Philip Ashcroft, 73rd medium Regiment Royal Artillery

Discussion in 'Royal Artillery' started by Paul O’Callaghan, Jun 26, 2020.

  1. Paul O’Callaghan

    Paul O’Callaghan New Member

    My grandad (Philip Ashcroft) fought in this regiment in World War Two and was a ‘Batman’ to Major Hines. He didn’t speak about the war very much and unfortunately died around 28 years ago. I would like to be able to tell my mum (his daughter) what he did during the war. If anyone has any information, I would be really keen to hear it. Thanks in advance,
    Paul O’Callaghan
     
  2. Paul O’Callaghan

    Paul O’Callaghan New Member

    He is on the right in both pictures
     

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  3. Tony56

    Tony56 Member Patron

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  4. Paul O’Callaghan

    Paul O’Callaghan New Member

    Thanks. Sorry it was the Royal Artillery 73rd medium Regiment. I think I’ve got that right
     
  5. Steve Turner

    Steve Turner Member

    Hi Paul,

    May grandad was also in 73rd Medium Regt. Here’s what I’ve found out so far.
    1. Regiment were based in Cheshire UK before being deployed to North Africa.
    2. Deployed to Port Tewfik (Egypt) Aug 1941. Took weeks to arrive as they had to sail around South Africa. They went on convoy WS10.
    3. Spent approx 4 weeks in the Nile Delta area acclimatising and preparing.
    4. They arrived without guns in theatre and obtain anti tank guns 2pdrs and 18pdrs and were ordered to reform as anti tank Regt. 73 Anti Tank Regt then deployed into western Egypt and Libya on Op Crusader which was a massive success pushing Rommels Afrika Corps some 500 miles back into Libya from the Egyptian border.
    5. After Op crusader the Regt renamed to 95 anti tank as there (unbeknown) was a 73 anti tank in the UK. Ironically they joined the NA campaign in 1942.
    6. 95 AT Regt RA run an artillery school just East of Solum in Egypt and trained gunners from all countries.
    My grandad left 95 to join the Raiding Support Regiment so my research leaves 95 at that point, but I believe they were still in Libya in December 43 and possibly went to Palastine once the NA campaign had been won.
    7. Ex Liverpool manager Bob Paisley was in 73rd Medum Regt at the time.
     
  6. Paul O’Callaghan

    Paul O’Callaghan New Member

    Thanks much, Steve. I remember my grandad talking about Bob Paisley serving alongside him - he always spoke very highly of him. Strange to think that years later, Bob Paisley was working with the Liverpool team at Melwood and we were all living just round the corner. It’s a shame they weren’t able to meet up and discuss memories. I know he went from North Africa to Italy but that must be where you research veers in another direction. Thank you so much again. I’ll pass the info on to my mum who has always wondered what he did during the war.
     
  7. Steve Turner

    Steve Turner Member

    Apologies. They were still in Libya in Dec 42. Not 43
     
  8. Andreas

    Andreas Working on two books

    I suspect one reason for the conversion was a massive shortage of medium guns in the Middle East. So the choice for the regiment was to hang around and do nothing, in the hope that medium guns would show up in a few months, or convert.

    http://rommelsriposte.com/2011/06/15/8th-army-medium-artillery-stats-12-february-1942/

    http://rommelsriposte.com/2019/07/28/5980/

    All the best

    Andreas
     
  9. Steve Turner

    Steve Turner Member

    Very plausible, if I recall from the diaries though they were told a new type of RA regiment was required. A much better story to motivate troops. As soon as they got to Camp Quassassin the CO went to Cairo for a briefing and got these orders to convert.
     

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