Hello, thank you for having me

Hello everyone,


Just a note to say how pleased I am to have discovered this forum and to have been welcomed into your company. I had a browse last night and I can see there are many experts on here and what helpful, friendly folk you all seem to be too!


I am very interested in WW2, always have been and I am very proud of my late grandfather and his service. His medals are the most precious things I own. From what I can see he served with the colours throughout the war in 92 Field Regt, RA, from 2 September 1939 to December 1945. He was at Dunkirk, one of the last to get out so my dear old dad told me, and one of the first of his regiment onto Sicily (THE first, again according to dad but I suspect he was biased. Maybe it’s true though, who knows...)

I do not claim to be an expert on the war, and I know I now find myself in exalted company, but I can now be found tutting my way every Sunday evening through World on Fire muttering “that’s ridiculous”, “bloody pc 21st Century nonsense”, “as if he’d have been fighting the Battle of the River Plate that soon after joining up” and “how on earth have those Poles run into a BEF unit not long after escaping the Reds in eastern Poland??”

I’m sure my better half is loving my frequent comments - yet I still keep watching the ruddy show!


Anyway, I’ve rambled on so thank you for letting me join, and I look forward to reading through the many varied and interesting posts on here. I have certainly a lot to catch up on!

Martin

 

Welcome to the Forum Martin

As you know send off for his service records Get a copy of military service records and start a thread here Searching for Someone & Military Genealogy where forum members will add further



regards
Clive

 

Thanks very much for that Clive, much appreciated and I shall certainly follow your advice.

My very best regards,

Martin

 

Should you live near London or plan on visiting then you could order this (see link) to view in the research rooms of the Imperial War Museum. The 'Ninety-second' a short outline history of the 92nd Field Regiment, R.A. during the war of 1939-1945

 

Thanks for that EdSav. You know, I’ve a funny feeling that this is the publication that I tried to order last year or the year before. As I recall they wanted something like £120 to print it for me...I am ashamed to say I rather balked at that.

 

Totally get that but you could probably order it online and look at it for free within their research rooms. Enjoy this site though, some really great and helpful people.

 

I didn’t realise that Ed, cheers for the tip.

 

That sounds worth a look, thanks.

 

Ordered quite a few things on line from the IWM including films, photos, audio interviews and documents to look at or listen to in their research rooms. Can highly recommend. I am lucky enough that it's only a £9 London tube day ticket for me to get there though.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

Cheers Dave.

 

Welcome aboard Wobbler.

 

Hi Wobbler, I recommend you speak to the archivists at the RA Museum about the Regiments "DRAMA Report". The amount of content varies from regiment to regiment, but in my experience ( Sergeant ACK-ACK: Royal Artillery Museum: DRAMA Reports ) they will tell you if the report is worth having.

The Royal Artillery Museum Achivists: enquiries@royalartillerymuseum.com

 

Thanks for your warm welcome Bamboo43, very happy to be here.

 

Good morning Steve, thank you for that. Funnily enough I had sent them an email at the start of this month, primarily about RA cap badges and then, whilst I was querying this, I threw in a query about his Sicily dates.

This came about as I thought it would be nice to frame grandad’s medals and so made an enquiry to a medal company who suggested I might also like to include his regimental cap badge in such a framing. Hence I emailed the RAA who suggested the RA Museum.

A lovely lady there came back with an excellent and informative response to both my queries, put together apparently with the help of one of their volunteers, himself a former Gunner apparently. She mentioned the DRAMA service and said that she had looked and seen that there was a fairly detailed entry for “93” Field Regiment for the entire war. I did reply and ask if, as I rather suspect, she meant 92 rather than 93, but I’ve not heard back yet.

I shall fire off another query and ask whether the entry for 92 is worth paying for.

By the way, with regard to the badge aspect of my original query it led me to find this very interesting and informative website:

https://www.britishbadgeforum.com/forums/

They too are a lovely, helpful crowd and were superb in providing me with the period RA badges and patches that will look great when I get grandad’s medals framed.

Sorry, you must all already know about the badge forum!

 

Martin.

92 Fd Regt RA were one of three Artillery Regiments who directly supported 5 Infantry Division - where the Division went, they went.

That would place your late grandfather at the landings in Reggio di Calabria on 3 Sep 43, the crossing of the Garigliano on 17 Jan 44 and at Anzio from Mar-May 44.

The Division, known as the Globetrotters, had a very busy war.

Regards

Frank

 

Thanks Frank. I shall reply more fully tomorrow as I’ve just been told to put my iPad down and get to b****y sleep!

 

Hello Frank, again, many thanks for your response.

I fear my grandad did not take part in any of the actions you describe. From the rather limited service record that I hold for him, sent to me in 1993 and not that great in its detail, although he is listed thus: “Sicily 3.7.43 to 28.8.43”, from 29.8.43 to 2.7.44 he is shown as being in the British North Africa Force, followed by the Middle East until 14.2.45 and then the Central Mediterranean Force until 3.3.45 when he was posted to 21st Army Group in NW Europe.

It seems that for whatever reason he did not serve in the Italian mainland campaign. Perhaps that saved his life, we shall never know of course, but I am so glad he came home safe.

As I say, the record I received from the MoD in 1993 is not very detailed really, it’s a typed letter with dates. I am going to open a thread in the Military Genealogy as Clive suggested, as I understand that is the best place to have a look at it all and get some more help and advice from you lads and lasses.

 

When I said above that “I fear” my grandad did not take part in any of those actions you described, that was rather selfish of me wasn’t it. I expect grandad was more than happy to have avoided it all!