RASC / Desert Rats Ambulance/lorry drivers

[ScouseBoy]

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.

   Do you know which port that your father returned to?    I believe that my father was landed at Falmouth on return from St Nazaire.    Do you know whether  they were  then sent home by train?            at that date very few people would have home phones,  so how did the troops and RAF  guys  get messages home?  did they send  post codes?  My dad asked to use the phone in the Falmouth  Post Office,   he phoned up  and said he was back in England  and to   arrange  getting married as soon as possible,   At that,  a big cheer went  up from  all the other troops and customers in the Post Office.

[Sapper59]

Just re-read Dads notes, he landed in Plymouth on 20th from St Nazaire. there were, "at least 300 on the small decks",  they were ferried off on lighters to the docks, He wrote on a piece of "off white loo paper and stuffed it in a red cross envolop without a stamp, it was the finest letter my parents had ever recieved."
Movement wise he just says,  "en-route for Borden Camp, Salisbury Plain, to rest, to sleep, perchance to dream, of nightmares!.

[ScouseBoy]

Just re-read Dads notes, he landed in Plymouth on 20th from St Nazaire. there were, "at least 300 on the small decks",  they were ferried off on lighters to the docks, He wrote on a piece of "off white loo paper and stuffed it in a red cross envolop without a stamp, it was the finest letter my parents had ever recieved."
Movement wise he just says,  "en-route for Borden Camp, Salisbury Plain, to rest, to sleep, perchance to dream, of nightmares!.

AFTER   my dad  had returned home in June 1940,   his father got a letter from  the War Office saying   "We regret to inform you that your son is missing"             It went on to say that he may be a prisoner of war.       It just illustrates   the adminstrative chaos  in May and June.     There were so many men arriving at the ports,   and being sent on overflowing overcrowded  trains back to the towns and cities.  It took time to get the paperwork up to date.   Fortunately,   my grandfather knew that his son  was not missing.

[swazzy1964]

my dad was in North Africa and Italy as  part of the eigth army he also drove trucks though not sure just exactly what part of the regiment he was in
His name was Archie Swarbrick he died in 1976 when i was 11 so never really got a chance to find out a lot i will post a couple of old photos i have one i believe was when they were at a training barracks the other is in North Africa i think my dad is the one at the back right hand side be interesting if anyone knows anyone else

[ScouseBoy]

Please allow me to give this link  to more RASC  photos  here on rootschat.

www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,434885.msg3753912.html           

[dreamangel]

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.

I know this is very unlikely, but I'm wondering whether your granddad worked with my husband's granddad who was called Albert Buckley?  He too was a desert rat but we are finding it very difficult to find anything out about him.  Have you/your granddad got any group photos or anything?

Thanks!

[MeirSoul]

My grandad was in the RASC in ww2 . He served in Egypt,  sicily and Italy.  Does this mean he was in the "desert rats"

Thanks

[Rena]

I have a couple of ambulance drivers in WWI (not WwII)

Both of them were in the RAMC (Royal Army MEDICAL corps) not the RASC (Royal Army SERVICE Corps).   They both had medical training gained when they were in the territorials 1911-1914.

[shanreagh]

The Desert rats were these
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Desert-Rats-World-War-II

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_Armoured_Division_(United_Kingdom)

The 7th Armoured Division was an armoured division of the British Army that saw distinguished active service during the Second World War, where its exploits in the Western Desert Campaign gained it the Desert Rats nickname.

Not every unit that served in the Western Desert was known as the Desert Rats.