I hope this is the right place for this thread! I have been reading The Wartime Memories Project - Egypt and note that John Saintbury (the final contribution) was in charge of 8th Bulk Petrol Transport Centre which supported the 8th Army in Egypt. My Dad was a Mechanist Staff Sergeant at the 7th Bulk Petrol Field Centre in Sicily / Italy. Can I deduce from this that he was in support of the 7th Army or is that too simplistic? I keep re-reading Angie's detailed and informative reply to Allondon's thread in the quest for information on her Grandfather and keep trying to correlate it to the information contained in my Dad's summarised Service Record. It seems that he was transferred several times before:- 921st Anti-Aircraft (Mixed) Transport Company in April 1943 No 1 Holding Battalion June 1943 North Africa July 1943 6th Battalion No 1 General Reinforcement Training Centre July 1943 7th Bulk Petrol Field Centre September 1943 You all seem to know just where to look to find out, what to me is, the most obscure information. I think I have now read almost every page in the BBC WW2 site and have tried googling combinations of the above information (but may well have missed the most obvious to you) and would dearly love to know where I can find out where he actually was, and what he was likely to have experienced. Can anybody help? Thanks CTNana
Can I deduce from this that he was in support of the 7th Army or is that too simplistic? Sorry nana, no such thing as the British 7th Army.
Thanks Owen, I thought I'd cracked it!!! There must have been some rationale to the identification of the different parts of the service. What logic was used? CTNana
Hi Nana, the number preceeding the unit (in this case the 7th) would refer to the number of BPF Centres, and not the Division/Corps etc that it was attached. So, technically, there should 6 others preceeding it (I say technically because one or more units may or may not have existed, or had been disbanded). To whome this particular unit was attached may change over time. For example, a battalion or reghiment can be attached different divisions, and divisions can be attached to different corps. As to "logic" - the logic is that they are attached to who ever requires their service at any given time.
Thanks again Kyt That may explain why my brother and I both think (for no concrete reason) that he was with different regiments. Don't think I'm ever going to get the hang of this!!!! Regards CTNana
