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Royal Engineers in West Africa

Discussion in 'Information Requests' started by susancammas, May 13, 2015.

  1. susancammas

    susancammas New Member

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    Good evening

    My father was in the Royal Engineers. He was in Freetown frm May 1942 to April 1943 (according to his service records).
    Does anyone know what the RE's were doing in West Africa at that time? I have searched internet to no avail.*

    Many thanks
    Susan
     
  2. Drew5233

    Drew5233 Member

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  3. susancammas

    susancammas New Member

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    Good morning Drew

    According to his service record, which I have obtained from Glasgow, prior to his departure for Sierra Leone, he was:

    15th September 1941 "posted to HQ 51st Highland Divisional Engineers (Home Forces) - then on

    26th April 1942 "posted to RE Depot pending overseas draft index R.G.K.A.K."
    9th May "embarked on "CHAIN" as part of draft RGKAK"
    23rd May "disembarked at Freetown appointed SORE III to DCE Works Sierra Leone"

    16th April 1943 - "embarked for UK"

    Not much to go on I'm afraid. However, I have a feeling that his stay in Freetown had something to do with a Harbour. Does this mean any thing to you?

    This is probably a very stupid question, but what is a "unit"?
    Were RE's assigned to different units according to needs, or were they permanently part of a particular unit.

    Many thanks for all your help.
    Susan
     
  4. 4jonboy

    4jonboy Active Member

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  5. susancammas

    susancammas New Member

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    Good afternoon

    I’ve returned to my search for information concerning what my father could have been doing in Sierra Leone between May 1942 and April 1943.
    I have done a thorough search on internet and found some interesting information concerning the building of a harbour. It is attached.

    My question is this: does anyone know whether this harbour was actually built?

    “From Britain, the first pause was at Freetown, where the shorter legged Atlantic liners and the coal burners required fuel and the whole convoy water, both boiler feed and potable. In fact, this enormous demand on the limited resources of Freetown was always a major problem leading both to delays in the troop convoys caused by the heavy demands upon labour in coaling ship, and in the homeward bound trade convoys by the depletion of coal stocks, which were shipped out from Britain. Water supplies were also a problem in that Freetown, while certainly not bereft of rainfall, possessed only minimal reservoir capacity which was very easily overwhelmed by large demands. Finally, Freetown was, basically, an anchorage where all supplies had to be loaded by hand from lighters (in the case of coal), or by water boats which were also in short supply.” (sorry can’t remember the source)

    So, SL was basically a fuelling /watering stop for the WS convoys which were in operation between 1940 and 1943 when the North Arican coast and Sicily had been cleared of the enemy and the passage of loaded troopships through the Suez Canal became possible and the WS convoys were cancelled.

    Also, are there any Forum members who have a special interest in the Royal Engineers and who might be able to suggest what the RE’s would/might have been doing in Freetown between May 1942 and April 1943? What was going on that required the intervention of the RE’s?

    Any ideas will be very welcome.

    Kind regards
    Susan

    PS: I have a copy of Archie Munro’s “The Winston Specials - troopships via the cape 1940-1943” and would be happy to do lookups.

     

    Attached Files:

  6. lwd

    lwd Ace

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    You might want to ask over on our sister site ww2 talk. They tend to specialize in Commonwealth matters a bit more. Sorry I can't help more on that. PLS do keep us informed of what you find though.
     
  7. davidbfpo

    davidbfpo Member

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    I just tried a search using "royal engineers journal" + "freetown" and it came up with several Royal Engineers Journal articles. Oddly the best source is in New Zealand.

    There is a book with a chapter on Sierra Leone: 'An Imperial World at War: the British Empire, 1939-45' edited by Ashley Jackson, Yasmin Khan, Gajendra Singh.
     

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