About 10 years ago I was traveling to Grimsby and I decided to call in at a village on the outskirts. In a junk shop I found these identity tags and what appears to be a unit sign. Obviously nothing of great monitory value here, but interesting to me and in my opinion worth saving. One tag appears of been hand made and the other covered in oil and burns. Only recently have I identified the recipient. He was 4800606 War Substantive Sergeant P. White of 62 AT Regiment (enlisted into the Lincolnshires). On the 9th October 1944 he was wounded. Sadly the casualty lists do not identify the Sergeants Battery. Is there anyone with the research skill to solve what happened to Sergeant White.......which may go a long way to explain the terrible condition of his identity tags? I do know that he survived the war. Thank you in advance for anyones assistance.
Hi 237 Bty. Percy White did indeed originally enlist in the Lincolnshire Regiment circa 1931. I got this information from the nominal roll of the Lincolnshire Regiment Without his service record, I can't confirm the exact path of his postings, however:- If he were wounded serving with 62 Anti-tank Regiment, Royal Artillery, he would have joined them, having moved from the disbanded 101 Anti-Tank Regiment, R.A. on 21 July 1943. The war diary of 62 Anti-Tank Regiment shows that the officers and men of 186 Battery/101 Anti-tank Regiment were posted to them on 21 July 1943. They were in Beith, Ayrshire, Scotland on this day. According to the Lincolns Nominal Roll, He joined the 101 Anti-Tank Regiment, R.A. on 22/12/1942 from the disbanded 8th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment. 101 Anti-Tank Regiment itself was completely disbanded in July 1943. The war diary of 8th Lincolns shows that they were formed on 9 October 1940 from the 50th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment and converted to Royal Artillery as described above. The war diary of 62 Anti-Tank Regiment has no casualties recorded for 9 October 1944, as on 9 October, they were in the process of moving from France up to the Antwerp area of Belgium at that time. No casualties are listed in either the RHQ, 245, 246, 247 and 248 Battery war diaries of 62 A/T Regt. The red X on a dark background is a poor copy and probably hand made. An original is as shown in my avatar. The only way to be sure what happened to this man, would be to obtain his service record. As he appears to have survived the war, they could only be obtained at present by a relative. Hope the above helps. Regards Rob
Hi Rob, Thank you for your very informative response. I double checked the casualty roll and the details are as follows: Date of Action 11/10/44 Information: Casualty List No. 1609. Previously reported missing Casualty List 1595. Now not missing. Incident Date: 21/11/1944 Secondary Unit: 62-Anti Tank Regiment I have triple checked the above details, possible transcription error?
62 A/T Regt and my Father's Regiment, 102 LAA Regt (both British 1 Corps troops) were starting to move from France to Belgium to become part of two Adhoc Infantry Brigades around the time frame you mention and apart from those killed, it's been difficult to identify men wounded. I'm very familiar with the period that you've quoted, having visited the area a number of times with a local Belgian historian, whose knowledge of that particular period of fighting is impressive. The war diary of 62 A/T is very specific about men killed in this time frame, but not those wounded. One man even disappeared during an action, seen to be shot and wounded during a close encounter with the enemy, but his body was never recovered. Up to the 14th October, the various batteries were still moving into position and not in action. RHQ (Arendonk, Belgium), 245 Bty (South of Hoogstraaten, Belgium ), 246 Bty ( Still in France), 247 Bty (Still in France), 248 Bty (Oostmalle, Belgium). 245 & 248 set off earlier, as they were using the self propelled M10's, and were more mobile. Still not really able to put anything specific together for you I'm sorry to say. Out of interest, where did you look at the casualty lists?
Hi Rob, Thank you again for the reply. I am only just starting out in the field of WW2 research. Up until now WW1 has been my only interest. Experience of trying to research WW1 casualties it has been frustrating, to check the date of casualty next to the War Diary, only to discover the war diary makes no reference to any casualties around the date. It looks as though I'll have to wait for the service papers to be released. The casualty records are all held in box WO 417/16 at the National Archives. It must be nearly ten years ago I did a little research on an officer of the 7th Lincolns who was a member of the 5th Battalion during the Great War. Have you heard of an officer by the name of Wellsted, who was the son of school master from Stamford?
This Forum is a great place for WW2 research and people are friendly/helpful. Thanks for the above information. That file will be my next avenue of research. It could add yet more names to my nominal roll of 102 LAA Regt. A Captain W.C. Wellsted joined the 7th Battalion Lincolns on the day of it's formation on 4/7/1940 at Tollerton, Notts, as adjutant. He relinquished those duties upon being promoted A/Major on 27/8/1940. On 7/July/ 1941, he transferred out with the rank of Major and commenced duties as a local defence commander at North Cotes aerodrome effective 5/July/1941. This information is from the war diary of 7 Lincolns. If you want any info Lincoln Regt related, I've got almost all of their war diaries from WW2.
