Abbreviation help!

Discussion in 'Searching for Someone & Military Genealogy' started by Neil Anderson, Sep 5, 2018.

  1. Neil Anderson

    Neil Anderson Member

    Hi,

    Can anybody please assist with some of the highlighted abbreviations on the image attached? I'm trying to track down information for my father in law, his father served in Burma during WW2.

    I'm in the process of sourcing war diaries and would like to get as much information from the postings information as possible before I get the ball rolling on obtaining copies.

    R Spencer (highlighted).jpg

    Many thanks,
    Neil
     
  2. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    The X-List is a product of the army's need to have a constant status for every man in uniform. Each category is basically a reason why the man in question is not with his unit and available for duty.

    Your father-in-law has multiple entries for XII and XIV. As you can see X2 is medical evacuation beyond the R.A.P, so likely something serious, but it needn't be a battlefield injury--possibly a disease or an accident. There is likely no way of determining what it is owing to privacy laws. X4 is that he's ready for duty but hasn't yet been allocated a unit (it needn't be his own, you went where you were required). This is often when the man is at a camp of some kind--retraining, recuperating etc. I see 47 Rest Camp, which if you're lucky you will be able to geographically locate on that date.

    XlistWW2 copy.JPG
     
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  3. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    • Ignore everything in the two 'Part II Orders' columns. They are references to entries in a list of orders from his unit and will now be untraceable (I've never heard of anybody managing it).
    • SOS--the last entry--is struck of strength (removed from the roster of that unit), but I can't make our the unit: Sealf (South East Asia Land Forces?)--likely.
    This isn't the full service record sheet you're working from--it's the little abbreviated card that accompanies it.

    I forget the correct code, but there's a big A3 sheet entitled SERVICE AND CASUALTY RECORD that the army records people photocopy and issue--that's the one you want to work from.
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2018
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  4. Neil Anderson

    Neil Anderson Member

    Thanks Charley, both your replies are very helpful!
     
  5. 4jonboy

    4jonboy Daughter of a 56 Recce

    The large form is Army form No B103 Service and Casualty form. Have you got that as it contains much more information. Take a look at my dad's records here:
    Ernest Illingworth, Army Records | WW2Talk

    Lesley
     
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  6. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    That's the badger.
     
  7. PackRat

    PackRat Well-Known Member

    I wonder if the 'DO' at the end of that line is the abbreviation for 'ditto', as in the SOS takes effect on the same date as the above entry. I've seen 'DO' used for that purpose many times in lists found in the appendices of war diaries - it's rarely used these days but seems to have been a popular abbreviation at the time.
     
  8. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Not seen it myself, but it's plausible.
     
  9. 4jonboy

    4jonboy Daughter of a 56 Recce

    ALFSEA or SEALF = South East Asia Land Force

    Posted to 2nd Battalion West Yorks 2/12/43
    After rest camp March 44 he went back to 2nd Battalion again until 4/4/45 when he went to British Base Reinforcement Camp -BBRC.
    Then 15/4/45 went to 1073 Port Operating Company.

    If you have the Army form B103 as mentioned in post #5, please post it up as it will have much further detail.

    Lesley
     
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  10. timuk

    timuk Well-Known Member

    ALFSEA Allied Land Forces South East Asia became SEALF South East Asia Land Forces in Dec 46 then FARELF Far East Land Forces in Aug 47. HQ was in Ceylon until moving to Singapore in 1946.

    Tim
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2018
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  11. PackRat

    PackRat Well-Known Member

    An example of 'DO' as an abbreviation for ditto (could be entirely wrong in this case, though!).
    This comes from an appendix to Jan 44 diary of 130 Field Regt listing train timings as they moved into reserve for the Arakan (although they ended up being rushed straight to the front as the Ha-Go offensive began).

    DO.jpg
     
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  12. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Yes, now I've seen it in print I realise that I've seen that in war diaries, too.
     

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