Juno Beach

[islander]

Hello
My late father was stationed in the South Hams area of Devon. England prior to Normandy. Even though I have his service record I cannot work out where he was at any given time or which companies he was with. He was, in the 1st Tunnelling Company, but this doesn't appear to have been a permanent thing.  Is there anyone that could 'talk' me through his records so I know?
Thank you.

 

[Art Johnson]

You could start with this site:

http://www.forces.gc.ca/dhh/downloads/cmhq/cmhq080.pdf

it has some general information about Canadian Tunneling Companies.

Post the questions and see what comes back.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Yup - if you can scan the relevant pages, we can probably interpret them for you.

 

[islander]

Hello
Thank you for the offer of help.
I do not have a scanner but here are some of the things that I need advice on.
My father was attested at Halifax in January 1940. He left Halifax on 25th July 40 and disembarked at Grenoch, Scotland 1 August 40. T.O.S. No 1 holding company unit 2nd Aug, S.O.S. No 1 Tunnelling Coy 3rd Aug. I think the place was Bordon. From then to November 41, his unit is given as 1st Tunnellers, with 1st Batt RCE added  then, places are just given as field or UK, it only mentions the UK until March 42 when ERU and January 44 when it says X list for the unit.  It mentions 'TOS from Y2 list', ' SOS to X4 list RCE', 'posted X4 list to X10 first att HQ30D' (this dated effective from 12th June 44, unit X list, and place as 21 A??, possible AGP) 25th July 44, 8 fld pk coy/21 AGP,
Are you still with me?  On another page is says 'Embarked at UK on 2nd June 44/disembarked at France 6th June, to be A/cpl, unit X list, 21 A?P. It goes on, but I am unable to make sense of it enough to write it down.
My father appeared to have had a lot of forfeitures of pay and privalidges. He also spent a lot of time in the glass house. On one occasion it reads ' Tried by FYCM for the following sent (1) AA8(2);(2)AA40, found guilty on all charges and sentenced to 9 months detention. and put on close arrest.(later reviewed and sentence suspended), another time he was court marshalled and found guilty of 3 charges AA18(4) and sentenced to 552 days detention but he doesn't appear to have served much of that sentence either. Do you know what these references mean or know of anyway I could find out?  This is probably quite enough for you to be getting on with! and I thank you for any help you can give. I live in Scotland and the only advise I've had before was to visit Ottawa and search the diaries.
Thank you again. Davina

 

[Michael Dorosh]

FGCM is Field General Court Martial....

TOS is Taken on Strength
SOS is Struck Off Strength

I presume you know that already....not sure about those references, but suggest you post this info to my forum at www.canadiansoldiers.com as there are people there that specialize in this type of thing...hopefully someone here will take a peek soon too.  Wish I could help more - not sure which abbreviations you are familiar with or not - since you know what a glass house is I am guessing you are very familiar with stuff like Fd Pk Coy and don't need help with that?

 

[54/102 CEF]

AA = (I believe) the British Army Act -- and the number after that would be the section under which the sodlier might have been charged with an offence

The X4 and X10 stuff I believe are units or reinforcement type organisations

8 fld pk coy/21 AGP, 8th Field Park Company inteh 21st Army Group = An engineer Equipment Company - working for the formation run by Gen Montgomery -  he might have been a heavy equipment operator or worked for heavy equipment support

I would write to

William Rawling
Library and Archives Canada
395 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON  K1A 0N4
CANADA

Bill Rawling has written extensively on Canadian Engineers and may well decode it all for you, but you might wish to sweeten the deal by offering to buy a few copies of his book on 3 Field Engineers of Ottawa

Sound good?

Best regards

If you want to discuss this more - just send me a PM Message

 

[Spr.Earl]

Still amazes me at the cornucopia of knowledge we have here.

Thank you Gent's.

 

[klambie]

X4 List is 'reinforcement' for named unit
X10 List is 'waiting return' for named unit, seems to have been used as a bit of a holding pool as guys moved around between various X lists
Don't know Y2 List, but could be X2 list, which is detention

ERU could be Engineer Reinforcement Unit (should probably have a C in front of it for Canadian - CERU).

Guessing a bit as it looks like the records get a little messy, but I'd take it that he went from 1 Tunnelling Coy to CERU (the general RCE reinforcement stream) in March 42.  He remained there training, etc. until Jan 44, when he went on to an X List for a specific unit (nominally tabbed to go to them as they needed rfts).  Sometime after this, he was posted from that X4 list to the X10 list of 3 Canadian Division (on 12 June?).  I've seen this before, just an administration 'move' to keep track of guys I think.  Actually posted to a unit (8 Fd Pk Coy) on 25 July to replace a casualty or the like.

As a reinforcement, he landed in France on D-Day, but it was probably later in the day.

Hope this helps, take it with a grain of salt and see if it makes it any easier to follow his movements.