Messages posted by: NIC

Hi,

If you don't get any answers from members on this Website, you may want to try the Facebook Group - Commando Association - CA. https://www.facebook.com/groups/6030683278

this is an open group and you may get a response there.
However, I would suggest you use your name and not a pseudo name, as the information you have is quite scant and you're looking at some still sensitive areas such as the Falklands and Northern Ireland...

Nick

Hi Kenny,

What great photos and a wonderful letter from your grandfather.
I'm sure you'd like to know that your grandfather's friend, Len, was - 2881130, Lance Sgt Leonard Alfred Wade, Gordon Highlanders/London Scottish & No.9 Cdo. who was Killed in Action on 3 Feb 1944
https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2099020/leonard-alfred-wade/

The other two mentioned by name were,
32187, Lt Col (later Brigadier) Ronnie John Frederick Tod, DSO, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders & No.9 Cdo.
Gunner J. Todd, Royal Artillery & No.9 Cdo.

Nick

Hi Martin,

Please find attached the Obituary Column from Cdo. Assoc. Newsletter no.88, March 1989.
I'm afraid that the 'obituaries' were just lists of commandos and the Commando they served in...

Nick

Great news. Well done.

Nick

Hi Steven,

The Army Commandos were formed entirely from volunteers from all the regiments in the Army - so yes your uncle would have been in a regular regiment or Corps and then volunteered for Special Service. He was only 'on loan' to the Commandos and when the Commandos were disbanded in 1947 most individuals returned to their parent regiment to complete their service and be de-mobbed...

When you say Army records cannot trace any details of him, where did you apply to?
Was it The MoD?
Or Forces War Records?
Or any of the other commercial, online, genealogy Search sites?

Nick

CommanCestor wrote:

Can I be reasonably sure, based on this information, that he was one of the hundreds of thousands of men evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk?
In the first attached clip, the record has him at the training center and ammunition depot in Bromley as of 4Sept '39, on leave in Jan-Feb '40, but then it doesn't indicate where he was until he "Disembarked in U.K." on 20th June 1940. (Would that entry represent his return from Dunkirk? The date is not quite aligned with the historical account of the 26May to 4th June 1940. Close enough?)

Nan

Hi Nan,

looking at the file you've named as 20 June 40, he was still attached to 2 BAD RAOC ( Royal Army Ordnance Corps) but he was with the 2nd Echelon - in France, but not on the front line
Operation Aerial was the evacuation of Allied forces and civilians from ports in western France from 15 to 25 June 1940 - so that would tie in with the dates in his record...

Nick

... as for the other acronyms such as 63rd TS and 63rd AS, it is clear that they're written in two different hands. I believe that they are one and the same - just that one person used AS and the other, TS.
It is possible that AS = Ammunition Squadron and TS = Training Squadron.

What is established is that Corsham was a Garrison HQ for the Salisbury Plain District and, during WWII was a very large underground Ammunition Store.

Certainly Corsham was all of these:
a Central Ordnance Depot,
a COD (Command Ordnance Depot),
a CAD (Central Armaments Depot),
a BAD (Base Ammunition Depot) - possibly 2 BAD...

As you can see, Army acronyms can be a 'minefield'

with some people using their own version. An common example of this is Hightown Barracks in Wrexham where the Holding Operational Commando was based. Some used the abbreviation/acronym HOC, but others used HCO instead...

Nick

Andrew,

This is your man...
https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1077052/arthur-moon/

Nick

Hi Andrew,

Looks like we have two different Arthur Moons...

Arthur T H Moon, No.5 Cdo, served as a Private in the Wiltshire Regt before volunteering for The Commandos. In November 1943 he sailed, together with the rest of No.5 Commando, to India and fought with 3 Cdo Brigade in Burma.
After the war he returned to Wiltshire and lived in Bulford, near Salisbury, where he sadly died of Leukemia in 1998.

Nick

Hi Nan,

Here's a start -
ITC Beds & Herts Regt. was the Infantry Training Centre, for the Beds & Hearts Regt, and was in Kempston on the outskirts of Bedford. Here the enlisted men would do their basic training.

SPP - Special Proficiency Pay - was a special award for soldiers below the rank of sergeant, granted at Commanding Officer's discretion.

Army Order 41 of 1938 was a particularly long-winded order setting out details of increases of pay for soldiers enlisted on or after October 1925.
The increases were in two parts, those granted early in a soldier's service and those granted later as a result of long service and good conduct.

SPP was paid only to Privates and unpaid Lance Corporals, first as an increase of 3d per day - after the 1st & 2nd years' service - then, subsequently, after 3 years for "proficiency above average"
These increases, at the 3rd year point, were to be restricted to only two thirds of the strength of any unit, and were probably based, by most OCs, on the number of other qualifications already acquired by their eligible soldiers.
[Discontinued by ACI 418 of 1950]

Qualification badge - SP in a Wreath, worn on lower left arm by personnel granted SPP or its equivalent.

Nick

Hi Andrew,

Do you have any other initials or middle names for your Arthur Moon?
As far as I know the Arthur Moon in the photo was from near Salisbury, Wiltshire.

Nick

LucyMB wrote:Hi Nick

Thanks for your response.. at least I think - as I must say it really wasn?t the response I was hoping to see and comes across very patronising.

To clarify - 1 & 5 Cdo will of course be included - I don?t think I said anywhere that they wouldn?t be. However, due to my family history and the material I have, the narrative will focus more on 44 and 42.

It?s a shame you have chosen to focus rather heavily (and negatively I might say) on one word in my post which was written rather casually (this being an internet forum and not a proposal to my publisher etc), rather than anything else but, there we go.

If you would like any further information on the project or can help with my request, then please feel free to send me a message and I will be happy to discuss further.

Lucy

Hi Lucy,

Thanks for your prompt response and I'm sorry you felt my message was both patronising and negative - it certainly was not my intention to be either.

However, your message, and especially the word 'definitive', did start alarm bells ringing with a number of relatives of Army Commandos - who have been contacted me and who were already concerned that
a. The War in the Far East, already oft' forgotten, may be misrepresented by a book that may not tell the full story of 3 Cdo Brigade.
b. The Army Commandos are often overlooked, as they were only in existence from 1940 - 1946, and it is a very common misconception, therefore, that the only Commandos were RM Cdos.

As I said in my first line, I welcome any book that will tell the story of The Commandos in India/Burma...

Nick

Hi Lucy,

I, and a good many other people, am extremely pleased that, at long last, a book is going to be written about The Commandos in Burma.
My only concern is that you say the book will focus on 42 RM Cdo and 44 RM Cdo and yet your aim is for your book to be the definitive story of the Commando's in the Far East...

I'm sure you're aware that 3 Special Service (later Commando) Brigade was made up of No.1 Cdo, No.5 Cdo, 42 RM Cdo & 44 RM Cdo. No.1 Cdo & 42 RM Cdo were paired up, as were No.5 Cdo & 44 RM Cdo but these pairs fought in quite different areas and did not come together, to work/fight as a Brigade, until January 45 at Hill 170.

But to just concentrate on the RM Cdo element of the Brigade and not include the Army Cdo element means that your book could not be a definitive story of the Commandos in the Far East.

Nick

Hi Paul,

There was certainly a Major Charles Raymond Tice in the SOE. National Archives ref: HS 9/1468/6 [HS = Records of SOE; HS/9 = SOE Personnel Files; HS/9/1468 = SOE Personnel Files - information on individual subjects]

The only thing I have on him is his parent regiment was Royal Welsh Fusiliers, service number: 148924 and he was in Force 136.

STS was in Aviemore in the Cairngorms, it used three lodges: Drumintoul, Glenmore and Forest and was the training base for Norwegian Agents and HQ to Kompani Linge (Linge Company) led by Martin Linge.

Nick

Great effort on this one Pete.

Thanks,
Nick