Pte J A R Field Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, Middle East Commandos

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 29/04/2012 01:08:30

Can anyone help with information Re Pte J A R Field.

Posted for Terry By john M

trying to unlock the mystery of my grand
fathers war record and why after all he went through they made him
sign his name to a fictitious war record written in the same officers
hand writing when he returned to England in
1946 with just unit initials and dates saying you were here here and
here now sign here. which seems a bit iffy and why after all this time
is this all we are allowed to find out.
Geoff was going to get in touch with my nephew Arron Field .
to get some more details about my grand father
as he and his dad have got most of my grand fathers war notes , that
is why we know he was in at the start of the commandos and that
through all his service he remained badged as The Royal Northumberland
Fusiliers. and not as a particular commando unit. we know he saw
action in the Middle East,Crete Sicily Italy and Yugoslavia from
where he left late 1946 , in the book SWORD OF HONOUR by the late
EVELYN WAUGH his main character Lieutenant Cruikshank served every
where my Grandad was even down to the caves in Crete and getting off
the island by small boat , now my grandad had sadly died before the
book was turned in to a film and he has his escape from Crete in his
war notes which were hidden and only came to light after hi death , so
it all seems to our family that there is some sort of cover up
keeping his actual war record sealed and we would like to know why as
other records have come to light . i have had serving members of the
commandos , my local M P who is on the armed services commission
trying to find out but they seem to hit a brick wall as well .
so what did he do ? why can;t we access his records? how can we break
the silence?its getting very frustrating having all his war dairies
yet not having the official records to go with them as when you tell
people what he did during the war they think you are making it all up
and that make us all upset
it seems Geoff must have hit the same brick wall as we have HELP
Hello John

thank you for your email i received today the records we obtained were
from Glasgow Records Office , we also obtained his medical records
which were incomplete as we know that he was hospitalised twice in
Alexandria , once for an operation, and the second for shrapnel wounds
to his arm, also the only Q S record we have is the one for his basic
training and nothing else on record.
According to a contact at the Imperial War Museum my
grandfather was part of a special force trained in
covert operations behind the lines going after Nazi officers like the
raid on Rommel's HQ and the capture of the Commandant on Crete. but
as my uncle is disabled and i have to look after my disabled wife
getting down to London, is a bit hard for us at the moment.
I can remember one story my grandfather told me about his desert
campaign , his small patrol were behind the
German lines looking for a hidden ammo dump when thy spotted a German
patrol which was larger then their small force coming towards them so
they took cover behind a small wadi and the officer in charge of my
grandfathers patrol turned to my grandfather and said to him i know
you are a christian Jim can you pray for us my grandfather did and
the German patrol turned around and went back to their base so the
patrol followed them and the Germans led them straight ton the target
they were looking for and the officer said to my grandfather that he
has got someone looking after him and the whole patrol got back
unharmed.
i can also remember my grandfather watching the film return to
Naverone when the partisans wore flour sacks over their faces and
James Fox blew up the bridge my grandfather remarked that they blew
the bridge on the film from the wrong side of the river, i asked him
how he knew that and he said i was there he was trained in explosives
mortar and machine guns , and he was part of the 2nd special service
brigade fighting with the Yugoslavian partisans under Tito, and that
is why we think he was kept in the country as part of the policing
force mopping up after the war but he would not speak about that part
of the war..

As you see we know a bit about what and where he was but it is
getting the facts and records to back it up and that is where some of
your members may be able to help can you please put an appeal for
information on your website to see if any of your older comrades can
help us in our quest to find any information thank you.

Terry Crompton