Can anyone tell me if No 3 Base Ordnance Depot RAOC went to France with the BEF in 1940, and if so where was it located?
There is a mention here: Searches about N°1 Base Ordnance Depot areas, 1939 West of France Alas the source appears to be a book in the IWM Library: History of 3 Base Ordnance Depot Perhaps it can be found elsewhere? Might this casualty's record help: Casualty Details | CWGC and another via: Fallen Heroes of Normandy | Detail
3 Base Ammunition Depot (BAD) Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) | The National Archives Reference: WO 167/1177 Description: 3 Base Ammunition Depot (BAD) Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) Date: 1939 Nov.-1940 Feb. Held by: The National Archives, Kew Legal status: Public Record(s) Royal Army Ordnance Corps: 3 Base Ordnance Depot (BOD RAOC) | The National Archives Reference: WO 169/517 Description: Royal Army Ordnance Corps: 3 Base Ordnance Depot (BOD RAOC) Date: 1940 Dec. Held by: The National Archives, Kew Legal status: Public Record(s) See#ms to be missing WD's for March - Dec 1940 - probably not surprising Note that the WD numbers reflect where a unit was : WO 167 - War Office: British Expeditionary Force, France: War Diaries, Second World War TD WO 169 - War Office: British Forces, Middle East: War Diaries, Second World War
This link provides some context, though not about 3 BOD alas and note the War Diary notes: RAOC BAD Locations France 1939 -1940 Were 3 BOD staff aboard the Lancastria? The list is long, so left to you to peruse (there are RAOC and other BOD shown near the start): https://www.briancrabbmaritimebooks.co.uk/the-forgotten-tragedy This book 'Supplying the British Army in the Second World War' by Janet Macdonald refers to all three BOD moving to France, minus anymore on my first look via Google Books. An outlier, worth being in mind the understandable absence of War Diaries and would 3 BOD have had a role? Link: Edward Hunt's Forest of Dean Miscellany - MUSTARD GAS! Not my subject, I don't recall any previous reference to mustard gas deployment to France at the start of WW2.
Amongst the BEF (WO167) Diaries there are only returns for Nos. 1 and 2 BODs...September to June and September to April respectively. There were seven Base Ammunition Depots (Nos. 1 to 6 and No.22). This page from the No.1 BOD diary for April 1940 detailing which depot was to deal with each corps plus GHQ and other locations would imply that No.3 were not with the BEF by then. There is no mention of them either in the BEF movement listings for April / May / June.