Help with Grandads service records: 119/268 & 92nd Field Regiments, RA

Great stuff, thank you.

I think I may pop Derek a message, cheers.

 

I have become somewhat personally interested in the early postings.
1.1.40 Posted to 268 Field Battery if this was exactly so 268th Battery was based at Trinity Road, Dudley, here there was not a lot of space for training as it originally stabled horses. Most of their training was carried out in Redditch a more rural area. (Dudley was in Worcestershire until 1971).
However after a Medical reclassification he was posted to RHQ 119 Field Regiment.
This was where I was an Army Cadet in the early 1960's.
It was in Easemore Road Redditch then on the outskirts of the town. It had fairly good garage and training facilities for guns and vehicles and a concrete parade ground.
Down the road in the Abbey Meadows there was ample room for fieldcraft training.
When I was a Cadet it was HQ Battery 267 Field Regt. with Q stores and training facilities for Signals and Survey.

In June 1940 61 Division moved to Northern Ireland partly due to fear of a German invasion there but mainly due to the training facilities available for the whole Division.
Your relative stayed there until taking embarkation leave in June 1942 after which he was posted to Woolwich in August. Probably to organise stores etc. for the embarkation to follow.
He embarked for Egypt on 24 Oct 1942 having been Taken on Strength X List RA (reserve) in Middle East Force Disembarking at Egypt Base Depot RA.3rd Jan 43.
He remained on X List Granted SSP (Support Staff Posting?) until posted to 92 Field Regt on 25.5.43.
Others can help you on this next phase of his war.

 

Disregarding Norway. One item worth reading : 61st Infantry Division (United Kingdom) - Wikipedia
You will gain an appreciation of what 119th were doing in Northern Ireland.
Sorry thats all that I can offer for now.
Good luck.

 

Have you had a look at his Royal Artillery Tracer card. You can find them online. I should imagine it will say on there.

 

I have these but no mention of the Bty should I be looking for something else?

 

Many people overlook their County Archives, worth a try but Covid has created problems getting into them and some records are being centralised in the NA for digitalization at some time.
You need to know and be able to recognise what you are looking for when reading the documents such as peoples names, units etc. I find the catalogues difficult to follow but just ask the staff.
I contacted Worcester Archives in The Hive and was surprised to find invaluable documents deposited by members of the Regiment over the years.
The staff were largely ignorant of what they were, with the exception of one lady who had been there for years when they were deposited.
In the 1990's (50th Anniversary of WW2) many people gave audio testimonies for the BBC Peoples War Project they were largely done in County Archives or libraries and the written transcriptions held in the Archive vaults, many seemingly un-catalogued.
In Worcester you can register and go in for free then either pay for their photographer to make copies for you (charged by the hour) or photograph them yourself for a small fee. I suspect its the same elsewhere.
Its also worth trying to speak to the Regiments old HQ TA Centre now called Army Reserve Centre if it exists. Ultimately there is Lark Hill once the RA School of Gunnery. They are having planning problems at the moment but the staff will help if they have the records there if not is the National Archives. It all depends on where you live and where the Regiment was raised.

 

Have you tried this: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/61820/

I have used the Royal Engineers ones and they tell you which squadron soldiers served in so the Royal Artillery ones may tell you which battery's soldiers served in. His service number helps.

 

Stew, I have just discovered this photo while I clear my loft ready for moving house (I know, I keep boring you all about that).

I’ve found a couple of his photo albums, which mainly seem to be snapshots of places taken on the Division’s “globetrotting”, although I’ve yet to really look hard at them. Saving that for when I get to the new place and can focus properly on something other than bloody boxes!

Anyway, separate to those albums, I found the following photo, which is annotated on the reverse, showing what must be 368 Battery in Niederkrüchten, Germany in 1945 (the DRAMA report shows that 368 were there from late June to August: 365 were at Pützchensweg and 467 at Otzenrath). As you want to know which battery your grandad was in, I wasn’t sure if you could see him in this photo?)

 

There was also this one, but no note on the reverse, so no idea where, or when, it was taken. I suspect, however, that it predates your grandad joining the regiment; it may even be prewar, given that it is not dissimilar to the other photo of the regiment I posted here previously and which I attach again here for comparison. The officer seated fourth from the left in the first photo is certainly the same man as seated in the identical position in the second, previously posted, photo:

 

As per the above post re finding photos, I now know that I do, in fact, hold some of the actual photographs here. The second photo in the above post does have a note on the back “This was taken at our first stopping place in India”.

The DRAMA report says that the Regiment arrived in Bombay on 16 May 1942 and disembarked and entrained for Kirchee on the 17th, spending the rest of that month preparing to move to Ranchi. Thus I’m guessing the photo was taken in Kirchee in May 1942.