Hello, long time Lurker

I've been searching this site on and off over the past few years whilst researching family members.

Currently I'm gathering all the information I can about my father Jim Kane who joined the 4th RTR prior to WW2. He was sent to France with the BEF then evacuated from Dunkirk and then subsequently went to North Africa and was captured at Tobruk when it fell in June 1942. He was a POW in Italy then Germany until the end of the war.

He told me many stories and I'm trying to knit those together with his regiment's movements. I've been recently reading books on Dunkirk and Tobruk and accounts from the IWM. My aim is to document his war years for my family for generations to come. I did a similar exercise a few years ago for my Great Uncles that fought at Passchendaele.

It's time to share some of the things I already know about my Dad and hope they may be of interest. I may need help with digging deeper into POW records for example, although I will search properly for resources on here first.

I'll start by posting detail on the RAC & RTR forum as that looks the best starting point. I've got some photos of him plus a few artefacts, like his badges, tunic and POW letters.

Trooper Jim Kane 7888879 4th RTR service timeline

 

Welcome John. I look forward to seeing how your research develops on the forum. As you will already know, there are some very knowledgeable people on here, especially with the POW side of things. Good luck going forward.

 

Hello and welcome to the forum John.

Lesley

 

Welcome, John!

I am interested in seeing what you post and if I know anything helpful I will try to contribute.

 

Good to see you.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

Welcome to the forum John.

 

Have a 7888879 Trooper J.A. Kane, 4RTR, MISSING 27/05/1940. Amended to NOT Missing 6/6/1940. 20/06/1942 posted as missing, believed POW. 1943 Listed as being held in Campo 70, Italy. 1944 listed as being held in Camp 4f Germany, pow number 250568

 

Yes that's my Dad, thanks for that information where did you find it 51highland ?

He went missing at Dunkirk and had quite a journey home. He swam out to HMS Wakeful which was torpedoed and sunk within 15 seconds, I'll elaborate on another thread when I get time. He got home in time to answer the door to receive this telegram to his parents:



The other dates are when he was captured at the fall of Tobruk in 1942, then shipped to Italy to PG 70.

His tag from Stalag IV-F

 

Find my past

 

Hi John, I can see it's been a while since you posted and hope this reaches you.

From the personnel list in the War Diary from 1939 I can see that 7888879 J Kane was a Private serving with the Battalion HQ of 4RTks.

Lots of personnel from the 4th and 7th Battalions went missing on 27th May - many just got lost on their way to Dunkirk harbour for early evacuation and ended up on the beaches rather than at the docks where there were allocated boats. Some men were also still fighting on the 27th but there's very little detail on who stayed with which part - evac or fighting. Nevertheless there were equal chances of getting lost with the 'fighting' portion' and a much longer trip to the evacuation area.
It would be interesting to hear your dad's story, especially if he ever mentioned his mates or the officers as this can really help to narrow down where (in a battalion) a man served.

I hope this reaches you...

 

Hi LondonNik I am very pleased you have replied. I see you have found my main thread and will reply to you on there. Thanks, John

https://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/trooper-jim-kane-7888879-4th-rtr-service-timeline.105329

 

Additional Information to the LondonNik #11 post

I researched my grandfather who according to his personal records rejoined his unit on 27 June 1940, while his unit War Diary indicated the unit itself had returned from Boulogne on 23 May. From this and other units I researched, and by looking at the evacuation planning for Operation Dynamo in TNA, I saw that there were two categories which troops fell into at Dover. (I only suspect it was the same at other ports).
Any unit that arrived in some degree of coherent form with senior officers among them was sent on one train as a group to a location taken from a centralised list drawn up under the Dynamo plan where it was to reform. Stragglers were those who arrived at Dover with no officer, even when there was a group with NCO among them. They were put on a separate train which when full or 20 minutes elapsed were sent from Dover to one of the regional command areas to be put in a hastily opened General Base Depot. A GDB local to me had other ranks from several different infantry battalions in the camp whose badges were collected by a local schoolboy which I have seen. I think significantly that most were missing items of clothing or boots, indicating they had swum, hence I think small boat survivors, not men off the mole. It took until the end of June to process the thousands of stragglers who ended up in this GBD from Dynamo, Cycle and Aerial and get them on trains back to the HQ location of their unit.