RASC attached 5th Armoured Brigade

Discussion in 'RASC' started by Innes-Smith, Mar 31, 2020.

  1. Innes-Smith

    Innes-Smith New Member

    My father served with the RASC attached to the 5th Armd Brigade from 27/6/44 through to the end of the war. The only 5th Armd Brigade I can find is the Guards unit and I'm pretty sure he was not with the 5th Guards as his Service Record does not make any mention of the 5th Armd Bgde being the Guards unit. Can anyone assist please?
     
  2. Tom OBrien

    Tom OBrien Senior Member

    Hi,

    your best bet is to put up the pages of the service records here for some of the experts to help you.

    The 310 Coy RASC (Armd Bde) was part of Guards Armd Div. Does that tally with anything on the records? I’m transcribing the coy war diary for some of 1944 and happy to post up if that is the unit.

    regards

    Tom
     
  3. Trux

    Trux 21 AG

    RASC units can be difficult to research but Tom is THE man for this.

    Armoured brigades were numbered straight through and included armoured brigades with cruiser tanks, tank brigades with Churchill infantry tanks and Guards brigades. There can really only be one 5th Armoured Brigade (5th Guards Armoured Brigade).
     
  4. Innes-Smith

    Innes-Smith New Member

    Many thanks Tom and Trux for the very quick replies and information. I know my father worked on Shermans mainly and took part in fighting in the Falaise Gap (not much help!) and ended the war in Osnabruck in Germany. I attach his Service Record from which you might be able to glean some more information. Can't see any mention of 310 Coy RASC.
    Regards, John
     

    Attached Files:

  5. Trux

    Trux 21 AG

    John,

    Embarking for France on 27th June fits with Guards Armoured Division. In that case the RASC Company in question is 310 Armoured Brigade Company.

    Should be fairly easy to follow the movements of the armoured brigade and RASC company.In the meantime here is the outline establishment for an Armoured Brigade Company RASC. Each of the components has its own detailed establishment table which I can post if you wish.

    Armoured Brigade Company.
    Transport for the carriage of 2nd line scales of ammunition, petrol and anti gas reserves, and of supplies on single echelon on unit basis for units of an armoured brigade.

    Headquarters Mechanical Transport Company RASC
    4 X Transport Platoon with five sections of 3ton lorries (4 X 4)
    1 X Transport Platoon with five sections of 6ton lorries (4 X 4 – 2 semi trailers)
    1 X Composite Platoon with A, B, C and D increments
    3 X Relief Driver Increment
    1 X Workshop Platoon, Serial 5

    On account of its size this company headquarters varies from the basic organisation in having the following additions
    2 X Captain
    2 X batman
    2 X cook
    A serjeant ammunition adviser RAC attached.

    Mike
     
  6. Tom OBrien

    Tom OBrien Senior Member

    John,

    thanks for posting up service records which do clarify the issue. This is, in fact, 5th Company RASC (Armoured Brigade) which was the 2nd line transport for 4th Armoured Brigade. It’s war diary does note that it was in Worthing during May 44. It looks like your father was in the Rear Party which arrived at the company in Normandy on 2 July 44. I’ve got some extracts from war diary (WO171/2346) which I’d be very happy to share. Otherwise there are several on here who would be able to copy war diary at Kew for very reasonable rate. Incidentally, 4th Armd Bde was equipped with Sherman’s so that tallies up nicely.

    Regards

    Tom
     
  7. Trux

    Trux 21 AG

    Oops. I bow to Toms vastly superior knowledge on this.

    Mike.
     
  8. Innes-Smith

    Innes-Smith New Member

    Thank you all for your input! This has solved a bit of a mystery as my Dad always said he was attached to the 4th Armd Brigade, but when I got the service record after his death it clearly showed 5 Armd Brigade, so thank you Tom for resolving this. He was indeed stationed in Worthing and Ferring before embarking for Normandy. I would love to see anything at all from the war diary and could you tell me how I would set about getting someone to copy the war diary at Kew?
    Thanks again, John
     
  9. Tom OBrien

    Tom OBrien Senior Member

    John,

    On this forum there are a couple of excellent guys who can help (once the TNA reopens):

    Try looking on this thread:

    NA researchers

    I'll post up some of my transcription of the extracts of the 5th Coy RASC war diary I have on the RASC forum so you can see the kind of detail they go into.

    Edited to add:

    Mike,

    You are much too kind, your work on here dwarfs my Austin K5 obsession led RASC collecting!

    Regards

    Tom
     
  10. Innes-Smith

    Innes-Smith New Member

    Thank you Tom - I am hugely in your debt - for years this has had me tearing my hair out... and there is little enough of it left anyway!
    Regards, John
     

Share This Page