Messages posted by: Pete Keane

Kevin,

All recived thank you.

Interesting stuff.

Pete.

This is a complete guess, and when you have his service history you can tell us the whole story, but heres a possibility:

Just prior to the outbreak of ww2, Army regiments were equipped with searchlight and anti-aircraft facilities - a battalion from each regiment was designated, and it then became part of the Royal Artillery, but remained with its mother Regiment.

In the case of my grandfathers regt., the South Lancs, the 5th Bn. became the 61st (South Lancs) Searchlight Regt.

As I say, I may be wrong, but they are great photo's.

regards

Pete

Excellent stuff there, Pete.

Post the photo's if you can.

Were 1 Ind Coy involved in the Norway expedition?

Pete.

Ps I do believe I saw Steph interviewed by BBC as well? dark sunglasses?

As well as seeing Bill Millin on the BBC d-day programme, there is a full page about him in todays 'Western Morning News' - if anyone wants a copy let me know as I have a spare.

He was re-united with his bagpipes!

Pete.

Would Lord Lovats book 'March Past' be a suitable read?

Regards

Pete

Pete,

I do believe that was exactly as described by John, unfortunately my scribbled notes have gone walkabout.

Liverpool Scottish was the other battalion he mentioned, I think they were the Cameron Highlanders at that time.

My research has centred around the South Lancs - its too hard otherwise. Even then, it can be confusing ! The 2/4 South Lancs as discussed became an Independent Company, but the 2/4 Bn. then seems to have been rebuilt using a mix of draftees and regulars, who later became the first company of the 13th Bn. Parachute Regiment.

Its ironic that terriers who had joined a 'home defence' service, became exactly the opposite, and probably the best known soldiers ever.

thanks for the info on the 55th, i havent got that far yet but it will prove useful.

regards

Pete

I have recently been put in touch with John Wall, a veteran of the South Lancs & 5 Commando.

During our conversations, we talked about the role of the territorials - he was a terrier in 2/4 South Lancs in the years up to the war.

He tells me there were 10 HD territorial battalions, 5 of which formed Independent Companies for the Norway Expeditionary Force in 1940. The 2/4 South Lancs were formed into No.4 Independent Company.

Upon their return to the UK, an officer (Stuart Chant I think), visited the Company and asked for volunteers for 5 Commando. John volunteered.

Shortly after the Independent Companies were formed into No.2 Commando.

I mention this because I noticed in your list the high number of SL's & Kings Liverpool casualties, I suspect that the Kings casualties were also terriers from their pre-war territorial battalion.

John told me that they were not trained as the later volunteers were a la Achnacarry, as much of the training that the Independent companies had carried out was similar in nature.

I will send John the photo's - if the guys were SL's he may well know them as fellow terriers.

Regards

Pete

Ps We have now created a definitive ROH database for the South lancs in WW2, each entry links to its CWGC entry, and we will be creating another page for soldiers who specialised, ie Commandos, SOE, etc, with a very brief bio on each page.

Regards

Pete

Finally have his Service history, which has cleared up a lot of unknowns, but also added some!

Immediately after his ITC Training in 1940 he was posted to No.4 Command.....not No.4 Commando! No.4 Command was the army group to which the NW regiments fell under, including South Lancs.

He was posted to Kirkwall in the Orkneys - I have some work to do here as he spoke about specific operations from there, I guess the war diary of the 9th Bn. South Lancs will be necessary to fill in the gaps.

he went out to Burma in late 1944, and was injured in a glider crash in 1945 - again, South Lancs war diary should help. His story and his service record tie up.

So was he a Commando? Well, I doubt it - although there is a complete 2 year period missing up in Scotland, I think his name would have surfaced by now if he had been.

Am I bovvered.....

No, not really. I dont think Jim ever claimed to be a Commando - I remember him talking about the Chindits, and I know he fought alongside them, which is what he said.

I'm happy that the 'Commando' reference should just be 'Command'.

He was argumentative and fisty - on his records he was AWOL for about 40 days, and confined to barracks for 20, which he didnt mention, but I could have guessed.

In the meantime, I've done a lot of research on his mother Regiment and been able to help others, which I look forward to carrying on, so I'm happy.

Would I have wanted him to have been a Commando? Maybe. Which 5 year old doesn't believe their Grandad was a superhero in the war?

Overall, I'm just happy to know a bit about him that I didn't know before.

Regards all, will still be around!

Pete

Pdf would be great.

Thanks for the reminder about the ship!

Ta.

Pete

I know I had it but I dont know where I put it !!

Can anyone remind me of the name of the troopship taking 5 Commando to India - think it was late 43 and stopped at Durban?

Ta.

Pete

Bidwell...that name rings a bell, he must have been mentioned in Louis Allens Longest War.

I found a copy of Lord Lovats 'March Past' in a second-hand shop the other day, and also a copy of 'Elephant Bill' which I might read next.

I've been reading books over the last few years, Masters, Slim, plus some lesser (?) autobiographies - my biggest regret is not keeping the books when I finished them.

Pete

Ps I didn't find him - in best Commando fashion, he found me...

Nick,

On the photo section for 5 Commando, there is a photo for 2 troop - is it correct, would you know? Its just that i'm sure the same photo is elsewhere as 5 troop - or maybe they just look similar!

Pete.

Thanks.......

:)