Your WW2 Ancestors

[Paul Reed]

I thought it might be a good idea, now we have the facilitity to post photos etc to place on this part of the site details of our WW2 Ancestors - I am sure we would all be keen to know more about what started our interest in WW2 and for many it is a family connection. I will start below...

[Paul Reed]

My father, Bdr Bertie Samuel Reed, served with the Royal Artillery in WW2. After training he was posted to 22nd Battery, 24th Field Regiment RA in North Africa. He went with them to Italy, and took part in the landings at Anzio. He then went on to Rome, being one of the first British soldiers in the city, and moved to the Adriatic Coast to take part in the fighting on the Gothic Line in September 1944. He fought his last battle in Italy on the Po River in April 1945, before being sent to another RA unit in India, to prepare for the invasion of Japan. The A-Bomb ended the need for all this, so he stayed at the RA School of Instruction in India until demobbed.

Below is a photo of him in 1945.

[salientpoints]

I don't know a lot just yet...

Currently investigating service records etc of both grand-fathers mentioned in my signature.

Here is another one of Frank, maybe one day I will also know where this might have been taken.

[MalcolmII]

My lot. My Dad, Robert, was in 2nd Scots Guards, invalided out, joined the AFS for the rest of the war.
Uncle John, Canadian Navy, Uncle Willie, was at Vimy Ridge in WW1 and then was CQMS in Canadian Army WW2, Aunt Irene was in ATS, Aunt Margaret was Chaplain in the WRAF.
Aye
MalcolmII

[MalcolmII]

Mother's brothers Richard in RAF, servicing Hurri-bombers in N Africa then Greece.
Tom, survived Dunkirk, N Africa then Italy, Yugoslavia and Greece.
Aye
MalcolmII

[Paul Johnson]

My Grandfather (on the far left) served in the Army prior to the outbreak of WW1. He was discharged in July 1914. In 1918 he joined the RAF, with whom he served until 1921.

During WW2 he was part of an aircraft recovery/salvage team which I believe was a civilian outfit. He worked for the transport group LEP until his death in 1948 from meningitis.

PAUL JOHNSON

[Paul Johnson]

My Great Uncle, Frederick Arthur Lowry was a Merchant Seaman during WW1 and was torpedoed at least once. At the outbreak of WW2 he became a member ofthe ARP. In the photo (from a national newspaper) you can his face in the top left hand corner of the picture. On the 18th October he was killed when a German landmine exploded in Grundy Street, Poplar, East London. It is believed that his body was not recovered until 2 weeks later when it was found on top of a local cinema.

PAUL JOHNSON

[Friedrich H]

Both grandparents were war veterans.

Captain William A. Jolly, MC (1894-1968). Served as staff officer in the British Army from 1914-1918 as translator, adjutant, communications officer, etc. But he saw action with West Yorkshire 10th battalion on July 1st 1916 at the Somme, where the battalion had 700 men killed.

His son, Philip W. Jolly (1927-) was a sailor in the US Navy during the Korean War and was severely wounded.

And my other grandfather, Gottfried von Hammerstein und Hartmann (1916-) was a lieutenant colonel in the German Army during WWII, as well as a sniper and multi-rôle officer. He was personal secretary and adjutant of colonel general Fedor von Bock during the invasion of Czechoslovakia and then saw action in Poland, Holland, Belgium, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, North Africa, Italy and the Soviet Union. He then commanded a 'regiment' during the Battle of Berlin.

[STEVEN]

My Fathers "Uncle Charlie" (Wells).

born in Aston Birmingham,20.03.20
enlisted in Birmingham,21.03.1938

joined the Royal Artillery (battalion unknown at moment)
service no.880035

Service:- Home 21.03.38 to 03.07.39
India 04.07.39 to 23.11.41
Malaya 24.11.41 to 14.02.42
POW (Japan) 15.02.42 to 17.11.45
Home 18.11.45 to 08.06.46

He was known to have been in the US recuperating after been liberated by American Forces and transported to the US aboard USS TRYON.His period spent in the US is included,on his service record as time spent as a POW.

Discharged at Foots Cray,Sidcup Kent on 15.06.1946,as permantly unfit for any form of military service after 8 years and 80 days with colours.

He married the youngest daughter of My Great Grandfather,who died on 21.03.1915 in France while serving with the 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

Died mid 1980's,a gentleman to the end,(having never eaten rice again,since his release as a POW).

The attatched picture is of Charlie on the Bren Gun during practice,during a lighter moment in Malaya.

Steven

[Dieppe]

Paul - Again, mate, you've come up with another good idea!

Ok, not a lot known at the moment but here you are:

Percy Bradbury was my great-uncle. He lived in Southall, Middlesex but ended up in the 5th Bn the Suffolk Regiment.
Sometime after training he ended up on the USS Wakefield, and in a convey headed towards India but his ship, and one other, ended up at Singapore.
Whilst working on the 'Death Railway' he succumbed to sickness through mistreatment and died.

The rest, at the moment is unknown to me. I have tried to find out if anyone from the Far East Prisoner of War Association could remember Percy, but I've drawn a blank

Rightly or wrongly my family, to this day, have never forgiven the Japanese for the way they treated their prisoners.