WW2 Photo

[yanmacca]

Hi every one, now I know you are all sick of my ugly mug, so here is a photo of a real soldier, my dad.

Here he is with his company circa 1941 and the second image is a blown up section of the first, highlighting him, it must have been took before he made sergeant as I cannot see any stripes on his arms;

[Beth]

You look a lot of your dad. I feel it's important to put human faces on moments of history and to share the experiences to the next and all following generations. I did a quick wiki look up on the regiment because unfortunately if you mentioned your dad's experiences, I don't remember it. I'd like to here more.

[yanmacca]

Unfortunately Beth info is really thin on the ground and I have been asking questions myself, I know that he joined the territorials around 1936 and this was a search light unit, but then he was in a LAA regiment which was equipped with bofors 40mm guns, this unit served right across the country from Scapa flow to Merseyside and he ended up serving on bofors AA guns which were mounted on tank chassis and his unit was attached to the Canadians who landed on Juno beach, my dad landed with the second or third wave.

What gets me about that photo is the fact some of these men didn't survive that war, and I wonder just how many are still alive today and do there families have that same photo.

[Beth]

Send me as much info as you can via a PM and I will see what I can find for you on 3fold. I don't know how much info they will have but it is a place to start.

Do you think this place might be able to help as well? www.lancashireinfantrymuseum.org.uk/

I'm sure others can offer suggestions.

[yanmacca]

Beth you have given me a great idea, I will ask the museum if they want a copy of the photo, you never know they may even agree to help me in my quest.

[yanmacca]

I have this concerning the unit he was with on D-Day/Juno beach;

114th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment
80th Anti-Aircraft Brigade Royal Artillery

I don't know which battery he was in but only two were armed with the type of AFV which he commanded and these were;

372nd or 375th Battery.
Each battery contained six of these and my dad commanded one of them;

link

[deadwoodgultch]

Ian,

It is amazing how you can stumble into information, even without looking, when you are looking it is really amazing. Roughly 20 years after the war I had a date or two with a named girl named Sue Pritchard, who mentioned her dad had been a Major in the CIC, in Hawaii during the war. I mentioned it to my dad as I knew he had been in the CIC, in Hawaii, during the war, he told me Pritchard was his CO. The Pritchards had just moved to the area, at the time. Turns out Pritchard worked for and later retired from one of those 3 letter agencies. My dad had not seen him since wars end. I heard a story or two at the time from both sides.

Don't give up your search.

[yanmacca]

Thanks Tom, the chances of that happening must have been really rare, especially how many people served in the US Army during the war period and actually coming across each other again in the same town in the whole of the USA is amazing.

[rebcav]

Feb 4, 2017 20:09:42 GMT yanmacca said:

Hi every one, now I know you are all sick of my ugly mug, so here is a photo of a real soldier, my dad.

Here he is with his company circa 1941 and the second image is a blown up section of the first, highlighting him, it must have been took before he made sergeant as I cannot see any stripes on his arms;

   Sir:
      Stripes on his arm or not, your dad was a HERO.

     Respectfully,
     Duane

[dave]

Ian
What about the archives of Great Britain for servicemen's records? I wanted to secure my father's service records, 1941-1963, so I asked my US Senator's office for assistance and received his records within a fortnight. It is amazing what politicians will do for their constituents. Perhaps you could try through your MP to secure your father's service records?
I also echo RebCav's comment regarding your father being a Hero, they all were regardless of sides.
Regards
Dave

[Beth]

Dave unfortunately those years fall into the records that are affected by a fire and there were no duplicates.

www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/fire-1973.html

If you want to send me your dad's name I can see what is easily available through 3fold. They also have quite a bit of International records but I am not sure exactly what you want.

[dave]

Beth
The records we received were less the lost files as you mentioned from the fires.

Joseph David Elmore DOB 12-15-1924  DOD 1-17-1989
He enlisted on 12-15-1941 US Navy retired as Chief Petty Officer his rating was Quartemaster
Any help would be appreciated
Regards
Dave

[Beth]

A quick look and I see 17 different Navy Muster roll. I have an early appointment tomorow and I will try a few other things to see if I can get more. Give me some idea what you are searching for and I will see if I can filter for it. If it's personal send me a PM.

I'll print the muster rolls into pdfs if you are interested you'll have to let me know if you want just the page your dad is on or the one for the entire ship. I didn't look at what dates were covered. I'll let you know more tomorrow