Lt. Col L.S. Harland M.C., D.S.O.

Thank you for the photo Mr. Jinks.
My mother has the original of that photo somewhere

 

Hello Michael,

To the best of my knowledge it was only WWI records (some) that were lost in the Blitz. Your Grandfather’s WWII records should still be available and FOC to his next of kin.

As Tricky said earlier, all you really need is your Grandfather’s death certificate and an application; details here: Get a copy of military service records: Apply for the records of someone who's deceased - GOV.UK Ask for his ‘full’ service records.

You will find far more information about his service in his service records than elsewhere, so I recommend that you give it a go. If you need help with interpretation, post them up on here when received...

I also recommend that you keep asking about his 3 citations on here, as someone will have one or more.

Best,

Steve.

 

Hello to all,
I will see if I can get hold of his death certificate, only recently have I gained access to things since I became my step grandmother's PoA.
Meantime I will stay on the trail and thank you for the help so far.
Mike

 

Thank you 'harkness' for that baptism certificate.
Mike

 

Subtle additions to the above.

Harland was in command of 6RTR through Operation Compass (December 1940 - January 1941). However, the Regiment did not take part in the famous dash to and success at Beda Fomm as they had been withdrawn to Egypt a couple of weeks earlier.

Based upon their Operation Compass exploits, the following was promulgated on 5 March 1941:


During March 1941, 6RTR were sent back to Cyrenaica to reform on captured Italian M13 and Vickers Light Tanks and be part of 3rd Armoured Brigade, 2nd Armoured Division. Their retreat from the front line to Tobruk was not a happy one and they lost all their tanks enroute to mechanical breakdown. The Regiment was once again withdrawn to Egypt where they refitted on the 'new' Crusader tank.

6RTR moved back to the frontline (Western Desert) with their 'new' tanks in June 1941 and were a key component of 7th Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division's dash through the desert during Operation Battleaxe.

Lt Col Harland MC DSO was noted as Commanding Officer of 6RTR on 31st May 1941 and appears to have continued in command of the Regiment up to and including 15th June 1941. On that day, the Regiment took a bit of a pasting. The war diary for 16th June then notes that Major RL Scoones was now commanding the Regiment (temporarily) and was then replaced by Lt Col Lister on a permanent basis as of 23 June 1941. There is no entry to detail Harland stepping down, on which day and for what reason.

One could be lead to believe that Harland had suffered an injury during the skirmishes of the 15th and was thus no longer able to continue in command. However, the war diary also has a long list of casualties (killed, missing, wounded) for the operations 15-16 June 1941 and Harland's name does not appear on it. Strange.