Researching my grandfather - Sapper, Royal Engineers, BEF-Dunkirk

[jpclark]

Hi Everyone - hope you're all keeping well.

My grandfather was said to have cried in his sleep most nights after his experiences with the BEF in 1940 and I would like to understand more about the company he served with and hope to trace his steps. I wonder if you can help point me in the right direction...?

This is the main information I have from his Service Record which shows he was in and out of various hospitals:

Concretor, Pioneer E Grade II
Royal Engineers, "973 IWT (W'SHOP) Company RE
Date enlist: 24/1/1940
690 Company Clacton posted 12.2.1940
690 Gen Cons? Dis Hospital - taken on strength of unit - France 4.3.1940
Regraded  II w.e.f 25/2/1940 Yeadon?

Embarked SS Beary Chase? for B.E.F 2-3-1940
657 G.C? Company posted from no.1 General Base Depot, 14-3-1940
Arrived UK (BEF) 10-6-1940

I would very much like to understand more about the Company he was with, perhaps some information about the ship SS Beary Chase?, the depot and perhaps more importantly, if the Dunkirk evacuation was 26 May to 4th June, then what is meant by arriving back in the UK 6 days after...?!!

He never spoke of what happened, all my mother understood was that he 'fought at Dunkirk'...

Any information you can provide would be helpful

thanks
Justin

[Buzancy18]

Beginning with his enlistment he was sent to 973 Inland Waterway Transport Company RE as a concrete worker with the grade E of non-frontline duties..
then to 690 General Construction Company.
He was obviously hospitalized around January 1940 and regraded on discharge from hospital. He was then sent to 657 General Construction Company via No1 General Base which was at Ruoen (I think)

attaching some info on the BEF :

TRANSPORATION and DOCK  UNITS

Mostly made up from Supplementary Reserves and Territorials  who , within five weeks of moving 250 lorries across to France,  went from bus drivers, long-distance lorry drivers etc to soldiers. They were so disorganised initially that one group  actually  halted on the road to Le Mans to swap boots and uniforms among themselves to fit better.
The 1st  and 2nd Dock Groups handled the main base ports of Brest, Cherbourg, St Nazaire and Nantes. A third group, 3rd Dock Group was created by stripping out men from 1st and 2nd and  handled  Fecamp, Caen, Ruoen, St Malo, Le Havre and rolling stock and vehicles were switched to Calais and Dunkirk. There were two District HQs.
 Q (MC) South covering Marseilles, Nantes, Le Mans, Rennes, Brest, Cherbourg and Caen.
Q (MC) North covering Le Havre, Rouen, Dieppe, Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk.
There was also a Movement Control Regulating Sub Area HQ at Abancourt and a small Movement Control HQ in Paris.
The whole Inland Water Transport Directorate in the BEF was staffed by Supplementary Reserve Officers. 


3rd  Movement Control Group RE

4th  Movement Control Group RE

5th  Movement Control Group RE

1st  Docks Group RE

1st  Stevedores Bn RE ( two company size units )

2nd  Docks Group RE

2nd  Stevedores Bn RE ( as above)

3rd  Docks Group RE

3rd  Stevedores Bn RE ( as above)

4th  Docks Group RE


1st  Railway Construction & Maintenance Group RE

2nd  Railway Construction & Maintenance Group RE

3rd  Railway Construction & Maintenance Group RE

1st  Railway Operating Group RE

2nd  Railway Operating Group RE

8th , 10th , 27th  Railway Co RE

29th , 165th  Railway Survey Co RE

135th  Excavator Co RE

150th , 151st  , 153rd   , 154th , 155th , 157th , 158th , 159th , 161st  Railway Construction Co
( a good book is Citizen Soldiers  by Col G Williams)

156th  . 196th  Tn Stores Co

170th , 173rd  Railway Tunnelling Co

186th  Tn Cons Co

190th  Railway Op Co

117th , 118th , 119th , 122nd  Road Construction  Co RE

657th , 658th , 659th , 660th , 661st , 662nd , 663rd , 664th , 665th , 666th , 667th , 668th , 669th , 670th , 671st , 673rd , 674th , 675th , 676th , 677th , 678th , 679th , 680th , 681st , 682nd , 684th , 685th , 686th , 689th , 690th , 691st , 692nd , 693rd , 694th , 695th , 697th , 698th , 700th , 702nd , 704th , 705th , 706th , 707th , 709th , 710th , 712th , 713th , 714th , 715th , 716th  General  Construction  Co RE

1-15th , 17th ,and 26th  Auxiliary Military Pioneer Groups

25th -76th , 78th & 79th , 81st -83rd , 87th -88th , 93rd , 100th -116th , 122nd -124th , 401st, 501st , 701st , 702nd , 706th  Auxiliary Military Pioneer Companies

1st , 2nd  Base Ordnance Depot RAOC

1st ,2nd ,3rd  Ordnance Sub Depots RAOC

1st , 2nd , 3rd , 4th , 5th  (later 21st ), 22nd  Base Ammunition Depots RAOC

GHQ S ., RAOC


This Group for the main part evacuated via Cherbourg after Dunkirk.

Buzancy18

[jpclark]

great info! thanks very much!

I need to try to find out how much they were involved on the front line which from the book I'm reading (Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore) is quite possible...

I've emailed the RE Museum to see if there are details of where the 657th performed their duties during that time.

thanks again - very helpful
Justin

[LamBowes]

Justin

Just an observation re your ? about the significance of your grandfather arriving back in the UK 6 days after the Dunkirk evacuations.

My dad was a member of the Dunkirk Veteran's Association, but was actually evacuated from St. Nazaire, not Dunkirk.  He arrived back in the UK on the 20th June.  Not every soldier got out of France by the 4th June.

[Beevee]

I am also trying to find any information about my father and his unit during May 1940. He was S.M. Kenneth Vowles, 224 Field Company, R.E. part of the 48th South Midland Division and was evacuated from Dunkirk 31st May - 2nd June but on which ship and from which beach I am afraid I cannot ask as he died in 1975. Any facts from this period would be much appreciated.
Beevee

[ADM199]

The B.E.F. War Diaries for 657 Gen Construction Coy. R.E. are at Kew in WO 167/1024.
They only cover Jan; Feb; May and June.

[brimarge]

This is just a story I like to tell, My dad was in the REME and during the confusion of the battle became seperated from his unit (along with others). They had been sent to blow up a bridge but found the Germans already had it, they returned to HQ to report and found only empty buildings, they had no idea where everyone had gone.

They sneaked into some woods at night for sleep/rest and discovered another 20 or so troops with the same idea, (2 of the other troops came from the same small town as my dad Bd Castle) an officer led them south away from Dunkirk  and they eventually ended up in La Baule Britainy to regroup.

My dad was allocated to Vick Force and had 2 hours of spit and polish before parading for the new commanding officer Col Vickery of Bd Castle, the Col walked down the lines of men, walked past my dad and then stopped, turned back and said "Evans" " Yes Sir Col Vickery" my dad as a boy used to caddie for him on the local golf course.
My dad and a friend went out that night having 1 franc between them and entered into a game of housy housy (bingo) and won the top prize of 500 francs, they had a good night.
The next day they were loaded onto lorries to rejoin the fighting up north but the next thing that happened (that night) was that they were loaded onto a ship and came back to England 31/5/1940. He never knew which port he left from or arrived at in England, only that they finished up at Hereford racecourse.
Brian

[Ady B-)]

Hi All
I am trying to find information about my father who joined up in 1939 and was in the/a BEF soon after.
He was a Sapper in the R.E. 157th Rlwy Con Coy.
I am told that he had shrapnell wounds to the leg and neck but I'm unable to find any detail of this.
Sadly he passed away in 1981 and I am embarrassed to admit I knew nothing of his history in the war.
I do have a copy of his records from Glascow but I am having some difficulty fitting the pieces together and also understanding a lot of the writing.
Buzancy 18's reply is very interesting indeed and 'Citizen Soldiers  by Col G Williams' will be top of my list of books to acquire.
All other replies are also most welcome for their invaluable information.
If anyone can help me further I would be extremely grateful.
Many thanks
Ady Barlow
p.s. I proudly use his picture as my profile picture:]