1st Armoured Division

Discussion in 'Higher Formations' started by Kieron Hill, Apr 19, 2008.

  1. Kieron Hill

    Kieron Hill Senior Member

    Hi all

    Has anyone one got any info on the 1st Armoured Division and units attached especially during the Western Desert campagin. What I am really looking for is the Royal Army Medical Corps unit attached to this Division.

    I have in my collection an interesting bunch of photos of this medical unit from their furthest point reached, which was 4 miles past Antelat and it follows their retreat after the shelling of Antelat - Bir El Chirena - Timimi - Bir El Harmet - Tobruk - Bir El Adern - Hellfire Pass - Cowley Camp

    Any Info would be great

    Cheers Kieron
     
  2. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    I may as well ask here as start a new thread.

    Does anybody have any of the documentation below concerning 1st Armoured Division during the first two weeks of July, 1942: 1st to 14th?

    I'm turning up the following files at Kew are:

    Reference: WO 169/4053
    Description: Divisions: 1 Armoured Division: G. Branch (Armd Div)
    Note: See also WO 169/4006
    Date: 1942 Jan.- June

    Which leads me to:

    Reference: WO 169/4006
    Description: 13 Corps: G. Branch (XIII Corps)
    Note: Also contains July 1942 diary of 1st ARMOURED DIVISION, G.Branch.
    Date: 1942 June- Aug.

    And also this:

    Reference: WO 201/537
    Description: 1 Armoured Division: report on operations in Western Desert
    Date: 1942 May-July

    If anybody here has a copy of either of these last two files, I'd be indebted to them if they could check the period mentioned for references to ROBCOL and let me know what there is.
     
  3. gmyles

    gmyles Senior Member

    Hi

    I have a copy of WO 169/4053 but just Jan and Feb of 1942.

    Dad went to Egypt with 1st Armoured Troops Workshop (RAOC) and stayed with 1st Armoured Div from 5 Dec 41 to the last day of the first Battle of El Alamein (27 Jul 42) when he was admitted to 133rd General Hospital in Sidi Bishr.

    Its a bit of a monster with 244 pages (170 Mb) so if you want a copy, give me a few days to try and shrink things down a bit and send it to your gmail account.

    Regards

    Gus
     
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  4. Swiper

    Swiper Resident Sospan

    For an overview I'd recommend:

    John Plant, The 1st Armoured Division: An Operational History, (London: New Generation, 2013).
     
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  5. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    Swiped.

    Thank you for the steer. I am interested in what John Plant thought of the 1 Armd Div attack on 4-5 Sep 44 on the Gothic Line.

    Regards

    Frank
     
  6. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

  7. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Interesting, Gus--and thank you for the offer.

    Do you mean that there are 244 pages for just January and February? And, if so--as I know you do at least some of the archive work yourself--do you recall whether that was typical? How big a bundle did they bring out for the whole of WO 169/4053?

    Will message you about file transfer.
     
  8. Gary Tankard

    Gary Tankard Well-Known Member

    Charley,

    In my experience the divisional G war diaries can be pretty big which is why some files are monthly or quarterly rather than yearly as in the case of the battalion WDs. I recently copied the G section for 56 Div and some of those were 300+ pages for a single month.

    Regards,
    Gary.
     
  9. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    If I might make a suggestion, Google Drive and Dropbox (amongst others) will let you upload entire large files and let you share them with others for download. They're very handy for this sort of thing!

    Chris
     
  10. gmyles

    gmyles Senior Member

    I copied 3 Corps war diary for just one month and it was just shy of 600 pages. Back breaking stuff.

    The 250 pages of G branch covers both months. I got these off another forum member years ago.

    I'll try and upload them to my Google drive later.

    Gus
     
  11. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Cheers, Gary, Seroster.

    Think we've got the transfer covered.

    I think that later this year I will try to get a copy of that WO 201/537 report.
     
  12. Stuart Avery

    Stuart Avery In my wagon & not a muleteer.

    Chris, I have only just got my head around how to use Google Drive for sending large files. It is brilliant & quite cheap.. In my experience, I ended up throwing the book out of the window when it came to Dropbox. Each to there own. I'm sticking with GD.

    Regards
    Stu.
     
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  13. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    Swiped.

    I was disappointed with a John Plant's book on 1 Armd Div. Full of inaccuracies in the bit that I am interested in - the thrust to breakthrough the Gothic Line on 3-5 Sep 44. His sense of geography is appalling.

    In parts, it struck me as a bunch of official training manuals just bound together and called a book.

    Regards

    Frank
     
  14. Gary Tankard

    Gary Tankard Well-Known Member

    Hi Charley,

    I was down in Kew on Saturday and had a spare half hour - I copied the above file. PM me and I'll try and work out the best way to get it to you.

    Regards,
    Gary.
     
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  15. Stuart Avery

    Stuart Avery In my wagon & not a muleteer.

    Frank,
    was there a original copy of the 1st Armoured Division History? By the sound of it, its has much use has a bag of spanners!

    Regards
    Stu.
     

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