1st & 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry

I wanted to start a new thread on unit histories for 1st & 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, firstly because my Grandad served with the 1st FFY and i have some interesting information and pics, and secondly because i am in communication with a veteran of the 2nd FFY who is sending me pics and first hand accounts of life during his time with this unit.

I await his permission to publish this material but in the first instance I will start with a unit photo of the 1st FFY sqn C, I’m told the pic was taken whilst in NW Europe after Oct 1944.

The 1st Fife</ST1:p and Forfar Yeomanry were part of the 79th Armoured Div and used Churchill Tanks adapted for flame throwing ops

If any one can add to or amend any information then please do so

<O:pNick<O:p
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I now have permission to publish some of Freds memories from the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry

The info is not in any date order, so it may jump about abit but any first hand experiences are worth a read in my book.

Innititially I was in the 2nd Fife & Forfar Yeomanry Regiment joining them when they were in Ypres in Belgium in January 1945 and went into Germany with them and leaving them with all the young soldiers, in July 1945 to go to Japan, and that is where I went to the 1st F&F at Recke, Germany with their Crocodiles. We left Recke early August to go to Japan and got to Brussels when the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, so our move to Japan was held up while the Japs were thinking about surrendering or not, and when they did we returned immediately to Recke in Germany.
The 1st F&F were a specialist regiment made specially for the DDay landings so were part of the 79th Division along with a lot of specialist armoured vehicles that really made the invasion easier for the troops. The 2nd F&F were in the 11th Armoured Division and our tanks were Shermans in France and Comets in germany a good cruiser tank and supposedly a match for the Tiger tank, but it wasn't, not by a long shot.

I went into the army under a false age adding 2 years to it so I am quite a young ex warrior being only 80 in July this year. Best wishes to you. Fred

 

Hi Nick, Thanks for the photo altho I couldn't recognize anyone in it. When I joined the 1st F&F there were still a few of the originals in it so was surprised I didn't know someone. The squadron sergt major was a man called Fitch and he always wore his 6 shooter low down on his right leg. As a small matter of interest the 2nd line wore a patch of tartan cloth behind the badge, whereas the 1st didn't. When we were crossing the River Weser our tank was photographed by a man from the London Illustrated News and the picture was eventually in the paper long time after the war finsihed and the sent us a copy. It was headlined as the latest British tank to beat the Tiger tank.

When we first received the tanks as new, we went to Dunkirk to learn how to fire the guns correctly and at that time as Dunkirk was a German fortress all our shells ended up in the town. As targets we had lined up a half dozen captured German tanks and we blasted away at them for week after week and watched all our hits bounce of the Tigers and Panthers.

Come dusk we left the ranges for billets as the ranges were patrolled at night by Germans from Dunkirk andnot a very safe place to be. At the time of the battle of the bulge, when the Germans attacked in the Ardennes in December 1944, the 2nd went there to prevent any break through of the Gerrys across the River Meuse, before I arrived at the regiment and the 1st were there also and took part in the fighting, loosing a couple of Crocodiles with casualties , I think. The Germans didn't like the Crocodiles, would flee at the sight of them. They were very dangerous to the crews as well as they couldn't reverse too good with having the trailers behind full of FTF & gas bottles.

I did get a bit of training on them as we went to an airfiled at Lingen, Ems and practised using the flame on different targets such as 50 gallon drums and old Gerry aircraft that were full of ammo and made quite a firework display when they burnt up. The jet of flame was so strong it would bowl a 50 gall. drum over at 100 yards. The fuel wa sticky too and would stick to whatever it hit. Not very pleasant.

If you want to see a good tank museum, go to Bovington, in Dorset, the best in the world. When Iwas last in England I went to a good museum at Duxford Airfield, a Battle of Britain airfield which give tank rides too and they have avery good aircraft museum to with a flying Flying Fort. That is in Cambridge.

 

hello
Dear sire , here is a picture of some men from the 1st FFY sqn C his name was Joslin Gordon he stayed with my grandparrents in the end of the war.I found his family and the are comming to my in Belgium.My question is do you recognize some men on the pictures

I send the pictures on saterday, i have some problems with setting them on the net.

 

Welcome Etienne.

 

Hi there, i would also been interested in seeing the photo as my grandad served with the 1ffy. see my web-site, look under 'bob newitt'

Thanks,donnie

 

Here are the pictures where I talked about.

Index of /101st/fife.and.forfar

They are all guy's of the C squadron.

 

thanks for the photos but me grandad wasnt there...shame. But thanks for posting.

Donnie

 

it does look like an emblem on the ribbon. do we know when these photos were taken?

donnie

 

The photo was taken 02/03/1945.

Etienne

 

I've got a copy of "The Sporran" - the regimental magazine of the 1st FFY from Christmas 1945. Nicks picture is in the magazine (although slightly cropped from the original) there is handily a list of the men in the picture which I've scanned and attatched here. There are other pics in the magazine but I'm not sure if they will scan well enough to pick out individuals. If anyone is interested I can give it a try.

Richard

 

I've got a copy of "The Sporran" - the regimental magazine of the 1st FFY from Christmas 1945. Nicks picture is in the magazine (although slightly cropped from the original) there is handily a list of the men in the picture which I've scanned and attatched here. There are other pics in the magazine but I'm not sure if they will scan well enough to pick out individuals. If anyone is interested I can give it a try.

Richard
http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachments/unit-history/7813d1200227043t-1st-2nd-fife-forfar-yeomanry-1stffysgts1945-jpg


If it's possible I would like the pictures of the magazine.

Thanks

Etienne

 

Hi mate i would be very interested in these pics to, Also is there any mention to a man called Robert Newitt.

Thanks, donnie ( Please use private message facility.)

EDIT Donnie, best not to advertise your email on the public forum, better to use Private messaging. Owen D.

 

I will scan in the pics from the magazine and upload them to a folder in the gallery as soon as I get a chance,I'll post again when its done.
Richard

 

cheers mate

Donnie

 

nice to see some activity on this subject, nice work on getting the magazine with the listings, my Grandad isnt on there and when i saw the ranks it was showing that explains it, Donnie sorry for not coming back to you after i said i wouild be i have started a new job and its pretty intensem i cant even get onto the web am that chocka, last week i received all my grandads stuff from the loft as he is in a home at mo as he is on last legs but i have the following,,

original safety goggles in a tin that they must have worn to protect eyes from the bright flame

cap badge and possibly a smaller dress badge

some excellent phots of him in the field and a couple of group shots

some currency from Germany

his discharge book

i need to some how scan these in and get them on so you can check them out, bear with me and keep the F&FY stuff coming, there is no other forum or website with the info we are building up here

 

Hi nick, good to hear from you again.

Sorry to hear about your grandad mate, I got onto the tank museum at bovington and they do sell the war diary for 1ffy and also have a massive photo archive of the 1ffy.

Donnie

 

mmm need to get there mate, New job means more cash so i will probably buy the war diary at some point for 1ffy, also goning to get his service record when i have filled in the SAR form, cant wait to get these images up on here, no acces to a scanner tho so may have to buy one of them too....are you able to look through the diary as a visitor or do you have to buy it before you can read through it?

N