I have only just seriously begun to research my Grandfathers military history, and I am a little confused over some photos. For background info, he was regular army from 1936, Royal Tank Corp. He was in Egypt after training, and went on to be 1st RTR. His role was Tank Driver. Although we have a number of photos, they seem to be mainly of what look like pre-war times. Most of the photos show the men in civilian dress. There are also lots of photos of constructions, such as airfields, water towers (on the back of one photo it says its 'Curlys masterpiece), nissen huts being moved (by hand, must be 40+ men lifting it up!), and suchlike. There are photos of my Grandfather mending a chainsaw, driving a Leyland Retriever, and other types of activity I would not consider done by RTC/RTR. Several of the photos show trucks and a bulldozer (which was called George), but only a few show Mk VI tanks, RR Armoured Cars, etc. Also, there are quite a number of photos with locals in them, and on the back their names. It looks like they became very friendly with them, and I wonder if they were billeted with local families? My question is what was the RTC/RTR doing then? As I say, it looks more like work for engineers. Was it a relaxed life just before the war out in North Africa, and maybe one not following all the rules and regulations, or one where they had to do everthing themselves? If anyone could shed more light, it would be appreciated.
Dave, I'm no help to you at all, but wondered if you had any Bren carrier pictures, amongst his photos?
Dave one must appreciate that in those days there was a notion that a war was imminent and the base in Egypt was inadequate and the GOC at that time was Jumbo Wilson - who- essentially had to make make bricks without straw - roads without tarmac et all in other words there was NO money to build anything - this changed when Wavell took over and he is credited with building the massive base which served 8th army all during the Desert war - and beyond until we handed over the "white man's Burden" after the war -then the Egyptians got pushy and took over the Canal ..which turned nasty in 1956.... We had been in Egypt since 1882 and servicing the Sudan and the two Boer wars from there
Sorry Bluebell, no Bren carriers amongst the photos. Thanks for the background Tom. I think its sometimes easy to get involved with the details without relating them to the bigger picture. I'll try and look up a bit more concerning the commanders at the time, and what the policies for that area were.
