42nd Field Company Royal Engineers RE Italy 1944

Good morning!

I am currently researching my Grandfathers service in the 42nd during World War 2. He served as Sapper from 1940-45.

My wife and I are visiting Italy in Summer where we are going to to try to retrace his steps. His war records suggest that he was badly injured on 13th December 1944. My research leads me to believe that the Company may have been fighting around the Gothic Line area around that time.

I am trying to track down a copy of the Companies War Diary from this period in order to see if there is any further information around the date of his injury etc.

Does anybody know if a War Diary exists?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! All the best!

 

Welcome James,

Could you (if known) please add his full name, Date of Birth and Service Number? It will help others to help you.

You refer to 'war records'. Do you mean his Service Record?

I checked The National Archives (TNA) for the unit's War Diary (WD), as you may know they are there for 1939-1943 and then stop. I also checked using 42 Fd Coy. That is odd, but can happen.

It would be worth checking Ancestry, as they have acquired copies of a mountain of WD for the Italian campaign. Being called away, so will check the thread here for them.

Try an online search with: "42 Field Company" site:ww2talk.com or 42 Fd Coy". They will identify a few threads here.

Sometimes you can track a unit's path by searching the CWGC index.

What rank he was will affect using a WD. See following caveat.

That is common to 99% of all war diaries - officers are generally named but other ranks not. I don't think this should be concerning or troubling; diaries were not intended or written with a view to future researchers or historians, just to layout the basic facts of their day to day operations in difficult circumstances. Having said that there can be quite wide variations, not only by different regiments but also by clerks, depending upon the information provided to them. Quite often the appendices give far more information, although again names of ORs hard to come by, section reports can be quite detailed in some cases. By Tony56 in: War Diaries

Good luck.

 

Thank you David!

I think I may have in fact just found what could be the reference to the correct war diary at the National Archives:

Companies: 42 Coy.
Reference: WO 170/1619
Description:
Companies: 42 Coy.

Date: 1944 Oct.- Dec.

What do you think?


https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C961026

My grandfathers information is as follows:

Rank: Sapper
Army Number: 2110195
Name: Ronald Danbury
DOB: 8/2/1920

 

James,

Back now. Yes, an error and I have notified TNA of four if not five errors - which cover 1944-1945.

Your grandfather's name & number have not appeared here before your post.

From my limited knowledge a RE Field Company were not attached to a battalion, more likely a brigade. Which is different to field artillery regiments.

The WD(s) should show their locations, actions and more.

Just checked the latest list here of Ancestry WD, they are not there!

 

James.

Get hold of Gary Tankard on this site - he has a copy of the history of 42 Fd Coy RE.

42 Field Company Royal Engineers

Sep 43-Feb 45 - 201 Guards Brigade
Mar-May 44 - 6th Armoured Division CRE
May 44-Feb 45 - 6th South African Armoured Division attached to 24th Guards Brigade)
Feb 45 - AGRE (16 GHQ Troops)
Mar 45 - 2 Commando Brigade to train for Lake Commachio operation on 1 Apr 45

Regards

Frank

 

James.

Got this from a previous post by Gary Tankard.





Regards

Frank