Special service on mod record

Discussion in 'Service Records' started by Adrian hall Parker, Nov 27, 2017.

  1. gmyles

    gmyles Senior Member

    From a RE WW2 Order of Battle Document I found a while ago.

    4th Infantry Division RE Regular division at Colchester . The division served with the BEF 1939-40, and went to North Africa Mar 1943. It went to Italy Feb 1944 and then to Greece Dec 1944, where it remained. Mobilized with 7th, 9th and 59th Field Coys RE and 18th Field Park Coy RE. 9th Field Coy RE relieved 16 Feb 1940 and replaced same date by 225th Field Coy RE. 3rd Bridging Pln RE assigned 18 Oct 1943.

    He was definitely in or around Athens.

    I cant read the date for when he was struck off strength (SOS) of Middle East (ME) and joined Combined Mediterranean Forces (CMF). But my records suggest it was sometime on or after 15/12/44. 150 Personnel of 59th Field Coy arrived first and and 50 more a few days later.

    On 22/02/45 he was admitted to the 97th British General Hospital which was in the northern suburb of Psychico. (Stefanou Delta 15, Filothei Psichiko 154 52) now the Athens College.

    On 01/05/45 he was admitted into 150 Light Field Ambulance (LFA) which was part of 23rd Armoured Brigade and had been in Athens since October 1944. They were based in what is now the Evaggelismos General Hospital (Ipsilantou 45-47, Athina 106 76).

    On 21/09/45 he was admitted into 159 Field Ambulance which was the medical support for 28 Infantry Brigade (4th Inf Div). According to the "The army medical services Campaigns Vol. 3 by Francis Crew & Albert Eleyr", 159 Field Ambulance had a 'Staging Post' in Levadia in March 1945 with the rest of the unit based in Athens.

    The disposition of troops in Greece on the 31st March 1945 were:

    4th Indian Infantry Division - Thrace, Macedonia. Based in Salonika and Kavalla.
    4th British Infantry Division - Eastern Mainland, based in Volos and Athens
    "Brewforce" (parts of 46 Brit Inf Div) - Peloponnesus and Epirus, based in Athens, Patras and Preveza.
    23rd Armoured Brigade - Athens

    He does not appear in the British Casualties 1939-1945 on find my past so it will be highly likely that he was admitted into the various hospitals for an illness. I have attached a table of the Principal Diseases affecting the troops in Greece during the time he was admitted. It could be any of them.

    It is also worth noting that Greece had the highest rates of VD. 2375 cases over the same period. Almost 4 times greater than the rest of CMF.

    The link below is a highly detailed story of the 7th Field Company RE, who were also with 4th Inf Div in Greece and should give you a insight as to what they were all up to.

    Shiny7diary1945

    Hope this helps

    Gus
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Nov 28, 2017

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