George Watts, RN Commando 'G' [Troop Ship sank off N. Africa enroute to Sicily]

Sue,
Thought you might appreciate anotherphoto of the ship and a couple of Landing Craft.

Nick

This message was edited 6 times. Last update was at 02/11/2010 16:00:39

I've just received am email from Sue and thought I'd post it here to update this post - I'm sure Sue will keep us further updated as she unfolds the story

Sue Atkinson wrote: Success! Just received Dad's naval record, so many ships...ranging from HMS Raleigh in Novcember 1941 when he joined up, through Drake, Cabot, Royal Arthur, Tormentor, Quebec, Inverkip, Dundonald, Quebec, Drake, Foliot, Drake, Foliot, Rosneath, Westcliffe, COPRA, he must have been hopping on and off 'em like buses...the bit that was most pertinent - and I got round to getting back on the forum and seeing you did it via the 'Saint/Sent' bit - the little grey cells - brilliant bit of sleuthing...as I was saying, the pertinent bit is between 1st July 1943 and 31 March 1945 when he was with RNBC 'G3', so I guess that is Royal Naval Beach something...Command? So I've got plenty to go at now. Pity I have to go to work, I think I'd be rather at the computer investigating...he transferred to the Sherwood Foresters on 24th April 1945. Many thanks!

RNBC is Royal Navy Beach Commando [aka RN Commando]
Each RN Commando was designated a letter rather than a number and, in the early days, each Commando was split into 3 sections - hence George Watts was in 3 Section of RNBC G

Great work Sue

Regards,
Nick

Sue,
You say that he seemed to be hopping from ship to ship quite a bit - if you have a look at this link you'll see a number of those 'ships' were, in fact, Combined Ops Training Establishments (Quebec, Tormentor, Foliot etc)

http://www.combinedops.com/Training%20EST%20UK.htm

happy reading...

Nick

Hi Sue

I thought I would send you some info on G Commando, G for George in the phonetic alphabet used by Combined Operations at the time.

RNBC G, Royal Naval Beach Commando George details copied from the National Archives; http://relaysystem.co.uk/G_RN_Commando.pdf

G Commando landed with Force 'V', at the Bark West, Sugar Beaches supporting the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade of the 1st Canadian Division.

Later during the invasion of Italy, G1 landed with 231st Malta brigade at Vebo Valencia, G2 and G3 landed with the Canadian 1st Div at Cape Spartivento on the south side of the toe of Italy, later elements landed at Termoli.

What you might find interesting is the reference to assisted in recovering prisoners in the Adriatic, as this was mainly done (as I recall) from local fishing boats and I think is referred to in both the books about the RN Commandos; the first was The Beachhead Commandos by a Cecil Hampshire, published by William Kimber & Co Ltd in 1983 and the more recent Beachhead Assault by David Lee, published By Greenhill Books in October 2004.

Also see links related to RNBC G at http://www.relaysystem.co.uk/id8.html

Best Regards

Griffin