27 LAA Regt (TA) RA

Welcome Lynne,

As John says, the most important step is to send for his records from the MOD, as this will give you the fullest possible picture of his military career. Unfortunately there is likely to be a very long wait for them at present. Once you have the precise dates and units from his records, you can look into viewing their war diaries and other histories for more information.

Just a couple of bits and pieces I can add from looking at the pictures you have posted. The lines on the card that you are having trouble with are 'Y List' and 'Z/T Res' - both are to do with his demob at the end of his service. The numbers (like 1338/46) I think will be the Part II orders authorising the entry, and there's not really anything you can trace with those as that paperwork is long since destroyed.

If you look inside his Soldier's Release Book, the date for his 'Y List' posting should roughly line up with the date of his demob (should be a stamp from the MDU in there somewhere) - that will be the date he was processed through the MDU where he handed in his kit and picked up his demob suit and other civilian clothing.

MDU was a Military Dispersal Unit. On the front cover of his book is written 'No 4 MDU Zone' - No. 4 MDU was apparently the London area unit, based at Regent's Park Barracks (link here).

At that point he was on release leave for a number of weeks, during which he was still able to draw army pay - you might find some Post Office stamps on the inside cover of the book. The length of this leave depended on length of service and was extended for time spent overseas.

And the end of the leave he became a true civilian and was released to the 'Z/T Res'. That was the 'Z' Reserve (Territorial). For more than a decade after the end of the war, millions of men were technically a part of this reserve force - 'technically' because they had no further training and no association with any active unit once they had finished their war service or national service, and most had no clue that they even remained under reserve liability.

The government maintained the reserve in case of national emergency. The vast majority were never called on again, though some unlucky men received recall papers through the post during the Suez and Korean conflicts. As the years passed questions were asked in Parliament as to why this vast reserve was being maintained, even though it was only on paper. In 1954 the Navy, Army and Air Force Reserves Act decreed that ex-servicemen should remain liable for the General Reserve until they were 45 or until the 30th of June 1959, whichever was the sooner. As he was born in 1912, he would have hit the age limit before 1959, which I guess is the reason for the 'DISCH AGE LIMIT' stamp.

One other thing from the release book - his Service Trade is noted as 'Dvr i/c' which stands for Driver, Internal Combustion (to differentiate it from animal transport drivers)

It's not much, but hope that helps a little. Good luck with your research - always help available on this forum if you run into any roadblocks.

Edited to add: Reading his history, it says he was recalled from the army in 1943 due to his skills as a wood machinist. On the card it says 'Trans to GSC 19.2.43'. GSC is General Service Corps, so I'm guessing that he was technically on the strength of GSC while employing these skills at home. When he returned to uniform he went into 27 LAA Regt. He was initially with 25th Field Regiment, though, and his testimonial looks like it is stamped 58 Battery, 25th Field Regiment, so might even have gone back to them at some stage. His full service record should make all of this clearer.

 

Hi Lynne, drop me an email on simonevetts113@hotmail.co.uk and I'll try and help

 

Lynne I’m glad you posted as you’ve prompted me to do some more digging about my dad. I promised to post pictures of my dad and friends in North Africa, liberating Brussels, his MM citation signed by Lt Gen Horrocks and Montgomery for action in early July 44 and a hand painted picture of a guard tower at the Sandbostel concentration camp, Germany July 1944, given to my dad in exchange for a pack of cigarettes by a SS Guard awaiting potential war crimes processing. Cheers to all

 

As silly as I am ... I found this that my dad had put on paper regarding granddad. (thomas William Murray) 11264097
"Your Granddad was called up for War service in October 1939 and served in various artillery units from Oct 39 to 1943. He was recalled from Military service to civilian occupation as a specialist wood machinist building gliders for the invasion of Europe. Recalled again in early 1944 he took part in the D Day landings as a driver in the 27th LAA. These were equipped with self propelled bofors AA Guns mounted on dodge trucks. These were used in a dual role as Anti Aircraft and Anti Tank defense. In the antitank role they were at the spear head of XXX Corps, leading to your granddad being among the first 400 British troops to enter Brussels, liberating the Belgian capital from German forces for which he received a special medallion from the Belgium Government.

In April 1945 as a scout patrol in the anti tank role he was sent to investigate a report of a German Army Camp. This was the concentration camp known as Belsen-burgen. This, his crew and their support crew were the first to liberate this camp.

Your Granddad returned to the UK and was demobbed in1946, returning to his civilian occupation at C F Anderson in islington until his retirement in 1978.