RHINE CROSSING 1945: The Rees bridgehead (30 Corps in operation 'Turnscrew')

By the way: The Pipes and Drums of the Canadian Mounted Police are coming to Bienen on May 2nd.

 

I live close to Bienen, probably i will go there. Maybe more WW2Talk members will to.

 

I will be there.

 

Hi Stolpi. I am doing research on the North Nova Scotia Highlanders KIA in Bienen on March 25, 1945. I have all the names of the men and their service files, war diary for the time period, but do NOT have an Appendix to the war diary which might state which Company each deceased man was in. I noticed you have a list of the men, and wonder if by any chance you know which Company each man was in. Thanks for any help. Pieter

 

Hi Pieter,

If there is such an appendix it should be in the PDFs on the Library and Archives Canada site: North Nova Scotia Highlanders (Machine Gun)

Chris

 

Thank you for that link to the war diaries on the LAC website, Chris. I had the daily accounts, but not the appendices. The info I was looking for was not in the March or April 1945 war diaries, but there was a wealth of information that will come in useful in my research. Many thanks for your help. Pieter

 

I've send you a PM

 

Pieter,

I know quite a lot of diaries, but didnt see these kind of appendixes. The only one i know are in the May 1945 wardiaries.
You will find a list with all the cassualties from this unit. In this appendix you also find explaination of the codes.

Here an example.

 

Thank you Bedee. I had not looked at the May 1945 war diary, only up to April 1945. I will certainly do so. Pieter

 

Pieter,

You won't find Coy on those CMHQ casualty lists. I've done similar research on my unit of interest and the primary options are:

• Bn Orders Part 1. Working through day by day entries to find Coy notations. Some units were fairly conscientious about this, others much less so.
• Embarkation rolls for D-Day and Combined Ops training, probably in summer 43. May be by Coy, so very useful. D-Day rolls may be by date, so careful of multiple sub-units boarding craft on the same day
• Personnel files. Much more difficult, but there are occasionally indication of Coy.

The first two should be included in the complete WDs at LAC.

 

Thank you very much Kevin (klambie) for the additional information on where to find out which company a soldier was in. It's great information and we appreciate all tips from other researchers. You are correct that it wasn't in the Casualty lists in the NNSH lists. We have seen the company listed by a casualty in lists from other Regiments, so it seems that it all depended on who did the reports. Occasionally a soldier is mentioned in the war diary entry itself, most of the time not, unfortunately. ... Pieter

 

Bump ... on the evening of 23 March 45 the Rhine Crossing of 21st Army Group started.

 

Thank you Pieter and Stolpi! This is quite an extensive treasure trove that I'm only just beginning to process!

 

Commemorating Operations Plunder and Varsity at a gathering near Wesel with historic vehicles - yesterday afternoon. Two Dutch reenactors representing the "Gordon Highlanders" brought this Jeep.