I am trying to find out more detail about my grandad Ron Cambell Army No: 1601621 in WW2 and would like to know if 137 LAA or 1st Maritime Regt had any specialist unit that served in the Balkans 1941 - 1942. Have found an interesting account of him having been with the Chetniks in the Balkan mountains for 8 months avoiding the Germans and then getting picked up by a British submarine near Sibernik which took him & his small team to Bari, Italy. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
Hello David do you have is service records link here if not Get a copy of military service records - GOV.UK regards Clive
Yep, I have that Gnr Ronald (Ron) Cambell Army No 1601621 & there is no mention of Balkans also has - 358 days adrift somewhere. Unsure if he was seconded on attachment somewhere and does this not get recorded on his Service & Casualty Form ?
Hello and welcome David, With regard to his service with the 1st Maritime Regiment RA, it is possible that he served with DEMS aboard Merchant Navy ships. Can you tell me if you were lucky enough to have his Mairitme Card with the records. Could you give his date and place of birth please/ Regards Hugh
No I don't have his Maritime card, should that have been with his military records ? Grandad's DOB: 02/12/1916 I think his Place of Birth was Camberwell, London I have his Service & Caualty Form, His Statement of his Service B120 form, Notification of Impending release & his conduct sheet.
How long was he with the MRA? The Maritime Card is held with his records but one of the difficulties in researching MRA gunners is that this card in many cases has not survived and the list of ships that would be on it is not available to the researcher. We can use Merchant Navy records in this case but we need the name of a ship to begin with preferably at the end of his service so we can work backwards. No sign of him on the maritime records that I can access but a lot of them are not online and you would need a specific ship to go look. Regards Hugh
Hi David Could you scan & upload the service records you have for your grandfather - I cant find a Ronald Cambell born 1916 in London - which is odd to me and wonder what details are on his records - thanks TD
Ok Plan 'F' have took photo of 5 x pages on IPad and when back to work can send all as they are scanned & saved on work computer which I can't access at the moment until next week. Hopefully this will work Regards David Cambell
Image 0745.jpg is the one that is out of focus and could be the most important of the documents - hopefully you can uplopad a clearer image later TD edited to add: Reading this link The Maritime Regiment by Adrian Rose As the war progressed attacks by enemy aircraft diminished, and surface ships and submarines became the main threat. Low-angle guns were introduced to counter this new menace, and to reflmaritime royal artillery2ect the change in role the title was altered on 1 November 1942 to Maritime Royal Artillery. In March 1943 the establishment was reorganised into six regiments, each consisting of a Regimental Headquarters, Training Battery and Holding Battery. Each regiment was responsible for a designated area of shipping: Clyde (1st Regt, Loch Winnoch), Forth (2nd Regt, Leslie), Tyne (3rd Regt, North Shields), Mersey (4th Regt, Southport), Thames (5th Regt, Shoeburyness), and Severn (6th Regt, Thornbury). There were also overseas Troops and Batteries in North Africa and Palestine, and later on in France, Belgium and Holland. In August 1944 1,800 maritime gunners were returned to Army service. Further reductions took place during 1945, and the final regiment was disbanded on 31 July 1946. The MRA motto was Intrepid per oceanos Mundi = boldly over the oceans of the world. It would seem your relative was basically based at Loch Winnoch as that name dominates his time with that Regiment
Yes indeed very poor image and I re took the form it which is the next image 0746 jpg Thanks for your help David
Although based at Loch Winnoch, the regiment would provide DEMS gunners to sail alongside RN DEMS on ships leaving the Clyde. If he did so then it should be recorded on any surviving maritime card. Voyages could be days, weeks or months. But in my experience those MRA gunners that survived the war are very difficult to research with MN documents the only way to go. Regards Hugh
Only other query I have is the typed account of being in the Balkans for 8 x months & getting picked up by submarine? Not the Average LAA Regt attachment for sure ?? I have attached the typed account I found in grandad's desk he has called it "Second Chance"