RN Commandos

I have been trying to do research on my late Grandfather Denny Simpson (Royal Navy Coxswain). From stories I have heard from family and from information I read on an article in my local paper that mentioned Denny landing and then rescuing LRDG Commandos from Levithasin in a fairmile motor launch he may have been in the Combined Operations.

My grandfather saw service in the Dodecanese islands, Greece, Italy (Trieste), the Balkans and may have been in Turkey as Seaman and later Coxswain of Motor Gun Boats, Fairmile MTB?s and minesweepers.
I have written to the Royal Navy for information and received his Pay and Victual list which was vague showing only his station, rank, from and to dates.
Denny was stationed at
HMS Europa from 01/10/1943 - 24/03/1944
HMS Sphinx from 25/03/1944 - 01/06/1944
HMS Mosquito from 02/06/1944- 22/06/1944
HMS ML 1023 from 23/06/1944 - 30/09/1945
HMS Pembroke from 01/10/1945 - 22/02/1947

I would appreciate if anyone could tell me where I may get information to find out if he was indeed a RN Commando (Combined Operations) and any information on what missions he may have been involved in.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 17/10/2009 22:44:26

From the list, i think it possible that he was a crewman on one of the fast moving motor launches used by the navy in ww2, in particular the hms mosquito and ml-1032 indicate he was in the middle east doing that sort of work.

Europa was a shore base for patrol craft, sphinx I dont nderstand as it looks to have been sunk in 1940?

Pembroke was the shore base at Chatham.

As to whether he was a RN Commando - not enough info really, but i would have expected to see some Scottish postings for the CTC training centres. HMS Armadillo in particular.

Any medals or citations ?

Cheers

pete

I am a bit unclear about HMS Sphinx as I also found out it had been sunk!!!
I have only found out my grandfathers service number so I hope to find out from the medal office what medals he was entitled to. I will come back to the board once I receive this information.
I was also informed from my grandfathers brother that his unit was recommended for a Greek medal of honour but for what ever reason he never collected it. Also my grandfather had a commando knife which he gave to his brother once he was demobbed.

Thanks for the info Peter hope you will be able to help me shed more light on Denny once I get his medal list from the medal office.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 17/10/2009 23:24:07

Sphinx was a shore establishment - an accommodation camp at Alexandria, commissioned on 20 Apr 1941 and paid off in May 1946.
Possibly part of HMS Nile...RN base at Alexandria

You will find some useful information on this site with a forum like ours:

http://www.british-genealogy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20376

Good luck

Hi Jason,
I have searched for ML 1023 and I found that she was a HDML. A harbour defence motor launch. If I find any more details I will pass them on.
Good luck with your search,
Peter Cooper

It looks like a lot of middle east postings then!

Medal list will be useful.

Regards

Pete

Come across these for you:

http://www.naval-history.net/WW2MemoirAndSo06.htm

I reckon that covers a lot of what your grandad was involved in!

Pete

I am amazed at how difficult this has been to find out my grandfathers service history.
I honestly thought all that you needed to do was write to the Navy and you would receive a description of what battles he would have been part of and descriptions of bases and where they were and what vessel's etc he served on but as you will know this is not the case.

I appreciate the information and look forward to hearing more details about ML 1023 if you find it and if i find out any more I will pass it on to you.

Thanks Peter

And she's on this list......

http://www.hmsmedusa.org.uk/HDML_Boats_1001-1050.html

I'm enjoying this !!

The article I talked about in my first post was about Caithness Commandos.
Not sure if this will help me find out more information but it might be of some use to other board members trying to find out information.
My grandfather Denny gets a couple of mentions.

Hope this helps

http://www.iprom.co.uk/archives/caithness/Commando3.html

Your getting good at this Peter )

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 18/10/2009 21:38:56

hi Guys,

Jason, the whole series of the Caithness Commandos is found on this link:

http://www.commandoveterans.org/cdoForum/posts/list/974.page

hope it's useful.

But anyway, it seems as if Pete (Keane) has now caught the 'research bug' and so you'll both be turning up bits of info for a while yet - keep us posted as every bit of info is useful to someone.
Good luck,
nick

Excellent read - have you contacted the authors?

I am in the process of trying to track him down but after just reading the other articles on the Caithness commandos I will be trying a wee bit harder.