I knew my dad was stationed in India during WW2 so I got a copy of his sevice record and found out he was stationed at 322MU 1943 to 1946. I recall seeing some photos of his time in India when I was younger, but I am not sure who has them now.
I'm not in the UK Where can I get a copy of my father's service record? He trained in Innsworth in 1944 before being deployed in India He was LAC WJ Smith (Willie James)
This is the only place to get a copy of his service record. Due to Covid takes 9 months plus at the moment. Requests for personal data and service records: a detailed guide
Hi Everybody, I joined the site a couple of months ago hoping to find out some information on my Grandad Frank Mitchell who served in the RAF from May 1941 to April 1946. He enlisted at Number 2 Recruitment Centre Cardington. After tech training at No6 School in Staffordshire (he qualified as a Flight Mechanic in Airframes (FMA eventually his grade was F2A) He then moved onto no (P) Advanced Flying Unit previously no 11 FTS at RAF Ashton Wheaton, after this he was then assigned to 107 Squadron and was stationed at RAF Great Massingham and then Techinical Traning School again before being posted to 1651 Squadron a Heavy Conversion Unit for Sterling Bombers in Cambridge. He was transferred to India in August 1943. He left from Liverpool after being at No. 5 PDC at Padgate and went via the Suez Canal. He arrived in Bombay in the September. He got to RAF Chakeri in the October of 1943 and was put in 322 MU. He was there until 1946 when eventually he came back to England and was demobbed at PDC 101-RAF Kirkham. He was transferred to 307 MU in Lahore in the February of 1946 just before leaving India. I found all this out after getting his RAF records back from the RAF. I applied for them via the government website.It took a little while to decipher all the RAF jargon but eventually I got there. There’s lots of info I gleaned from his record but I still have loads of questions. From what my Nan said to me Grandad was a Flight Engineer (FE) but it doesn’t actually say that on his record. I have done some research and everything I read says he was when I compare it to his record and it fits in with what my Nan said but again it doesn’t officially say it on his record. Can anybody shed any light on this? Is that normal or are his records incomplete by the sounds of it. I realise I’m very lucky that I managed to find out all this info on his career from his record because he never talked about his career in the RAF to the family only my Nan who told me stories and a lot adds up when I research what she said with the stuff on his record. Obviously apart from maintenance stuff that they carried out on the planes at RAF Chakeri does anybody know what else they did on 3322 MU as Nan said he used to go into Burma and try and recover parts from crashed planes aswell as do air drops in the Dakotas for the British Army fighting the Japanese in the jungles. I can’t seem to find any info on their duties/what they did while in the unit. Is what my Nan said true? I’m sure it is as Grandad told her but officially it’s difficult to find anything out. I have some photos of his time in India and I will upload them when I get a chance. Can any one can help shed some light on what his duties could have been? Thankyou.
Further to my above entry I have no idea why he was transferred to Chakeri if he indeed was a Flight Engineer. Apparently one of the stories my Nan told me was that he’d been on a raid in Germany and when it was time to fly back the crew (including the pilot) decided to go the short way home instead of the ‘approved’ long way home. They got disciplined for it and when my Grandad was asked to promise not to do that again or words to that effect he said he couldn’t promise. My Nan was adamant that was why he was removed from duties on 1651 and posted to India.
I've just joined this group as I'm writing my Dad's RAF history. He was stationed at 322 Maintenance Unit, Cawnpore in 1944. I have a few photos of him with others, one of which is at xmas outside 'The beer bar'. My Dad is LAC Geoffrey McGill standing on the left in the white shirt on one photo and bottom left on the other. Hopefully someone can recognise their relatives.
Hi Sharon, Nice photos. Thanks for posting them. I looked to see if my Grandad was in them but unfortunately not. My Mum has some photos of Grandad during his time there aswell. But they aren’t as good a quality. I’ve been meaning to post them on here. I will look at them as I have some photos of the ‘photos’ if you get my drift to see if I can recognise your Dad. Regards
It has been some time since I have been on this site. Thanks for uploading the pictures everyone. I was excited to see if my Grandfather was in them, but sadly, no luck. He was probably there just missed out. I am going to read him these posts when I go and see him this week. Maybe he will recall some names and can fill me in on some more stories. He just turned 100 this year and is as sharp as a tack. His memory is remarkable. On his time off I do know that he liked to go on bike rides and hikes. He was quite happy to have seen Mt. Everest off in the distance.
ClovaDaryl, I wonder if your grandfather would be willing to be interviewed for an oral history collection? I tend to focus on the Army, not the RAF, so the collection I tend to use is the Imperial War Museum. Not sure if the RAF Museum do interviews. have a peek to see for both.
I visited my Grandfather today to see if any of the names in the pictures rang a bell. They, unfortunately did not. He mentioned that he had not heard of S.E.A.A.F - South East Asia Air Force, but new about the S.E.A.C. - South East Asia Command. There was also more than one 322MU. He was part of the Temporary Unit #1 that was not at the airport or any runway as that matter. He was not too far from Cawnpore and there were shops for rebuilding the engines. They did not remove them from the planes there but just overhauled them and then bench tested them. He recalls that there were a couple hundred guys rebuilding engines and they could overhaul 85 in a month. They were overhauling rotary engines from 6am until 2pm as the afternoon would get too hot. He told me that he was pretty lucky as he got to leave 6 months after the was ended but some of his friends stayed for much longer. Before he was stationed in Cawnpore, he was in Bombay and then Karachi. Here he was putting spitfires back together after being shipped over from Africa, installing the wings on the fuselage and repainting them. They were sand colored from fighting over the desert and they were painting them a dark green. He didn't do any engine work on them there as they were next to new he said. He was then stationed in Kamila overhauling personnel transport trucks for about 9 months before being sent to Cawnpore. If anybody has any more information or pictures they could forward I would love to see them. My Grandfather cannot see very well anymore but really enjoyed the blog here that I read to him. .