Ordnance Field Parks

I wanted to know if anyone has any information on Ordnance Field Parks during the Second World War. In particular Ordnance Field Parks in independent tank brigades. My Grandpa was in 136 Ordnance Field Park, RAOC, 31st Tank Brigade. It is quite hard to find information on units that worked in supporting roles to those who where in the frontline and it has been quite difficult to track down there movements or what they did or where responsible for. I have a few stories from his time in the war but they don't necessarily match up with his war records.
It has been a passion project of mine to find out more information about him so any help would be appreciated.

 

CLadam,

Welcome aboard.

The sleuths here can really help with a service record if you post it up.

It helps to add their full name, DoB and Service Number.

If you search online with "Ordnance Field Parks" site:ww2talk.com it produces a small number of threads where those words appear. Change the search to: "Ordnance Field Park" site:ww2talk.com and mass of threads appear. I have not looked at them.

There no threads here with either search for his unit.

There are threads for the brigade: "31st Tank Brigade" site:ww2talk.com and one states it was also known as Armoured.

Some tips via PM next.

 

Thank you davidbfpo for the advice you have given me,
What i know so far is that he was called up on the 6th March 1941 and was enlisted in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps
His name was Donald William Ernest Wakeling and his D.O.B was 19th December 1920
is Army No was 10536789 he was in the 136 Ordnance Field Park of the 31st Tank Brigade.
I would like to know more about Ordnance Field Parks and what they did and what they were responsible for. Especially with Independent Tank Brigades and how you go about finding Ordnance Field Park War Diary's.
I have uploaded some of his war records and a photo that i have.

 

This is an outline description of the role of a Tank Brigade Ordnance Field Park, on War Establishment III/103/2, as given in a War Office letter of April 1944, on the organisation of Ordnance Services in the Field Force.

"One of these units is allotted to each tank brigade or independent armoured brigade to hold spares and assemblies of the same categories as in the divisional ordnance field parks. Each unit consists of a headquarters section which replenishes the stocks of the stores section attached to REME workshops, and a brigade section which issues direct to units of the brigade". Stores outlined for the Divisional OFPs in the same letter were;

Spare parts, misc. MT stores and vehicle equipment for "A" and "B" vehicles
Signal and wireless stores (including complete wireless sets)
Gun spares, small arms and spares

The WE for the unit also shows lorries for Vote 7 and Vote 8 stores, which I understand were clothing and general stores respectively.

The order of Battle for 21 Army Group does show all the various Brigade and Divisional OFPs with the same number as their parent formation, in this case being 31 Tank Brigade Ordnance Field Park. I suspect the 136 on the photograph, and the entry from the book you've included (have that one myself!) refers to the tactical sign, which was painted on vehicles but did not correspond directly to the unit number. As you may well be aware from your own research, 31 Tk Bde was a normal such formation at the start of 1944, with three Churchill equipped Tank Battalions under command. One of these (141 RAC) was robbed to be re-equipped as a Churchill Crocodile flamethrower unit, leaving the Brigade with only two Bns, both of which had been sent to other formations or duties by the end of Aug 1944. The Brigade was then consumed by the blackhole of 79 Armd Div, and provide a HQ for varying numbers of RAC units converted to specialist armour (11 RTR with Buffalo LVTs and 49 RTR with Kangaroo APCs), and was also where 141 RAC came back to. By early 1945 the Bde had become a defacto flame formation, with three Crocodile equipped Tank Bns, plus the Br and Cdn APC Regts.

You're quite right in that the history of units n the Services can be very hard to trace. Units of this type tended to live and die with their parent Brigades or Divisions, and went with them wherever the latter were posted.

Gary

 

Thank you Gary,
That is incredible information you have given me and gives a good insight into the work of the Ordnance Field Parks. Would you suggest then that the next step for me would be to investigate the ward diaries of the 31st Tank Brigade.

Is there any information on whether these units would have been also used for tank recovery or was that a separate unit within the REME. Is it also possible that these Ordnance Field Park units would have ever been used to replace people in the front line tank units. He always had stories of working with the Flamethrower tanks and driving them. But i don't know if that is true and his war records do not have any such mention of that.

Many thanks for your help it is some great insight.

 

There do seem to be war diaries for the Brigade's OFP at the archives -

Ord. Fd. Pk. | The National Archives

Ord. Fd. Pk. | The National Archives

I'll say though that I have no familiarity with war diaries, so hopefully if anyone can see that these would be the wrong files they can correct me.

The OFP should not have had to be concerned with recovery work, the repair and recovery elements that had been part of the RAOC initially had passed to REME when it was created in late 1942. Similarly, the RAC units in the Brigade should not have drawn on RAOC personnel as replacements. 31 Tank Brigade (which like the other Tank Brigades would be retitled as an Armoured Brigade in early 1945, though it kept its existing role, organisation and equipment) did have an interesting campaign in 79 Armoured Division, and my guess is the RAOC and REME units in the Div had to learn about a variety of AFVs, which could have involved how to shift them!

Gary

 

Thank you very much Gary,
I am starting to get a good picture of what he may have gotten up to.
Thank you for the links to the Diaries.
I don't think i ever would have found them. I have searched the national archives website but had no such luck. I will have to make the trip to go and see them.
I think you are right that they may have worked on things during the course of the war that wouldn't have gone down on their war records. You have mentioned that the 31st did have an interesting campaign in 79 Armoured Division. I have read several books on the 79th Armoured Division and 141 RAC but have not been able to find a history of just the 31st Tank Brigade. Do you know if any such history exists. It seems they were involved in a lot of the famous battles of the Northwestern European Campaign.
I also wonder if anyone is able to help identify the trucks in the back of the picture. I Think they are Bedfords but i am not exactly sure as they all seem to be different types. I have attached the picture again as well as another one that i have that i am struggling to identify.
Thank you

 

Hi CLadam,

I have a feeling that the HQ 136 Ord Fd Park photo was taken post war. I also think that 31 Tank Brigade OFP was a different unit - but may have been later renamed as 136 OFP.

I've got the narrative sections of the 31 Tank Bde OFP war diary for 1944 which I've been meaning to transcribe. Give me a week or so and I'll post it up on here.

Regards

Tom

 

Thank you Tom,
That is amazing that you have some of the war diaries and it would be exciting to see them. Is there something in there that gives you the feeling that the photo was taken post war. I have always struggled to find out where it was taken as my Grandpa did not write anything on that one. I would also be interested to hear your ideas around the change in Tank Brigade OFP name, i wonder if this would have anything to do with the section in my Grandpa's war record That says he ended the war with 4th Armoured Brigade OFP
Many thanks for all your help
Adam

 

I think the cleanliness of the vehicles suggested it to me. I'm wondering if the "136" is related to this unit:

136th (2/1st Devon and Cornwall) Brigade - Wikipedia

I'd recommend posting up any dates you have for your Grandpa's movement between each unit as that might help members suggest useful points for your research.

Regards

Tom

 

Hello Tom, I understand where your coming from with regards to the pictures, i wasn't sure if it was perhaps before they embarked to France in early 1944 for the same reason.
is the 136th Brigade likely to have had other service units that where broken up and distributed to different units. The Wikipedia entry details how the brigade was a reserve unit that never left the UK during the second world war.

Thank you for your suggestion. I do have the war records from my Grandpa that i have received from my dad, which i have attached. The handwriting is difficult to read but i think it states that he was enlisted on 6th March 1941 and seemed to spend the preceding years in various training units in both the REME and RAOC around Catterick, before eventually being attached the 31st Tank Brigade OFP on 2nd February 1944. It says they then embarked for France on the 20th June 1944 as part of the BLA. There is an entry on 7th February 1945, which i now understand from Gary above, which shows the tank brigade being redesignated as armoured brigade OFP. In then has an entry which looks like it was changed to 4th Armoured Brigade OFP on 25th March 1946, which is a bit confusing, before being de mobbed on 30th October 1946
I hope that the diaries and any information others can put up on here can help fill in the gaps and help me to understand things a bit better

Many thanks

 

That makes sense as according to the war diary at the end of January 1944, 31st Tank Bde OFP was issued with a new War Establishment and extra personnel were posted in during early February to meet the higher number of personnel required.

26 January 1944 DONNINGTON
Received advance copy of new W.E. III/103/2 effective from 17 Dec 43.

[...]

8 February 1944 DONNINGTON
Personnel posted to complete new War Establishment.

Regards

Tom

 

Thank you Tom, that does help to understand what is in his military record. Do you know what is meant by War Establishment. Do you know if the diary entries has information on the men's daily activities or is it more locations. I am interested to know where they were based shortly after arriving in France on 20th June and Where they were located in October/November. I believe they were based in Holland around this time. But i know that he meant his wife, my grandma, in holland during the second world war and she was from a town called Veldhoven which is a bit south of Eindhoven.
Many thanks for your continued help
Adam

 

"War Establishment" was the document that set out the number of personnel (by ranks, and by trades and duties for other ranks), vehicles (by general type) and weapons (only support weapons by this stage of the war). The Trux section of the site has a transcription of the relevant WE, you could also send me a message if you wanted a copy of the original document (it's only a a couple of pages long). There was also an AFG.1098 form issued for each WE table, sadly these do not appear to have been retained anywhere. They listed all types of equipment on charge to a unit or HQ and their entitlement for consumable items.

Gary

 

Hi,

Gary has explained very clearly what the war diary means by War Establishment - I've not got anything to add to that.

As for the narrative in the war diary, it mainly consists of movements from location to location and an explanation of which higher formation the brigade was commanded by.

Location on arrival in Normandy was:-

22 June 1944
Main party landed in Normandy on Jig Beach at 1730 hrs. Arrived at location at 2300 hrs (St Gabriel).
Disembarkation and move through beaches; transit and assembly areas proceeded very smoothly indeed and the behaviour of the new drivers was very good.
Fortunately the LSTs were beached and disembarkation was effected at low tide and in most cases a dry-shod landing was made.
The rations provided were ample and the work of the Naval personnel on the LSTs were extremely good.
No enemy action was encountered.

They remained at St. Gabriel until 25 July when they moved to Putot-en-Bessin.

By October 1944, the HQ Section of the O.F.P. was in Vlechem (also spelt Vleckem in the WD) but two small "Regimental Sections" were split off to support 141 RAC and 1 Fife & Forfar Yeomanry. The OFP stayed there until 13 November, when the unit moved to Eindhoven.

Regards

Tom

 

Thank you Tom and Gary for your hard work and answering my questions, and thank you Tom for posting your transcripts of the war diaries. It has helped a lot in my research and helps to put together some of the stories with other information. It has been really good reading everything you have put together.
Thank you
Adam

 

Adam,

No problem at all, I'll post the rest of the war diary for 1944 up over the next week or so as I get time to transcribe it.

Regards

Tom