Messages posted by: MSG

Thanks Kevin and Andy,

I've contacted BBC Wales and will let you know if I'm successful. Nice photos too! As soon as I have any further information I'll let you all know, but in the meantime thanks for all your replies.

regards, Mike.

Pete/Nick,

Thanks for your replies.

I'd like to try and write a short thing on my great uncle if I can find enough information. I've requested his Service Record, which I hope will shed some light on his activities. For instance, I know he was detached to 4 Commando for Normandy, but I don't know what he did before this, aside from training. He wasn't in the first of the X Troop members to join up, but he was certainly an early joiner.

I've seen the article you cite, and have been in touch with the author - he's pointed me in the direction of several surviving X Troop members but who I still need to contact.

Do either of you know about a BBC Radio Wales series in the late 90s? Apparently there was a 3-programme series, called something like 'Unknown Warriors', as X Troop were billeted and trained in North Wales.

best wishes, Mike.

Dear Nick,

Thanks for the prompt reply and fascinating post.

I can't add much at the moment! On X Troop there is a lot of details, as I'm sure you're aware, in Ian Dear's book, Master's book, and a new account by Helen Fry 'German Schoolboy British Commando'. Within the archives at Kew there are some more specific war diary pages on X Troop, as well as on No 10 (IA) Commando, but it's very hard from those pages to get a feel for what they did, largely because many of the members were detached to other units.

My great uncle passed away shortly after I was born so I didn't get chance to talk to him. Other relatives say he was very reluctant to talk about any of his wartime activities, though he did mention his time as a German PoW: apparently he overheard his German captors talking about how they were going to kill him but he managed to persuade them to let him live as he was only a simple British soldier! He eventually escaped the Germans by disappearing from a moving train, though I don't know how he managed to then be repatriated.

I'm hoping that there will be more details at the IWM as they have quite a large collection of oral history with X Troop members, I also know that several are still alive.

Do you have any further information on who Littlejohn was?

regards, Mike.

I hope someone might be able to help!

I'm looking for further information on my grandfather's brother Walter Thompson, who was a member of No.3 (X Troop) 10 (IA) Commando. I've seen Ian Dear and Peter Master's excellent books, and the latter recounts the background to his capture by the Germans in France after D-Day. I've also seen the files on 10 (IA) Commando in the National Archives, and will shortly go to the IWM too.

Thanks in advance.