Hi All, I've seen may RASC War Diaries on the forum which is great but I am hoping for a bit of assistance learning which RASC Coy a chap from our village was in so I can learn what his activity and movements were in prior to his death in 3/11/1942 - He is Percy Smith S181717, buried in Heliopolis War Cemetery. We know enough about his death (from illness) from letters to relatives but need a help with his activity and whereabouts before then complete his story so to speak. Can anyone help? Regards
For record, his CWGC entry: Casualty Serjeant SMITH, PERCY HENRY Service Number S/181717 Died 03/11/1942 Aged 29 Royal Army Service Corps Son of Percy William and Ellen Elizabeth Smith, of Buriton, Petersfield, Hampshire. INSCRIPTION: THERE'S SOME CORNER OF A FOREIGN FIELD THAT IS FOR EVER ENGLAND Buried at HELIOPOLIS WAR CEMETERY Location: Egypt Number of casualties: 1789 Cemetery/memorial reference: 2. F. 31. See cemetery plan Further unit details might appear on War Office Casualty Lists - available to search via FindMyPast. If there's nothing there, then it's a matter of obtaining copy service records from MOD. By "letters to relatives", do you mean from him or from a comrade. If so, then is there not some info about unit on them?
Hi I've searched FMP, ancestry and the Royal logistics corps museum search facility which has many RAOC and RASC and ACC names on it from ww2. Nothing new I am afraid. Gus
Short of applying for his Service Records, there's very few instances of Company or Platoon information readily available for most servicemen. If you're lucky, there may exist correspondence in the family which may give that information, but bear in mind that men could be transferred from A Company to X Company or Platoon as the situation required. As he died from pneumonia and pleurisy, it may have been several weeks before that he was sent to the hospital where he then died..... so finding out what happened may be difficult without Service Records or family information.
Hi His service records are now the only way that this can be worked out. Once this has been obtained, hopefully the relevant company War Diary at Kew might have more info. RASC War Diaries, by the fact that most of them are established at the rear and away from trouble, do tend to be pretty uneventful. But the upside of that is they seem to use stuff like hospital admissions to pad them out. As an example, here's a page from 331st Coy in Greece for November 1944. Gus
I've since learned from family correspondence that he was probably in Coy No6 - does that hold water? were Coy 6 in that area at that time? If so anyone know the WD Diary ref for 6 Coy RASC in late 1942?
