Any other contemporary unit histories at Company level?

Came across this on line before Christmas not my forte but someone might find it interesting: https://www.aspect-design.net/product-page/the-forgotten-squadron

 

Just got sent this picture of its cover...

 

Re Audio recordings: Are you aware that these are being collected for public consumption on the internet by a certain University Project. They are currently contacting relatives for permission to use them.
Not sure how many years they will spend waiting for replies or what Covid will do to slow them down but will let you know if I hear more.

 

I might be repeating myself (or others) here but I've been through my library and found these other 'small' units

67 AA S/L Bty RAA
210 Atk Bty -"Mars & Venus"
236 Atk Bty - "Tank alert"
226 HAA Bty
338 HAA Bty
79 LAA Bty
310 S/L Bty
474 S/L Bty
C Bty 12 RHA
A Trp/P Bty 1 Cdn Survey Regt
L Trp 33 Bty 7 NZ Atk Regt
6 Bty Natal Fd Arty

Surprisingly, all gunners!

 

Here's another lot. A bit of everything.

Recce Sqn 5 RDG - "First in, last out"
22 Dgns - "Achtung Minen!"
8 Hussars - "Troop Leader"
7 Fd Coy RE
209 Fd Coy RE - "Platoon commander"
50 RTR - "Wartime adventures of B Sqn Corpse"
D Coy R Ir Fusiliers - "Say not the struggle" (France 1940)
R Northumberland F - "Diary of a soldier"
Somerset LI - "18 Platoon"
Welsh Gds - "Ensign in Italy"

And, very different!
15054 A.M.E.S. - "Off the war with 054" (RAF radar in Normandy, etc)
502 M.A.C. - "What a wat to win a war" (ATS, Motor Ambulance Convoy)

Now I'll go away and hide! Cheers.

 

"Mars and Venus" is new to me. Then again I've never tracked down a copy of "Tank Alert" either.

 

M & V is a very small book, mainly about the BEF. The author was in action near where the Wormhoudt Massacre took place. Interesting in a very personal way: not much militarily. cheers

 

Are these contemporary unit histories? I did look up a few, which seemed to be biographies written at least several decades after the end of WW2. Probably great books, but not the purpose of this thread (see post #1)...

 

I take your point and you are correct. Certainly some of those I have listed are partly or mostly biographical but they are all based on small unit diaries, official or unofficial. Most were printed/published immediately after the war and most of the others based on diaries that ended with the war and lay around abandoned until publication in the 80's & 90's (when publishers suddenly realised there might be a market?).
I try to collect those books which add to my knowledge of the way it was on the ground. The War Office (politicians & the Civil Service mainly but the General Staff as well) have never approved or supported the production of unit histories by the workers. This is in direct contrast to New Zealand where every effort was made to produce proper unit histories, as well as the official histories. Special monographs were also produced (like L Troop, 33 Bty).
That being the case, I'll take what I can get! Some, like Platoon Commander, are more biographical but have real military content and context. "Achtung Minen" and "Flamethrower" are personal memoirs based on personal diaries. So was Peter White's "With the Jocks" which was hidden away for 50 years. But what would we have if we didn't have them?

 

Five anti-tank battery histories I am aware of:

Point Blank/Open Sights [1st Airlanding Anti-Tank Battery R.A.].

A Short History of an Anti-Tank Battery during the campaign in North-West Europe 1944/45 [45 Anti-Tank Battery/20 Anti-Tank Regiment].

171 Battery, 67th (East Surrey) Anti-Tank Regiment, R.A.

To North West Europe with 196 Battery, 73rd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery.

245 A/Tk Battery, Royal Artillery 1939-1945 [62nd Anti-Tank Regiment, R.A.]

Also, an excellent resource I have found for Royal Armoured Corps histories is ‘British Armoured Formations 1939 - 1945, A Bibliography’ that lists all the RAC titles mentioned here plus many, many more.

I acquired my copy a while back at a military book fair, but it's available direct from the author at www.tankfactory.co.uk.

The site also lists ‘Supplement No 1, bringing the bibliography up to date with new and not previously discovered titles.’

 

Good information - none of which I have recorded on my 'wish list'! Another I don't have is "Ours was not the glory" 236 Bty/ 59 Atk Regt. Thanks for that!

 

Thank you Christian and sorry to have added yet more titles to your 'wish list'! The 236 Bty/59 ATk Regt history you mention is an interesting new one to me, although there is a similarly titled memoir 'Ours was not the Glory' by a Peter Johnstone who served in 152 Battery, 93rd Anti-Tank Regt, RA (Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders) in Italy

 

Here are some additional RA Battery histories
Anon ‘History of DD. (Jerboa) Battery, Royal Horse Artillery’
Anon ‘The Diary of 85 (Essex) Medium Battery, Royal Artillery, 1943-1945’
Anon The History of the 65th Canadian Anti-Tank Battery, 9 September 1941 – 20 September 1945.
Rimmer, BSM T G and Boyle, Gnr H C The Story of the 69th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery RCA 69th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery - 4th Canadian Anti-Aircraft Regiment

 

You are quite correct - I followed the wrong line across the spreadsheet though (confusingly) I have it listed as J Troop! The 236 Atk Bty is from Tank Alert which I've mentioned previously!
Sheldrake mentions 65 Atk Bty & 69 LAA Bty RCA which I also have listed but not 51 Atk Bty 1 Cdn Atk Regt RCA by Lt Col HM Jackson ( which I know nothing else about). There's also "Stick to the guns" 10 Fd Bty by Duquemin which may have only been published in French and "39th Field Battery RCA" by Holberton.

There are probably many others hidden away!

 

You're right, Peter Johnstone was in J Troop, 152 Bty, 93rd ATk (A&SH)

 

Hi everyone

I'm looking for Algiers to Austria: A history of 78 Division in the Second World War

Would anyone, who owns the book, be willing to share the pages relating to the military campaign in Italy with me?

 

I have copies of the "To northwest Europe, with 196 battery, 73rd Anti tank regiment." Can send a digital copy to anyone interested

 

Yes please!!!

 

I'd be very interested in that too!

Incidentally, I think I have a digital copy of a history of 4th Canadian Anti-Tank Battery (60 page booklet). I can't remember if they were in 2nd or 3rd Canadian Anti-Tank Regiment, offhand. edit: now I can't remember if I photographed the whole thing, but that is something I could do.

 

I need these Coy War Diaries in my Collection, tgey look amazing