1051 port Maintenance Company, Royal Engineers

Laurie

As Lesley states if you could post his service records, that would help a lot as I could help to clarify these for you (my dad was a RE sapper and I have experience of deciphering many of the RE abbreviations).

With regard to the abbreviations (emboldened) above -

a. M.D.L.C. (or M.O.L.C) = not known but may relate to some sort of training centre (see next line)
b. ‘posted TT' = "Trade Tested" - this indicates that after undergoing training - initial / specialist - the soldier has been tested on his knowledge, has successfully passed the appropriate test and thus is posted to his Unit as qualified.
c. CRE (CON) = Commander Royal Engineers, Construction Branch.
d. SOS = "Struck off Strength" - soldier has left his unit to another unit and this is therefore removed from that unit's established strength. The counterpoint is "TOS", when a soldier is "Taken on Strength" of a new unit on transfer etc.
e. EM(T) = Efficiency Medal (Territorial) - this was awarded to members of the TA. I note that he was in the pre-war TA and usually there is a length of service to be completed before being awarded (12 years), but wartime service was treated as double e.g. 6 years service between 1939 and 1945 counted as double. Therefore many pre-war TA soldiers qualified for the EM(T) and were awarded the medal in addition to their other entitled medals e.g. Defence Medal, War Medal, Africa Star, Burma Star etc.

Steve

Edited for clarification re EM(T).

 

Thank you Steve, I will do as you and Lesley suggest and scan the records onto this site - it will have to wait a couple of days as I am away from home at the moment, but I appreciate the help you've given me already and will welcome any more light you can shine!
Thanks for your reply as well Dr Chris

Laurie

 

Here's photos of the relevant parts of my dad's records. Steve has answered most of my queries already but I'd very much appreciate any further help from people more expert than me in interpreting the abbreviations, especially the MDLC one - and then working out what they actually mean!

 

Hi Laurie

Thanks for the extracts. From the copies which you've attached, my interpretations are as follows -

Records 3 (& 4)
a. Appears have been a Private in the Infantry between Sept 1939 and 20/1/40 - his Army number(5569988) is in the block of numbers allocated to the Wiltshire Regiment, therefore probably 4th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment.
b. 20/1/40 - transferred to the Royal Engineers, and initially posted to the Divisional Engineers of 53rd Division (i.e. in an unposted "pool").
c. 22/1/40 - posted to 282 (Welsh) Field company in the rank of Sapper (the RE equivalent of Private).
d. Some time between 22/1/40 and 22/6/40 sent on a Course at M.D.L.C.(*) at Slough and returns to 282 (W) Field Coy on 22/6/40.
e. 5/7/41 - passed his Trade Test and raised (for pay purposes) to Fitter, Class A1.

Records 1 (& 2)
f. 23/3/44 - posted to Port Maintenance Section (PM Section), No 2 Military Port (No 2 MP) Cairnryan, from Commander Royal Engineers (Construction) (CRE (CON)) effective from 22/3/44.
g. 29/4/45 - SOS (Struck off Strength) No 2 Military Port and posted to 1051 P.M. Coy, R.E.
h. 22/5/45 - Embarked UK for India, arriving Bombay on 13/6/45, TOS(Taken on Strength) Kalyan Transit Camp, and posted to X/4(A) list (i.e. as unposted reinforcements).

(*) - am unable to establish the nature of M.D.L.C.

Hope that this makes sense (currently suffering from Covid - having escaped for the last two years!!).

Steve

 

I should have said this sooner Steve, but thank you so much for those interpretations - it moves me on further through the miasma of WW2 army shorthand and a bit near to being able to feel and understand my dad's experiences.
Laurie

 

Dr Chris, a question for you please. Your notes on the war dairies have 1051 landing on the Normandy beaches on days 2 and 3; moving though France to the Caen area and later coming back to Britain, to Greenock and thence to the far east. From what I remember my dad saying, and from his war records, I can't see any evidence that he went to France. Do you know if the company split, or if some sappers were left behind in Scotland for some reason?

 

Laurie
Firstly my apologies for not responding to you for such a long time - it's been a very long time since I have been on the forum (distracted doing other things!). Secondly, I hope you are still following it!
To the best of my knowledge based on the War Diaries at the National Archives, the company was split into two in June 1944, but both halves went to Normandy, one very soon after D-Day and the other a month or so later. I can't really add to what was contained in my note of three (!) years ago. Sorry not to be of more help - with you waiting so long for a response!
Good luck
Chris

 

Chris,

Laurie has not logged onto the forum since 28/7/2022. You could send him a PM, assuming the email address given on joining remains valid.