Anyone have family or relatives who served in WW2?

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

My Uncle Jim was in the Pioneer Corp and was in France June 1944. He's still there. British Military Cemetery at Tilly-sur-Seulle!

 

[casserole of nonsense]

@casserole of nonsense

The national archives have a copying service but its absolutely extortionate, and i wouldn't recommend anyone using it, as they can often quote £200-£500 just for copying one file.

However, if you are short of time or can't get down to Kew yourself there's a few independant researchers i know who will 'copy' them (i.e. take photos of the pages within the file) for a fraction of the price (usually between £10 to £30 depending upon number of pages), and can provide a good service. If you want their details drop me a pm and i'll pass on their details.

The War Diary files that are likely to be of interest to you are as follows:-
WO 166/4758 INFANTRY: 9 York and Lancaster Regiment. 1940 May, 1941 Mar.- Dec.
WO 166/9029 9 York and Lancaster Regiment 1942 Jan.- May
WO 172/902 9 York and Lancaster Regiment 1942 June - Dec.
WO 172/2565 9 York and Lancaster Regiment 1943 Jan.- Dec.
WO 172/4937 9 York and Lancaster Regiment 1944 Jan. - Dec.
WO 172/7683 9 York and Lancaster Regiment 1945 Jan.-Nov.

WO 172/2561 2 West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own) 1943 Apr.- Dec.
WO 172/4933 2 West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own) 1944 Jan. - Dec.
WO 172/7679 2 West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own) 1945 Jan.-Dec.

A lot will depend on when he switched units, but the 172 series will be the Burma ones and the 166 series will cover the time in the UK (and also Iceland).

You can also download a copy of his medal citation from the National Archives website for a cost of £3.50. There used to be a way to get hold of them for free, but not sure if they are still available that way, so would need to check.

Briliant, thanks so much. Had the war diary stuff, but costs weren’t something I looked into yet so fair warning.
2WY was when he got regular army commission after the war 1947, 9Y&L being TA. Iceland was part of 49 Division, he was in RAOC as a corporal.
Thanks again mate.

 

[better dead than red]

I've posted this before a while back. Some of you may have already listened to it. I thought it might be appropriate to put it up again in this topic.

The article contains a recording of a Lancaster crew on a night time bombing raid over Germany. It might be especially interesting to those whose family were on a bomber crew. The coolness of the pilot/skipper amazes me each time I listen to it.

https://m.warhistoryonline.com/inst...chatter-lancaster-crew-bombing-germany-2.html

 

[JULES]

non family, the headmaster at my secondary school was one Tom Wilson. some of the older guys on here may remember the story or have seen the film about an escape from a pow camp whereby the escapees used a vaulting horse with someone hidden inside it to dig a tunnel right under the German guards noses. Tom Wilson was the guy who stood by the vaulting horse and played the violin to hide the noise of the digging.
my father, aunts and grandmother were very lucky to survive the blitz on Coventry, my father told me he went into the shelter during the bombing and when they woke up in the morning all the nearby houses were destroyed, he lost a lot of his school mates and I don't think he ever recovered from it to his dying day. My grandfather used to be a spotter, that is when the bombing started he had to go to the highest point in town and telephone the fire brigade with positions on the exploded bombs.
I did used to speak to my dads mate in the pub, he was in the coldstream guards at monticasino, that was a bloodbath by all accounts, he told me they had to get the Polish guys to storm the fortress and they took incredible losses.

 

[TCIB]

My grandad was a a boffin at marconi and helped develop radar. He did not pull a trigger but he certainly helped towards shortening the length of the war. He never forgave the Americans for essentially stealing it from us. A desperately clever man who was best kept away from society and locked in a shed with some tools and electronics.

 

[Ghandi's Flip Flops]

I did used to speak to my dads mate in the pub, he was in the coldstream guards at monticasino, that was a bloodbath by all accounts, he told me they had to get the Polish guys to storm the fortress and they took incredible losses.

there was 4 'battles' of Cassino over a number of months, where practically every man and his dog had a go at breaking the defences at one time or other; Brits, South Africans, Kiwis, Indians, Sikhs, Poles etc
The position finally broke when the poles led an attack on the abbey and the Germans had to withdraw because they were in danger of getting out-flanked by the French guams, who had attacked over the mountains on the flank.
Mind you the guams had a notoriusly bad reputation and i don't think i'd would of hung around if i knew they were coming.

I've read one document from the National Archives which basically said 12 months after the fighting finished at Cassino, there was loads of dead still unaccounted for, mainly due to large parts of area still cordoned off because of mines and other ordnance.

 

[bluemcr]

Total respect to your tail gunner grandad, awesome bravery.

Thanks, he never really talked about it, but the main thing he survived. I would of loved to of known some stories though. Grandad are cool!. My nana worked in a factory making percussion caps for the bullets.

 

[Ourman]

One grandad served in the Lancashire Fusiliers in North Africa then as a D Day dodger in Italy. When i was a kid and asked him about the war he'd talk about it as the best days of his life. I've read books on Monte Cassino where he fought and its awful, hand to hand bayonet fighting over the course of two weeks. When the Polish troops took the monastery the defending Germans had 12 rounds of ammunition left between them.
My great uncle Jack was killed in the Suez Maru atrocity where an the unmarked pow ship was torpedoed by the USA Bonefish. 414 British servicemen were either killed by the explosion or, in the following 24 hours, machine gunned in the water by the japanese. A war crime, amongst many, the have never apologised for or been prosecuted for. My sister had a memorial for the 414 men to be built at the National Memorial Arboretum after she discovered the only memorial for these men was in Java.

 

[jonmcity]

One of my Granddad's was in the desert rats Infantry. Fought throughout Africa, invaded Italy, Was wounded at Monte Casino and spent the rest of the war in Malta.
My other granddad was a tank commanda and was involved from the Normandy landings to invading Germany.

 

[jonmcity]

One grandad served in the Lancashire Fusiliers in North Africa then as a D Day dodger in Italy. When i was a kid and asked him about the war he'd talk about it as the best days of his life. I've read books on Monte Cassino where he fought and its awful, hand to hand bayonet fighting over the course of two weeks. When the Polish troops took the monastery the defending Germans had 12 rounds of ammunition left between them.
My great uncle Jack was killed in the Suez Maru atrocity where an the unmarked pow ship was torpedoed by the USA Bonefish. 414 British servicemen were either killed by the explosion or, in the following 24 hours, machine gunned in the water by the japanese. A war crime, amongst many, the have never apologised for or been prosecuted for. My sister had a memorial for the 414 men to be built at the National Memorial Arboretum after she discovered the only memorial for these men was in Java.

Sounds like your and my Grandad were in the same unit.