Hi, I'm beggining to look at the WD of No 1 L of C Recovery Coy and have come across a discrepancy with the War Establishment IV/225/1 dated December 1943 that you describe consisting of: Headquarters 2 X Heavy Recovery Section 2 X Light Recovery Section Railhead Evacuation Section. This entry suggest that there were two Railhead Sections: 3 July 1944 ANNAN Individual Section convoys. No.2 Heavy Section returned approximately 1200 hrs. No.1 Heavy Section and Nos. 1 & 2 Railhead Sections departed approx 1000 hrs. HQ remained at normal location. I've only got the war diary from July onwards, next time I go to Kew I hope to look back earlier in 1944 to see if there is any more information on organisation. Regards Tom
Tom, As with many types of unit the organisation was fairly flexible and adapted to the needs of the theatre. I have a note that it became the norm in 21 Army Group to provided the LoC Recovery Company with one heavy and one light section per corps and one evacuation section per army and base railhead. The last phrase is open to interpretation but suggests more than one evacuation section. Mike
I see that my section on Army Recovery Company REME says that the earlier establishments give a fixed establishment of two heavy sections, two light sections and a recovery section. Later establishments are more flexible and allow one heavy recovery section per armoured division or armoured brigade and one light section per infantry division. The composition of the sections remains the same. Mike
Mike, Thanks for the replies. Perhaps there were differencies between standard Recovery Coys and L of C Recovery Coys? I have now got as far into the WD as mid-August and am a bit surprised at the amount of chopping and changing of vehicles. They have just started to draw D.8 tractors (which was a surprise, although I note that they are included in the W.E.) and are swapping recovery vehicles seemingly continuously. It cannot have been easy from a maintenance and training perspective to have had so many last minute changes. Regards Tom
D8s were the standard heavy recovery vehicle. Armoured squadrons etc had ARV1s without winch, armoured regiments had Scammell or similar in LADs but heavy recovery needed something with a powerful winch. The D8 had the drawback that it needed a trailer to carry it to the recovery site, a 4 X 4 tractor to tow the trailer and a Loyd Carrier to carry the earth anchors, pulleys etc. Mike