground Forces Norway.

Further evidence for this is:

1) Oliver Perks Blog 'Photo Album' - Pages 11 (bottom left), 13 (botton middle) and 15 (botton middle), show 90th Field Regiment troops, including the Commanding Officer, wearing the 'TT' arm flash; and these photographs were taken between March and May 1945: Oliver Perks' Wartime Blog - Photo Album Page 11 ; and

2) Pieter's (handle 'stolpi') Ardennes thread - The photograph at Message #1 shows a Fifty Div TAC sign in the Ardennes in January 1945. We believe this relates to 25 LAA Regiment, which by then had transferred to the 53rd (Welsh) Division: http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/nw-europe/40835-50th-division-ardennes.html click on the photograph to enlarge the view.

Throughout my reading on the dispersment of Fifty Div units post 30 November 1944 there appeared to be a continuous battle over orders to lose the 'TT' sign.

A great post... thanks.

Best,

Steve.

 

Photos from the same sessions in Oliver Perks Blog are given as Holland, February 1945, so I'm inclined to believe this is the correct date of these photos - everything else in Oliver Perks' archives is precisely dated and annotated, so I think these photos will be as well.

 

I think I recall reading in Harry Moses' history of the 9th DLI that some TT patches and markings continued in unofficial use after the unit joined 7th Armoured. The 9th was an original element of the 50th so that's not surprising, but 90th Field was a London unit that did not join the 50th until just before the invasion of Sicily. Evidently the 90th had since come to identify itself strongly with the 50th.

 

Hi, just a quick update regarding these photographs. I have managed to tie down the location where the images were taken.

The photographs were taken (probably Feb 1945) in Schoolstraat, Nieuw-Vossemeer, North Brabant, Holland. The attractive two storey cottage that appears in many of the photographs was the home of the Headmaster of the local boys school. The boys school was situated to the right of the house (as you look at the photograph), set back from the road in its own yard or playground. It is this school building that provides a backdrop to the other group photographs, I believe the troops were billeted in this building while in Nieuw-Vossemeer. The large building to the left of the cottage (as you look at the photograph) was the Nazareth Convent.

The Headmasters house still stands on Schoolstraat - a very nice property, now with an updated facade and the removal of the balustrade above the bow window. The Nazareth Convent also received a make-over in the 70's and is now the Gemeentehuis (Town Hall). Sadly, the boys school (and later a youth club/centre) was demolished in the 80s to make way for new housing.


https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5880914,4.2192514,3a,75y,296.1h,83.32t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZ3RpOsrIMWM0BaJ_4GOuLg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

Thanks for this - very impressive detective work...

 

My grandfather was in B troop and when I get a chance I will upload some of his pictures