There are a couple of interesting endorsements on this form. It speaks of a “disability” followed by “20% N A” which I interpret as a 20% disability non attributable to his Army service. I suspect that a disability claim was made post discharge as further down the form there is mention of a numbered army form being sent to M H which I interpret as relevant paperwork being sent to the Ministry of Health. Steve
If you read through this link it provides the eligibility for medals Medals: campaigns, descriptions and eligibility TD
TD do they normally state on his service records as to what medals he's entitled too ? Or does the MOD decide on what the entitlement is ?
They often also write how long a soldier was in each theatre of operations which would make it easier afterwards to calculate which medals someone was entitled too. They can put the medals awarded on the service records but someone somewhere has to add up the number of days in a particular area and see if that meets the eligibility - if it does the medal is awarded, if it doesnt then no award is made, and that could be missed by 1 day. In another thread someones relative missed a medal because he never crossed a latitude or longtitude by a mile or so, or rather the ship he was on didnt - so no medal In the link there is a contact number [I think] for the Medal Office - you can always call them to check TD
Thanks TD ..I've done a search for 216 searchlight but come up with nothing much , I'm trying to find out his involement in NW Europe ...and where excactly !!
Maybe you need to open up your search parameters a little BBC - WW2 People's War - War Memoirs - Searchlights 216 as shown was a training unit, the above shows he was also in other training regiments [263 & 267] I am wondering if this might be a War Diary of use as it mentions in your 6th image 5/45 [assume May 1945] Redesignated 608 ......... 608 Regt. | The National Archives Reference: WO 171/5055 Description: 608 Regt. Date: 1945 Feb.- Oct. Held by: The National Archives, Kew Legal status: Public Record(s) He should be eligible for a France & Germany Star [1 day of operational service in the army] and a Defence medal [1080 days (3 years) service in the UK between 3 Sep 1939 and 8 May 1945], along with the War Medal, so maybe 3 medals in total Thats about as far as my limits can take this thread I'm afraid TD
Thanks TD , I will certainly look at these tomorrow evening , it's a huge learning lesson for me , and also thanks for everyone that's helped me ,I appreciate it hugely
Hi, This is the obverse side of the B102 Form (you posted an excerpt of the reverse side further up topic). It shows his medical category was C1 “for 4 1/2 years” - presumably downgraded from his A2 classification on enlistment - possibly as a result of the “disability” mentioned elsewhere on his papers. Steve
Its a unit where one would be sent to train on how to use and possibly maintain whatever it was you were being trained on. Could be searchlights, tanks, how to be an officer, how to fly an aircraft etc etc etc TD
Is there a way of finding out what he was doing in NW Europe and where he was ? Either tonight or tomorrow I'll try and get a decent photo where there's a fair few soldiers sitting at tables , one of the men has a polar bear patch on his shoulder , the others seemed to have the 2nd Army patches , I could be wrong as it's difficult to tell with old photos but the polar bear is clear to see
Trying Searchlight, SL etc in the WO166 series brings up 360+ hits at Kew so to have no reference to anything for 216 Searchlight is frustrating. Its a long shot but as it was based in North Wales, there might, just might, be some details about it in a 4th AA Division Brigade diary but it would take some patience finding anything if it were there. The attached, from WO166/2141, 4th AA Division diary, refers to 3 of the camps in TDs earlier post, 233 Saighton (near Chester), 234 Carlisle and 235 Ayr. I would be surprised if 216 had vanished without trace!
it's really odd , I found this really strange ,I've googled a lot to find anything and all I could find was this
Write to the medal office The form is on the gov UK site They will tell you if the medals were issued, if not they will issue them free of charge Regards
Hi There was mention earlier in this thread of what Searchlight training might entail. 27th AA Brigade provided searchlight cover on the south coast of England. The attached page from their diary gives one procedure for AA / SL coordination. I am pretty sure I have seen others. There was clearly a lot more to a searchlight than turning the thing on and waving it about