Royal artillery - 1st Heavy regiment at Dunkirk

Discussion in 'Service Records' started by kzjones43, Jun 4, 2014.

  1. kzjones43

    kzjones43 New Member

    I have my granddad's army record. I am hoping to get some help interpreting a small part of it.

    William Harry Jones 812378

    He joined up in 31 to the Royal Regiment of Artillery and was in India until 39 and then was in the BEF in France

    I'm trying to work out what happened to him and where he was between landing in France on 21.10.39 and being evacuated from Dunkirk on 3.6.40.

    From what I can see he was in the 1st Heavy regiment 16th battery but am struggling with the details - particularly those on the left - I don't know what these mean and those relating to his rank. It's making it hard for me to take the next step and find out more details.

    Can anyone help? And if anyone knows what he may have been involved with, I'd love to hear from you

    Many thanks

    Karen
     

    Attached Files:

  2. Staffsyeoman

    Staffsyeoman Member

  3. JeanMic

    JeanMic Member

    Hi Karen,

    I don't know if you saw my post, but my grandfather was in 1st Heavy Regt RA (28 battery).He also joined the army in the early 1930's and was in India (Rawalpindhi - now Pakistan). What information do you have? Do you have photos? Personally, I don't have much. I know there is one photo somewhere within the family of my grandfather in India, but that is all.

    All the best.
     
  4. Rob Dickers

    Rob Dickers 10th MEDIUM REGT RA

    Hi Karen
    Basic translation:
    Far left column - date of entry
    Far right column - date action took place

    15/3/39 Posted to 1st Heavy Regt RA
    3/7/39 Promoted & appointed to Temp/Lance/Sgt
    3/8/39 CO reverts him to Bombardier
    18/9/39 He requests to be demoted to Gunner
    21/10/39 Proceeds overseas & appointed --- in charge
    29/2/40 Appointed Unpaid Lance Bombardier
    27/3/40 Leave till 9/4/40
    4/6/40 Evacuated
    17/6/40 posted to "Y" list (holding unit in waiting for posting)

    See JeanMic other thread for my summery of the regt etc

    Best
    Rob
     
    kzjones43 and CL1 like this.
  5. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Hello Jean
    Karen was last on the forum June 2014
     
  6. ValK

    ValK New Member

    Hi Jeanmic, I'm Karen's mum who wrote the original post about William Harry Jones 812378. She's had to move house a couple of times and now I've found the post and reminded her about it she's been unable to log on or open a new account for some reason. She thinks her grandfather may have been in Rawlpindhi as she remembers seeing photos of bungalows so she'll try and find out and get back to you on this. We have a few family photos and a couple of military ones as well. He told his sister that he stopped off in Gibraltar on the way back from India in Feb 1939 to fight in the Spanish Civil War but we have no proof of it. I've only just started looking through the information from the other replies on this post so I'll get back to you soon.
     
  7. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    I've got a bit of free time on Monday and Tuesday so I'll look in the BEF war diary regarding his time in France.

    Cheers
    Andy
     
  8. ValK

    ValK New Member

    That's great thanks Andy. Also thanks to Phil and Rob for your input, I appreciate your help.
    Regards
    Val.
     
  9. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    The day they arrived in France
    [​IMG]
     
  10. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    And left
    [​IMG]
     
  11. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

  12. ValK

    ValK New Member

     
  13. ValK

    ValK New Member

  14. Anthony Cottrell

    Anthony Cottrell New Member

    This is a terrific coincidence. I was trying to find out about the 1st Heavy regiment in WW2 up to Dunkirk. My father was an 18 year old R.A.F. wireless operator (after Dunkirk all WOPs trained to be WOP/AGs and got temporary flight sergeant status. The day after he and his "classmates" completed their 6 month course, they were marched down to Aldershot station from Farnborough and sent off to Southampton and thence to France and Belgium. In my dad's case, he and his oppo on the course were sent to the 1st Heavy regiment in Belgium (? Ithink). I immediately came across this thread last night. I have my dad's last two log books and I went up to my bedroom, opened the post Dunkirk one and here is the result of the scan I took of the very last two pages. Bottom right hand corner
    My father's log book from 1940 on.jpg
     
  15. Ian W

    Ian W Member

    Hi Drew - not sure if youre still online as this was posted a few years ago. Many thanks for sharing - my Grandfather, Frederick Watts, was part of 1st Heavy Regiment and was evacuated around 1st June. Im trying to find out more details about him - do you have any more info you could share please?
     
  16. JeanMic

    JeanMic Member

    Well, time flies and I only saw this post a few days ago, 4 years later! I can confirm that my Grandfather was also in Gibraltar. I believe there was garrison artillery there. I was told that my Grandmother went out to visit him, although I find that far-fetched. Regarding participation in the Spanish civil war, to my humble knowledge that doesn't sound right. The Sapnisih civil war would have been coming to an end when 1HA 28 battery was in Gibraltar, but regular UK troops did not take part, becuase the UK had a non-intervention policy.
     
  17. JeanMic

    JeanMic Member

    Hi Anthony, I am just back from Dunkirk where I visited the beaches and the memorial museum. Thanks for the information about your father. Really interesting. The experts on this forum know more than me, but I understand that 1 HA was positioned on the Dyle river in Belgium in 1940. I don't think they fired a shot, but this is just my understanding of the whole thing.
     

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