Dunkirk - Records of Troops Evacuated

[rsel]

i assume you mean about when he came back, in which case nothing. It just gave a date when he was admitted into a hospital in the north of England. So i can only assume when he arrived back.


Richard

[cathycool]

Hi this is first time I've been on your forum. I find this thread really interesting. My deceased Grandad was injured at dunkirk and subsequently went on to be one of 25 men who manned one of 3 new "big guns" at dover castle ordered by Churchill. I have been searching for 3 years on ancestry and findmypast, etc but have not been able to find his service record or number. I would love to apply to m.o.d for his service record but don't know his service no. I am actually at Dover at the moment to take some photos of where he served. Any hints or tips on how i can find more info would be most welcome. I contacted the Royal Artillery museum but they said he could have been in the army or navy depending on his unit so don't want to waste £30 asking for details from the wrong service. Many thanks for any help you can give me.

[paulcheall]

Hi Cathy and welcome to the forum. It’s funny but I posted here previously at a time when I hadn’t had my dad’s memoirs published nor had I produced a podcast. Yet I’ve now done both and if there’s anything I’d say to you is don’t give up. Your dad’s records are there to be found and you only need the right key to unlock them. You might give the ww2talk forum a try for more advice on this front. But I can assure you there are lots of true Dunkirk stories and beyond which will help you paint the stories that you’re looking for to represent your dad’s war. If you come up trumps tracing his records please do report back to this forum. In the meantime you might like to take a shufty at some of my not for profit podcast Dunkirk episodes which have some great stories sent in by listeners. I hope it’s not spamming the forum to tell you it’s at WWW.FightingThroughPodcast.co.uk. Best of luck with your endeavours! Paul.

[Dyingout]

Most of the evacuees from Dunkirk lost their service record book. Not by negligence but for the reason that it was always stored in the right breast pocket of their tunic (Right hand salute Left hand remove record book). So taking a roll call would not be possible as no one could be identified. Most of them either had to wade out to the small craft, usually up to their shoulders so most service records were destroyed. I know my fathers is a true record From about September 1940, It just says before that Record Lost.

[greenrig]

Interesting what you say about the Pay Book. But surely that was just the soldier's own record. Central records were also held, and it's those records that the MoD stores, and can send you (if approved, and paid for).   My father's (duplicate) Pay Book has very little, as he did NOT get on the boats at Dunkirk, but spent 4 years PoW in Poland, having been captured at Calais. I'm assuming they destroyed their Paybooks before capture - so that they only gave "Name, Rank, and Serial Number"..