I have recently discovered a war diary for my father, who was in the Royal Signals and went over to Normandy D +3 Would it be appropriate once I’ve typed it up to place it here? And any advice or searching for some of the names and events I am coming across… mostly being my dad the diary deals with his daily life (food, sleep, moaning about the weather) as well as gossip about locals and what was happening in the war. Would this be of any interest?
Hello and welcome to the forum Tracey. Yes of course it would be great if you could post his war diary and anything of interest about your father, including his name if you wish. If you post the names of men you find, I am sure members will try and fill in the gaps for you. Lesley
Hello all perhaps you might help with this section of my dad's diary - can anyone identify the people named? Sunday July 30th Very quiet during the night, but a lot of our planes went out this morning – a fairly big attack went in. Trouble with set again – changed it! Allinson came down because we were told to close down by our Squadron Leader – Captain Mitchell. We have no work here until another brigade comes out. We may have to go back to CDS again for a while Parcel from mum & one from Hilda too – doing well. Monday 31st Nothing much happened today. I have been helping Jock on the tanks – getting quite an E/S now!
Again there are a few names here people may recognise - i am not sure it is Sailor Walker but cannot make it into another name with the writing. I decided to write a diary of sorts today, after a terrific attack by our troops. I am now at PLUMETOT with 266 FDS RAC For the last 3-4 days, tanks and other transport having part in the attack, have been moving in a continuous stream, and now, the outcome of it all is this. I think it started before 0500 hrs this morning. I witnessed something like it in the attack on CAEN, but this beats it all to a frazzle. Barring a few bombing raids, and a little shelling, we have been molested very little in the past – I hope it will continue that way. I came off the ship on D3 (June 9th) with Sailor Walker (corporal) and Johnny Gold – later I was transferred to Jeff Hewson’s station, who had Jock Stevens as ES. I came with HQ 1 CORPS with Walker, and transferred to 266 FDS RAC* with Jeff Hewson. I got on much better with Jeff – Sailor and I don’t agree very much, ad here the grub is much better too. My first location in France was La Delivrande – then I moved a mile or so away to Douvres – more or less the same place – they are spoken of as Dovres la Delivrande. That was with HQ 1 corps. My next move was to transfer here. I landed near CORSEULLES. I came in a Yankee “liberty ship” – a 10000 ton Cargo vessel called “GEORGE DURANT” – quite a good crossing it was too. We were then unloaded into tank landing craft (LCT’s) and beached in those. I was lucky – I came up the beach in only 6” of water.
"266 FDS RAC" would be 266 Forward Delivery Squadron, Royal Armoured Corps - part of the network of units responsible for resupplying fighting regiments with armoured vehicles. (I'm not sure if it also included lorries etc.) As this says at the bottom, 266 was disbanded in August. I am confident that that would be because 27th Armoured Brigade was disbanded on 27 July. So that helps make sense of the following: "We have no work here until another brigade comes out. We may have to go back to CDS again for a while " CDS - Corps Delivery Squadron. I assume your father's diary says something about where he did go after that. Presumably "Captain Mitchell" was the officer in command of 266 Forward Delivery Squadron. I am not sure what signals personnel did in a delivery squadron. Maybe they made sure that the radios were working in the vehicles that were going to be delivered?
Thank you, this is really helpful. This is at the start of his diary, and I have about a years worth to plough through! He does talk about supplying a brigade, but I think his main work was working on the radios. I know he did Morse code, and he complains a lot about operators! He talks a lot about staying up all night because his radio(?) is open I am at present writing up the section which is about friends he is making in France, and information from the resistance. Thank you again
Oh, that makes sense. Certainly they would have needed to communicate with other people, all the time!
