My uncle was Signalman Frank Laurie Richards 2581935,2nd Armd. Div. Sigs., Royal Corps Signals. He died in action between 27th April and 30th April 1941 in Operation Demon. Apart from tracing his name on face number 4 of the memorial stone at the Phaleron War Graves Cemetery in Greece I have not so far been able to establish what happened to him during the evacuation of Greece. Any help would be appreciated.
What really happened with 'Operation Demon' a further search of this site (using the search facility) gives - http://ww2talk.com/index.php?search/3745795/&q=Operation+Demon&o=relevance TD BBC - WW2 People's War - "Operation Demon" H.M.S. Hero. https://www.history.com/this-day-in...s-its-evacuation-of-greece-in-operation-demon Evacuation of the British Expeditionary Forces from Greece - TracesOfWar.com
Hi I visited the CWGC cemetery at Pharelon back in May. Here is a pic I took of face 4 of the Athens War Memorial. Hope this helps Gus
Hi That is very kind of you, but I visited the cemetery in June of this year and also took a photo of face 4. Regards Keith
Keith, I think there are some “missing” personnel files at Kew which cover those lost at sea during Op “Demon”. You might have to work your way through them one by one though to try to identify which ship your uncle was on. I’ve got quite a lot of war diaries from Greece especially for the British armoured brigade - I’ll see what I can dig up. There are definitely plans that contain lists of units against evacuation beaches so that might narrow down your search somewhat. Regards Tom
Keith, There are a couple of war diaries for 2 Armd Div signals at Kew: WO169/1150 and WO169/1151. They are both for Jan - Feb 41 though, so will not have any information re DEMON but might explain how your uncle ended up in Greece (I expect as part of 1 Armoured Brigade Signal Squadron, but I'm not sure). The "missing" personnel files for the evacuation from Greece start around: W361/139 - Casualties at sea, Mediterranean (evacuation of Greece and Crete): HMS Diamond, sunk on 27 April 1941; had picked up survivors from SS Slamat and Pennland. I assume that these will contain some sort of record of who the authorities thought was on each ship - but given the very few survivors from some of the sinkings during DEMON I'm afraid you won't know until you open up the first files. I hope that helps. Regards Tom
Thank you everyone for your assistance I will look into all of your links and hopefully achieve some facts around the mystery of Operation Demon. Regards Keith
Keith, It looks like this file would be your best bet: WO361/1026 - Middle East: Greece, North Africa; 2nd Armoured Division, Royal Corps of Signals - enquiries into missing personnel. Middle East: Greece, North Africa; 2nd Armoured Division, Royal Corps of Signals | The National Archives There are a few guys on this site who regularly go to Kew and who can be paid to copy the file for you. Regards Tom
Keith, Both Andy (username Drew 5233) and Lee (username Psywar.Org) run TNA copying services and can be contacted by clicking on their user names and starting a conversation with them. Good luck with your research, Tom
9th KRRC transferred from 2nd Support Group to 1st Armoured Brigade for the Greek Campaign. They had a signal detachment from No 2 Squadron commanded by LCpl Ted Jones. The composition of that detachment appears to have been: LCpl E G Jones Sig L W Jackson Sig F L Richards Sig G Wood These 4 men are all shown as having last been paid on 20.2.41 on an acquittance roll for No 2 Squadron 2ndArmoured Divisional Signals, at which time it was still in Tahag Camp in Egypt. About half of that Squadron became attached to No 3 Squadron for the Greece campaign. They became the crew of a 15 cwt wireless truck, also known as a “Bread Van”, belonging to 1st Armoured Brigade Signal Squadron. When the fighting started on 12th April, they were out on detachment as a rear link with one of the units in the Brigade. Their truck was hit and destroyed in an air raid on or around 15th April somewhere south of Grevena. The crew survived, presumably having extracted themselves from the vehicle before it was hit. They were then transported south by another unit and ended up in Nauplion, where they almost certainly boarded the SS Slamat. The Slamat was bombed and all personnel extracted onto HMS Diamond and HMS Wryneck on 27 April. Those 2 destroyers were bombed and sunk with few survivors a few hours later en route to Crete. Hope that helps.