Dvr Cornelius (Jock) DOUGLAS, Royal Artillery & Royal Army Service Corps

Hi

Father was a Royal Artillery driver in North Africa, Italy and Greece with the 8th Army. As his preferred name suggests, he was a Scot from Edinburgh, originally, although he came to London in the 1930s.

He was in 34 LAA until they reached Bari, where he had a recurrence of malaria and was in hospital Jan & Feb 1944. He was transferred to 42 LAA after that and to 66 LAA in Sep 1944, just before they set sail to Piraeus.

The work in Piraeus was driving only (no artillery) and in April 1945 he was posted to 769 RASC (GT) Coy.

I have acquired an Oxford diecast model of the LAA Truck that he would have driven (luckily with the markings of 42 LAA).

Perhaps someone could explain how such vehicles operated, please? I see that there was a cab behind the driver's cab, so perhaps there was a crew of 2 or 3 men?

I would be grateful for any information that can be supplied.

Thanks.

Gordon

 

Gordon.

42 LAA Regt RA would place him in 1 Armoured Division from Feb-Sep 44. 42 LAA Regt RA directly supported the Armoured Division - they went where the Div went.

You therefore need to ensure that the vehicle is marked with the 1 Armoured Division badge.

1 Armoured Division were broken up at the end of Sep 44 so that may explain his move to 66 LAA Regt RA. 66 LAA Regt RA were themselves switched to an RASC Transport unit for the Greece operation.

Regards

Frank

 

Hi Gordon

66 LAA arrived in Greece on 15 Oct 44 on board a wide variety of ships. 1092 personnel and 359 vehicles.

They were subordinated to HQ 9 General Transport (GT) Column Military Liaison (Greece) (ML(G)) - 1 District - A Region

66 LAA location statement below a couple of weeks after their arrival in Greece.

A matching downloadable 1944 map of Piraeus can be found here

Town plan of Piraievs (Piraeus) [map]. - Princeton University Library Catalog

Frank is right in that they were converted into the GT Role just prior to going to Greece.

A lot of HAA/LAA regiments were simply disbanded in late 44 in Italy/ME as the Allies pretty much had overall Air Superiority by then.

Your father was probably a Driver (Internal Combustion) (aka Driver I/C) and may have trained as a Driver Radio Operator (aka Driver Op)



Source: War Diaries 66th LAA Regt - Oct to Dec 44 (WO 170-1239)

Hope this helps.

Gus

 

When in the RA your father would have held the rank of Gunner and qualified driver as per Gus's post. Your title for this post says 'Driver Cornelius Douglas'. Driver is a rank (equivalent to Gunner or Private) in the RASC. If your post is correct it would indicate that he was not only posted to 769 RASC (GT) but had also transferred to the RASC.

Tim

 

Thanks, all, for this very interesting information. You are right in thinking that he was transferred to the RASC. On arrival in Liverpool (July 1945) he was posted to 'C' Coy RASC. He then joined 585 Coy RASC at Bassaleg, South Wales from August 1945 until the end of November 1945 - helping to send food to the Dutch.

Gordon