As some of you are aware I am trying to investigate the death of two-may be three British soldiers who were killed in the forest surrounding Lyons La Forêt otherwise a known as la forêt de Lyons. The event took place according to documents I have seen on August 29th 1944 where a tracked vehicle possibly a universal carrier or Loyd carrier was destroyed killing all on board when it hit a mine by the chapel de St Catherine near the abbaye de Mortemer on the Rout de Mortemer (the D715). As I live in France it is difficult to visit the archives in Kew, however, as I am going to London in the next few days I was planning to visit the archives. Now, I have looked at the war diaries of both regiment and have found nothing conclusive. Is there any other form of official documentation that I could look up that anyone knows about? Casuallty lists for example etc? I am ne to this so I would need to know the official names of the documentation.
There is much discussion already on the other thread http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/59723-the-death-of-three-members-of-53rd-welsh-recconaissance-regiment-august-1944/ But, I can't really see if you yourself have made a thorough search of CWGC records? I use Geoff's search engine. http://www.********.co.uk/cgi-bin/search39-47.php I would search for at least a three day period - day before to day after date of interest - and sift through all results, discarding any from outside the Theatre. (Copy and paste results into a spreadsheet or document to make this easier.) I'd also check to see if there were more than two men from the same unit killed on the same day and prioritise those. Then I would go through the online documentation CWGC added for each casualty (concentration reports), to see if any men were buried temporarily in the locality. From that I'd compile a list of units in order to check the war diaries for any incidents around that time. Fortunately searching for TNA war diary references has also been made much easier since Lee built his search engine http://www.arcre.com/wdsearch Good luck with it all anyway.
dbf, thanks for that. There has been some discussion on it but as you can see there is nothing conclusive. It may appear to some people that my search may ba beiing carried out in a very amateurish way but as I say, I am new to all this and am therefore sailing if you like in thick fog with no particular direction.
No worries, you're not the only one to start a search based on 'a story' ... spent the best part of 4 yrs checking out tales as told to me by my father - he was very light on location/date etc and I usually hadn't a clue where to start either. With some great help here, a bit of luck and some perseverance a good few of those tales ended up being cemented into fact. eg http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/30127-private-archibald-smith-6th-bn-kings-own-scottish-borderers/
Don't forget to read up about what identification you need to bring with you to get a day readers ticket and admission. There's usually a request to view a video about how to research documents, and of course you can apply in advance for up to 3 sets of documents ready when you arrive. Book a seat as well. Coming from France you may need to contact them to ensure what you bring as ID proof will be acceptable. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/visit-us/researching-here/ The advice given by dbf is how you should try and locate these men. Your previous threads may allow you to eliminate some in advance. Using the CWGC database is easier now, you simply select the Dates you require, start at 3 days before and after and gradually extend out from each from or to date. The more you use it, the easier it will become (Oo eer nurse!) and I suggest you might find it easier to also sort by Cemetery. Once you've done that you can then Download into an Excel spreadsheet and work through. You might also want to try and sort by Unit, to see if you get a grouping of 2 or more the same date.... Enjoy your visit, you might also visit Kew Gardens.
