well, I've found my grand father service records, paid to get a copy. Booked into Royal artillery museum to look through war diaries, but been told I'm not allowed to photograph them. Who won the war? People put their life's on the line and now relatives can't photograph regimental war diaries? Why not? any secret classified stuff has been removed, the WD are 70 years old. anyone else had this trouble? chris
Go to Kew & fill your boots with WD document pics, they will have the same copies there. The research facilities at the RAM are quite limited what with their tight bugets, they do their best to help & they do direct people to the NA Kew. I have in the past donated stuff to the RAM on WW2 RA regts they had nothing at all on in their archives Best Rob
Tell us which unit your Grand Father served in, as someone on this Forum may already have it. A long shot, but worth a try.
196th battery 73rd anti tank regiment Royal Artillery. Cheers for info guys. I know RA museum is on a budget, so why not ask for donation if they let you take photo's?
You can obtain photocopies for a fee and negotiate a rate for using photographs and maps for a book research. Their fees are very reasonable compared to the IWM.
Last time I was there (last yr) it was 20p per side for photocopies and they do it. I'm surprised they don't have 73's WD, way back when they were in the Old Academy they had a room full of WDs, which being a respectable chap I could browse, the set seemed complete and IIRC I specifically looked at the ATk Regts and found my father's writing.
thanks guys, they also asking for a tenner for each photograph. yes a tenner. 20p per photo copy. This is added to the ten pound to use reading room. Well I suggest charge 20 and let you take photo's but hay, we'll see
Welcome to the Big Society. Like all Regimental Museums, it struggles for funding and is only partially funded through the MOD. If you become a Friend of Firepower access to the museum and archives is free.
Similar issues at County Archives as well now. Was an interesting article on how all this is killing research/new publications off as costs have exploded. That said... I'll be there in a few weeks, tend to only copy photos of what I need (or consider) for publication.
well I have to go, I owe it to my grandfather. The whole family are so proud of him. We're finding out new things everyday. I know the museum needs the money, but as stated before I'd of made a donation if they would of let me photo the WD. As ever thanks to the people on this site for knowledge and energy. chris
well I visited the regimental Museum. and although i couldn't photograph the documents, had to pay to have them photo copied. The people there were very helpful, informative and a joy to chat with. Interesting to find out that men of 196 battery 73rd anti tank captured H Himmler. I was even shown, and allowed to hold / photograph, the compass Himmler was using when captured.
Only one battery diary but all the regimental ones are at the National Archives. You can view and copy them for free or failing that I'll do them for you at 10p a page. WO 166/1645 ROYAL ARTILLERY: ANTI-TANK REGIMENTS: 73 Anti-Tank Regiment. 1940 Nov.-1941 Dec. WO 166/7102 ROYAL ARTILLERY: ANTI-TANK REGIMENTS: 73 Regiment. 1942 Jan., Feb. WO 166/11343 73 Regiment 1943 Dec. WO 169/1522 73 Anti-Tank Regiment 1941 July- Dec. WO 169/4697 73 Regt 'A' A/Tk. Battery 1942 May- July WO 169/4724 73 Anti-Tank Regiment 1942 May- Dec. WO 169/9625 73 Regiment 1943 Jan.- Nov. WO 171/924 73 Regiment 1944 Jan.- Dec. WO 171/4776 73 Regiment 1945 Jan.- Aug.
Hi Drew. Yes I did national archives the day after. And photographed the lot. Most of which were duplicates of what I'd payed to photo copy at the RA museum. But was all good. Now looking through over 1,250 photo's and working out map references etc. So looking forward to my Normandy visit in June and being able to actually stand in the fields my grandfather stood, slept, fire his anti tank gun from. Thank you so much for your help Drew. 196 Battery didn't have a battery diary, but still looked at regimental diaries. I may want a few more photographed, so I'll be in touch. Cheers chris
Hi Dubman, I have not found the time yet to visit the RA museum, have you come across anything for the 73rd ATK ? I know my Grandfather was a Gunner / Driver probably an M10 so may have been in 198 or 234 but I do not know which battery from the service record. Drew copied the 1945 WD for me I wondered if there was any material to narrow down the experiances regarding a battery
Hi BG, yes I got eh war diearies from Kew, well April 44 to Sept 45. The Firepower musuem didn't have much more documents than that at Kew, but a few things. Plus they have a 17lb anti tank gun, which I took lot so f photo's of. I'm just about to spend two weeks in normandy covering ground teat teh 73rd covered, see teh same fields used to set up and fire teh guns, where they slept etc. Of course also doing teh museums, beaches and visiting a few graves of 73rd. Do you know about teh book? To northwest Europe with 196 battery, 73rd anti tank.? I've got a photo copied version. A real good read as that's who I found out about my grandfather. there is also, online a vocal history of one of the 73rd chaps. http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80020100 fantastic listen, all 14 recordings. enjoy sorry can't write much more, just packing for teh trip. stay in touch we'll chat when I get back. chris
Thanks for the reply, I will keep an eye out for your return sounds a fantastic trip. I found the IWM file a few weeks ago its good to hear experiances that relations would have gone through. I didnt know about the book, hopefully if I can get medal info it might say the battery. Cheers Ben
