Hello, After I was given my grandfathers medals from his time in the army by grandmother, I thought I would try to find out what he did during the war as he would never talk about his experiences, which is understandable, and my family are more or less completely in the dark over his service I have finally received my grandfathers service records after a 9 month wait, from his time spent in the Royal Engineers. The problem I have now is understanding them . From the records I received I have been able to see that he was a pre war regular signing up in 1937, apparently according to my nan because he had no where to live after his father remarried!! served in Palestine before the war then fought through the Africa campaign and then Sicily/Italy before returning to the UK in mid 1944. He was wounded, I think, at least 3 possibly 4 times, he was also mentioned in dispatches. The problem is that I only know the obvious as these are the first service records I have seen. I have done some basic research on the units he was with and it seems that he had quite a war so I thought I would let some one with more knowledge than me take a look. I have put the pages on that I think are the most important as I received a fair few of them. Any help or pointers in the right direction would be appreciated.
Hello and welcome. It's great that there is so much information on the records. Could you possible scan the first few the correct way up? Make it a lot easier to read! Lesley
From what I can decipher it looks like he mainly served in 141 Field Park Squadron until going on and off the X2 List - meaning he was taken off the strength of the unit due to being medically unfit. The war diaries for 141 Fld Pk Sqd are available at the National Archives, here are the references for 1941/42: WO 169/1885, 141 Fd. Pk. Sqn. (1941 Jan.- Dec.) WO 169/5275, 141 Fd. Pk. Sqn. (1942 Jan.- Dec.) Lee
Hello and welcome to the forum. Looks like he went to: 54 Field Coy Oct 39 Then a Boring Sec (can't make out which one)in Aug 1940 6 Boring Section in Nov 1940 Acting Lance Corporal 2 Engineer Work Shops in Oct 41 to for a short period. 113 DC Royal Engineers in Sept 43 and the unit was renamed in Jan 44 One of the docs suggests he was with 676 Artisan Coy RE at some point. I'm struggling to read the rest on a Sunday morning. Have you scanned or photographed the pages? If the pages are large its best to photograph the complete page (put it on the floor and stand over it) with one shot on a 5 to 6Mb + camera.
Thanks for that Drew you have confirmed my findings and shed furher light on it for me,i have photo' the records and uploaded them from my phone, i afraid its all i have, the camera is not quite as recomended but not to far off. My grandfather was in th 676 artisan works as my grandmother meet him around Warwick in 1945 while he was serving with them, its about the only part of his army service she knows about. As psywar posted he was also in the 141 firld park who, if i am right would eventualy be involved on the opening night od 2nd el Alamein where my grandfather was wounded??
