52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 45
Prompt – Remembrance Day
War Diaries are day to day descriptions
of unit activities, and contain information about locations and the
military operations in which it involved. In 2007 I ordered my
father's unit war diaries. Little did I know how many 3 inch binders
it would fill. Dad served with No. 41 General Transport Company,
RCASC. I have chosen the days between the endless training camps of England and landing into active service in Sicily. The military language is a
language of it's own. In order to figure out the acronyms, I suggest
that you google military acronym and use it to translate them. This is the top of each page in the war diaries.
I start on October 14, 1943. At this point they are somewhere in England training and this is when they are about to leave on "Exercise Timberwolf".
In the above page we read how the camp is very busy getting ready to move out - packing and vaccines. Three officers were court martialed and the cook was turned over to Rear Unit because he was inefficient. Most importantly the companies were told it was a "scheme". Which I guess means they weren't told they were going into active duty.
In the above dates we learn of their precision movements from their "billets" (which I think is their barracks) and of the precise timing and movements of the companies in getting to the Godalming Goods Train Station. They board for Scotland where they then board the USAT ship B-31. I love that it was an uneventful train trip and that "all ranks were well behaved." They arrived in Scotland at 0800 and were boarded onto the ship by 0930!
On board the ship now and officers are being assigned their duties. The unit is given the first Malaria pills and 2nd typhus vaccine. The ship leaves at 2000 hrs on October 27th. Rough seas and sea sickness is prevalent. Drills are practiced. They even take on a lecture of "Sanitation in the Field."They learn over the ship's public address system that this is not a "scheme" but they are going to war.
We learn in the above entries that the ship is heading south and it was getting warmer. Space on the ship was making drills difficult. Boxing tournaments and sing song was their distracting past time plus lectures on "Health". By November 4 they sight land going through the Straits of Gilbralter.
The men still do not know where they are going to land. On November 6th they come under enemy fire for their first time. Finally on Monday, November 8th they disembark to a Staging Camp at Palermo, Scicily.
This is just a few pages of The War Diaries. It can make for a very interesting read. I hope this slice of history of my father's war activities are insightful into the military world. It had to have been the pen-ultimate example of organization.
I apologize for the way the entries show up on my blog. I am hopeful that they are readable. I guess I have more to learn in the world of adding things to my blogs.
Wendy
No comments:
Post a Comment