RASC / Desert Rats Ambulance/lorry drivers

[cazb]

Hi I'm looking for further information about my grandad's regiment / wartime service and any info that people may have.  He says that he served as an ambulance/lorry driver, formerly in the 131 Battalion.  They became part of the Royal Army Service Corps.  He has the Desert Rat emblem/badge at home.
Speaking with him today I finally got some further information from him - they stopped in Tripoli for 3 or 4 days which included a visit from Winston Churchill.  He also mentioned billets at a Benghazi (?) airfield where a few of them were playing football, relaxing during a break, thinking nothing of the plane flying overhead.  The plane circled a few times and slowly got lower.  Eventually they realised something was about to happen, some dived for cover and shouted to my grandad who was sorting something out in his lorry to get away from the lorry.  He ran for cover, landing on top of 2 of his fellow servicemen just as a bomb was released from the plane.
Apparently where they were to the bomb crater was "7 paces".
Not often we get him to talk about his war service so I'm putting this info down while its fresh in my mind.
My grandad is Roland (Roly) Powell.

[peteg]

You might be interested in the Desert Rat Memorial Reunion Open Day - 19th June 2011, see the link below

http://www.desertrats.memorialassoc.btinternet.co.uk/

The memorial site is near Swaffham in Norfolk, in fact the Memorial marks the entrance of a Caravan Club Site so if you are a Caravanner you could stay there.

From the site is a marked path you can follow which Is the Desert Rat walk.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/website/ourwoods.nsf/LUWebDocsByKey/EnglandEastAngliaNoForestThetfordForestParkHighAshDesertRatWalk 

sorry but I know nothing else about the Desert Rats but I hope this is of interest to you

Pete

[cazb]

Thanks for your reply Pete.

[scrimnet]

RASC drivers drove the ambulances for the RAMC (see "Ice Cold In Alex")

I am presuming he means 131 Light Field Ambulance who were part of 7th Armoured Div who went through North Africa, up Italy and onto the beaches in Normandy, finally ending the war on a victory pde in Berlin

There was also a 131 brigade in 7th Amd Div

[cazb]

Thanks for that information.  I'm seeing Grandad again this weekend so will see if I can get any further information.  He told me that they were driving ambulances and lorries.

I know he has the Desert Rat badge (red on black jerboa).

Will hopefully have more info after the weekend, and maybe even some names of others he served with.

[ScouseBoy]

Please forgive me  going slightly off the point.   

But has the Badge of the RASC  got a special name.  please?

I notice that some or all Police Forces today, have a very similar  badge.   a sort of star with  12 compass points emanating from it and EIIR   in the centre.

[scrimnet]

The eight pointed star has a very long history, right back to the regency Shako of 1816!!

It started off as the star of the order of the Garter, Thistle or St Patrick. It evolved over the years into many variants,most notably the Home Service Helmet/Foreign Service Helmet plate of 1878

This most resembles the police helmet and can be mistaken by the uninitiated as thus, even the ubiquitous helmet plate looks almost the same. It was from these origins (based on a German design rather than the French like Shako) that we see in pictures up until 1913 as full dress.

It was used as ceremonial dress after WW1 and can still be seen worn by many Corps of Drums, and one or two of the few military bands that we are left with.

[ScouseBoy]

Thank you scrimnet.

[Sapper59]

My father Jack Lee, was also a RASC ambulance driver and also served in N africa, he was rescued from St Nazaire on the 17th June 1940 and was at D day too, was injured a couple of time finally loosing an eye toward the end of 1944 when a sgt, acting W/O attached to Highland Div. Records abound for those who died but the living is proving a problem, unit diaries a VERY expensive, I was quoted £1700 by the records office, and service records can take up to a year and contain very little information about units and movements.
What records do exist are confusing and in some cases totaly wrong.