Help understanding units/regts in service record

[chrisscales]

Hi - I am hoping somebody may be able to help me. I am transcribing my grandfather's WW2 army service record, and I would like to know which are the relevant War Diaries to consult at Kew. He was a Gunner who served as a Driver, and his service was as follows:

06/08/1942: Enlists and initially put in the General Service Corps as a Private. Sent for basic training at No. 75 Primary Training Wing – based at Halleaths (maybe Halleaths House, near Lockerbie, Scotland?).

16/09/1942: Transferred to 229th Anti-Aircraft (division also shown on record as Royal Artillery, Heavy Anti-Aircraft) and sent to the Driver Training Regiment, Royal Artillery at Blackpool. Qualified for the Appointment of ‘Driver, Internal Combustion’ on 30/10/1942 and assigned the rank of Gunner.

17/11/1942: Posted to 8th Reserves, Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery

09/12/1942: Posted to the 442nd Battery, 133rd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery and based initially at Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire. ["Upgraded, service increase from clan II to clan I on 06/02/1943" - no idea what this means]. On 25/06/1943 his battery is based at Larkhill, Wiltshire as he is reprimanded for being awol and confined to barracks for 7 days. Remains at Home (i.e. unknown UK bases with the 133rd) until 05/10/1944.

06/10/1944: Embarked for foreign soil in the 133rd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, as part of the British Liberation Army. [Sometime during this period he was in Belgium, and his role was as a driver moving refugees around]. On the 18/01/1946 he was evacuated on medical grounds in the North West Europe territory and admitted to BGH 94 (the British General Hospital at Hamburg, Germany) but released the next day.

14/02/1946: Posted to the 52nd Anti-Tank Field Regiment, Royal Artillery as part of the British Army of the Rhine, based in Germany.

20/11/1946: Transferred to the 24th Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery (still British Army on the Rhine?).

25/02/1947: Disembarked from service in British Army on the Rhine, and granted passage to the UK on 28th February.

15/04/1950: Receives campaign medals: War Medal 1939/45, 1939-45 Star (Pt. II 118/07 Unit), France and Germany Star (Pt. II).

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I will post the links to War Diaries I am already aware of that seem to be the correct ones (though willing to be corrected). Any other pointers would be very welcome, I am not clued up on military history.

Best wishes

Chris

[chrisscales]

These are the diaries I've found so far that seem relevant:

War diaries 133 LAA Regiment:
Apr-Dec 1942 http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C793782
Jan-Dec 1943 http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C797816
Jan-Dec 1944 http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4441251
Jan-Dec 1945 http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4445074
Jan-Feb 1946 http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4449237

Royal Artillery: 133 Light Anti-Aircraft Battery (RA LAA)
May-Dec 1942 http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1005756
Jan-Jun 1943 http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1010876

Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers – Workshops - 133 L.A.A. Wksp
Jan-Dec 1944 http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4443009

[Drew5233]

Ignore the 133 LAA Battery diaries, they are not part of 133 LAA Regiment. WO 169 is the Middle East war diary series. Any that you should be looking at will be WO 166 which are Home Forces or WO 171 NW Europe. The Workshops diary may have something of interest but these are a separate unit (REME) attached to the Artillery unit to maintain their vehicles etc.

[chrisscales]

Thanks for clarifying that, I did wonder about the battery records.

Do you know which diaries would relate to the 52nd Anti-Tank Field Regiment, Royal Artillery and the 24th Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery?

I'd also be interested to know if there are records for the WW2 field hospitals (BGH 94)

Many thanks

[Drew5233]

What years? A from and to date would be great.

Edit - Ah, 1946? If so here you go:

WO 171/9023 52 Regiment 1946 Jan-June. Not overly convinced on the 24 AT Regt though, The diaries finish in Oct 1945 but the unit spent their war in Far East so I'd be very surprised if he was sent to the Far East or the unit was redeployed to Germany in 1946 - Many units were being disbanded at this time.

[Drew5233]

BGH 94? 94 British General Hospital?

[chrisscales]

So this one: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4449129\

Yes 94 BGH is British General Hospital which was apparently based in Hamburg when he was there in Jan 1946. Think this is their diary, no idea what the hospital diaries contain though: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2737664

With regards the 24th Anti-Tank Regiment, I'm just going by his service record which clearly shows he is assigned to 24 A/T or 24 A/TK from 20/11/46, located in British Army On The Rhine, which must be Germany. His release assessment by his commanding officer is signed by Lieut-Col ?W G Lizst?, and stamped "Commanding, 24th Anti-Tank Regiment, RA" with the date and location filled in by the officer as 15th Feb 47, BAOR.

As you say, war diary records for the 24 Anti Tank Regiment at Kew only seem to go up to 31 October 1945: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C951752
But the National Archives guide http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/army-operations-after-1945.htm says "from 1946-1950, quarterly historical records and reports replaced the unit war diaries, which were mostly discontinued after the end of hostilities in 1945", so I think the records for 24th A/TK in BAOR at this time are apparently these:
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1808689 and http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1808690

And this is the record for the 52nd Anti-Tank that follows the war diary (which ends June 46): http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1808692

Thanks for your help.

[Drew5233]

You're better at this than me-If his files say BAOR then the WO 171 diaries would be correct. Never heard of anyone coming back from the Far East to go to Germany at the end of the war before-Everyday's a school day and all that.

Ref the 94 GBH that's the correct one. WO 177 files are all medical units. I copied Three yesterday at Kew:

WO 177/1275 39 General Hospital 1945 Jan-Dec
WO 177/1399 113 General Hospital 1945 Jan-Dec
WO 177/1396 110 General Hospital 1945 Jan-Nov

And they contain little info, more about Admin and where they were location wise rather than who they were treating. That doesn't mean the 94 BGH will be the same, all a case of how thorough you want to be I guess.

Cheers
Andy

[chrisscales]

Ok great, thanks again for your help - I'm sure you're right about the hospital files, can't imagine they'd contain much useful for me considering he was only in there for one day, but I suppose can't hurt to check.

Is it easy/cheap to copy the war diaries at Kew, and is it via photocopying or photographing with a rig? I will probably pop in there myself soon to copy the ones relevant to me.

Thanks