Hi, I am trying to interpret some information on a Royal Engineer's tracer card. A lot of the pencil marking appear to be illegible near the top of the document however below that I can make out BEF 24-1-40. However below that there is some more writing which I am unsure of, it looks like it could be bomb disposal section perhaps with a company number in front? Any thoughts / ideas on this would be great help. Thanks.
Does look like 'BD Sec' which would be Bomb Disposal Section. However, bit unsure of the numbers in front -70 crossed through and 72. It was early days for Royal Engineers bomb disposal and I believe up to the end of June 1940 there had only been 25 BD sections formed. At the end of June another 109 sections were authorized. Having said that below looks like 15/6/40 (1 BD Sec).
Yes it does look like 1 BD Sec, however looking online it states that 1 BD Sec wasn’t formed until 1 January 1941 at Newcastle which wouldn’t add up.
Is there anywhere online that lists all bomb disposal units in the Royal Engineers, as I am struggling to find anything at all?
1 Coy. | The National Archives 1 Coy. | The National Archives 1 Coy. | The National Archives 1 Bomb Disposal Coy. R.E. | The National Archives 1 B.D. Coy. | The National Archives
Bomb Disposal and the British Casualties of WWII Chris Ransted Bomb Disposal in WWII (National Archives) by Chris Ransted: New Hardcover (2017) 1st Edition | The Spoken Word
Thanks Tricky Dicky for the book plug! Unfortunately, there's no list of 'all' RE BD units online, or anywhere-else for that matter. There appeared to be no rhyme or reason to the way sections were allocated to companies and their numbering. This is made even more confusing by the fact that sections were frequently 'temporarily' transferred between different Companies at times of high demand. For example, in April 1941 after Plymouth was heavily bombed, 4 Sections, (182, 183, 185 and 189 sections), of 19 BD Company based in Bedford, went and worked under 7 BD Company in Plymouth for a couple of weeks. A good on-line rough guide to where Companies were, can be found at https://www.bombdisposalclub.org.uk/bomb-disposal-history/ under the heading NEW COMPANIES RISE TO THE CHALLENGE. However, this doesn't help with sections within the companies. I believe a member of the Royal Engineers BD Assc is currently attempting to create a spreadsheet annotating which sections were with which companies, and if a war diary for that unit is held at The National Archives. Its a very long term project. I know from experience there are huge gaps in the war diaries for Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal units. Not really surprising considering that at the time they were more concerned with getting a job done, than creating a record for us future generations! George - Is there a specific individual you are interested in?
By the way - there was no 13 BD Company. Was this a standard practice when numbering British military units?
It’s great book, not long finished reading it. I didn’t realise that about the sections moved to different companies makes it difficult to track certain personnel. That sounds like a great project, interesting to see once complete. Yes, the individual I am interested in is R W Waite, my great grandfather, service no. 1903305. The tracer card in the original post is his. It looks to me like 72 BD Sec and 1 BD Sec. Do you know what companies these sections were with? I am sure his service record will detail all, which I hopefully should receive soon as I applied around 13 months ago.
I believe 1 BD Section came under 2 BD Company based in London, and 72 BD Section came under 1 BD Company based in Newcastle, (along with sections 11, 27, 28 and 59. - See what I mean about the numbering seeming random). I think your best bet is to wait until you see what his service record says to get accurate details of dates and units. If you do then find a corresponding war diary, generally they only mention the names of the officers, but you may find some information as to where the section operated and what they were up to.
