Hi, I've been looking for information on Lines of Communication, specifically HQ Area 83, at Capuzzo and then Benghazi 1941-43, for a number of years. But there is very little information out there. Basically my Father was called up 14th November 1940 to the Hampshire Regiment. After training he sailed to Egypt arriving Suez 13 June 1941. Whilst waiting to be transported to Malta as part of the garrison he was seconded to HQ Area 83, Lines of Communication as a Bateman. His main role was to act as security to officers when travelling, once accompaning the Long Range Desert group whilst acting as personal bodyguard to a 'sciencist'. After Malta was relieved he rejoined his unit 1st Battalion Hants Regiment, as bren gunner, for the invasion of Tunisia, on to Sicily and Italy and then recalled for special training for D-Day, landed Gold Beach, first wave, and was wounded the next morning attacking the radar station above Arromanches. Anyway do you have any information about Area 83, 1941-43? Regards Steve
Sub Area HQs were administrative HQs that served a geographic area that was determined based on need. In September 1941 when Eighth Army was created it had directly assigned to it 83, 86, 87, 91 Sub Areas and 88 (Tobruch) Base Sub Area. Units under the Sub Area HQs were postal units, CRE works units, bomb disposal units, and personnel holding units. The Sub Areas took control behind the frontline. All the best Andreas
Hi Andreas (and Rabaul), I'm trying to map the geographical extents of the Eighth Army Sub Areas and was wondering if you had ever seen an annotated map or a list of the places associated with the Sub Areas? I can't seem to find one. The unit I'm researching (Libyan Arab Force) move around Libya and Egypt and move under the command of various sub areas and I am trying to tie the locations they are in to the Sub Areas. It gets extra complicated as each battalion can be dispersed with companies 100 miles or more away from each other, so I'm working on a map to try and visualise data! Any suggestions?
The sub areas for the most part didn't have defined areas I think, as the battles ranged over such wide space. The big exception being the Tobruk one I believe. So this changes a lot in terms of area of coverage during the war in North Africa. All the best Andreas
As for LAF, can I ask what your interest is? The Libyan Arab Force during the Second World War - The National Archives blog All the best Andreas
Great, that helps! In fact, since I wrote that, I've just read a war diary entry where the Mersa Matruh Sub Area changes from 91 to 83 on 1 May 9142. As for the LAF, I'm writing up a PhD on them as a distance learning student at King's College, London. In essence, they don't have a unit history and pop up in strange places and lack a coherent narrative. My grandfather was 2 i/c of 2LAF and commanded that Bn for a stint at Tobruk. I found a hand written CV of his in a box of papers about 5 years ago and the more I looked for information about the LAF the less I found, so I decided to put my curiosity to use and go for a PhD. (My supervisor will be surprised that I've managed to explain that in less than 2,000 words
Interesting. Afraid I only have some of the WD of 3 LAF. Which unit was he with before he ended with 2 LAF? Who is your supervisor if I may ask? All the best Andreas
Of course, so my grandfather was an older Emergency Reserve Officer (b. 1906), cap badged to the RA but it appears from his service record that as a polyglot he was working in intelligence gathering. His mother was Austrian, so he spoke fluent and idiomatic German, fluent but Allo Allo style French, good Arabic, plus ancient Greek and Latin. Less call for the Greek and Latin I imagine! He had been in the Sudan Political Service in the 1920s as a District Magistrate, so he had cultural knowledge of Berber Arab society, which was the main ethnic identity of the Cyreanican refugee Senussi. He was posted to Egypt in late August 1939 and joined the LAF on its creation in August 1940 (then known as the British Arab Force). He was with 2 LAF until the end of 1942 when he was sent on secondment to the Ministry of Information for a year in Damascus and Beirut (Spears Mission), then back to HQ in Cairo for what appears to be a branch of SOE dealing with Albania. James Marcus Lyon, who is better known for his SAS and SOE experience and parachuting into Albania was an officer in 1/LAF having joined them on 2 July 41, so there are all sorts of 'social network' connections within the LAF. In fact Lyons was 1 LAF's Adjutant. My grandfather returned to Britain in 1944 and was posted to the WO in Civil Affairs and promoted full Col. In January 1945, he began working on an Inter-Allied security committee for policing and de-Nazification of Berlin alongside an American contingent but was not sent out to Germany until later in 1945 when he was based in Hamburg. After the war, he transferred to a Regular Commission and the RAEC. By 1955 he was the acting Brigadier, Chief Education Officer in Eltham Palace. The whlole story becomes more complicated because my grandmother and her father were both working for the Free French. My great-grandfather was a Free French volunteer for MI9 interrogation of Italian PoWs and his daughter, my grandmother was secretary to General Philibert Collett (a Deuxieme Bureau officer). In fact, the way I got into the research sounds like a John Le Carre novel, but I will leave that for another time! All in all, the LAF was just the start of finding out my grandparents' story and I still don't have all of it. However, I will (in a few months, I hope) have a history of the LAF! The grandparents are going to have to wait until the PhD thesis is done. The backbone of my research has three strands. Firstly, a 'chaps and maps' component to just explain what they were actually doing through a detailed chronology; the second and third strands are biographical. One of them is British personnel and the other Arab. Strangely, the size of the LAF has never been proved but an academic from the University of Benghazi has been kind enough to share a photocopy of the Arab nominal roll, currently held in the archive in Tripoli, so I have names and numbers which I have been triangulating with the war diaries. Obviously, a trip to Libya is not on the cards at the moment. I have some 'spreadsheets of doom' that I am currently trying to tease into something coherent. So, for me, maps and diagrams help. Hence the question. My supervisors are both from the KCL Defence Studies Department, Prof. Ashley Jackson and Dr Alex Wilson. The scholar who was the expert is Dr Saul Kelly but he has just retired (although he's been very kind and chatted to me I doubt he would know who I am!). Elizabeth Gardner
If you'd like a "catch-up" on Liz's previous WW2 content Andreas here you go: Help to identify a vehicle WDLO (Western Desert Liaison Officers) There's some fascinating stuff within that Liz has turned up as a result of her research, some content I think you may have come across during your own research Andreas. Kind regards, always, Jim. EDIT: And I've just had a catch up with that second thread myself and I see you've very much contributed to it Andreas!
