Eighth Army abbreviations

[J from Canada]

Good morning all! I appreciate and understand the sentiments expressed.

I'm a firm believer in paying it forward. As a result, I'll be making a donation to the toy drive for local children in my community.

Wishing you a splendid day!

J

[seaweed]

Looked at the War Diary May-Dec 1942 of 53 LAA Regiment RA.
 Basically it reads,Liverpool 29/May/1942  1700. De trained and embarked on HMT H7 at Princes Landing Stage.
Liverpool 31/May/1942 1200 Sailed from the Mersey.
It go's on to say on page 3
Durban 7/July/1942 1430 re embarked on HMT H7
Durban 8/July/1942 1200 departed.

So it seems we have established they did sail in Convoy WS19P but am no nearer to finding the name of HMT H7. Although I think I can narrow it down to three possibilities.

It looks like the RASC Platoon detached from 53 LAA sometime in September 1942 as there is no mention of them after this.
 I photographed all of the relevant pages up until the end of December If more experienced eyes wish to peruse them at their leisure, I will burn a disc or two. Just let me know with a postal address via PM.

regards SW

[J from Canada]

Seaweed,

Thank you VERY much indeed. What great detective work! Could you tell me what the three likely possibilities are for HMT H7?

Gratefully,
J

[ScouseBoy]

have a look at this web site

www.naval-history.net   for more detail
 and then search for WS  convoys.

It also gives the names of the royal Navy escorts,  including Rodney

[cpercival]

The three options on the ships as far as I can make out from studying my copy of Archie Munro's book were Laconia, Santa Rosa or Christiaan Huygens.  In fact eight ships sailed from Liverpool on 31 May led by Laconia (Captain Sharp) and followed at five minute intervals by Christiaan Huygens, Orontes, Andes, Poelau Roebiah, New Zealand Star, Talisse and Santa Rosa.  However all but the three I mentioned as candidates plus Orontes whose cargo is not specified,  were loaded with guns, tanks, vehicles and stores only.  The main convoy escort was the battleship Nelson, sister ship to the Rodney.

C

[J from Canada]

Wonderful! Thanks very much ScouseBoy and C.

J from Canada

[MaxD]

Seaweed and cpercival- well done indeed - a first class example of using proper research to confirm information.

Seaweed - The RASC platoon ran its own diary from July to Dec 1942 so it was still attached but its parent obviously decided to ignore them!  However, as our man left that unit before September it doesn't matter as the question was the convoy.  More in a PM.

maxD

[seaweed]

The three options on the ships as far as I can make out from studying my copy of Archie Munro's book were Laconia, Santa Rosa or Christiaan Huygens.  In fact eight ships sailed from Liverpool on 31 May led by Laconia (Captain Sharp) and followed at five minute intervals by Christiaan Huygens, Orontes, Andes, Poelau Roebiah, New Zealand Star, Talisse and Santa Rosa.  However all but the three I mentioned as candidates plus Orontes whose cargo is not specified,  were loaded with guns, tanks, vehicles and stores only.  The main convoy escort was the battleship Nelson, sister ship to the Rodney.

C

I would concur with cpercival regarding the three likely candidates but there's no way I can confirm this from my own records. LACONIA was sunk in December 1942 and the other two vessels were foreign flagged. I think we can remove ORONTES from the candidates as she arrived in Suez on the 22/7/42. The ship transporting 53 LAA arrived on the 25/7/42.
I have spoken via email to Archie Monroe in the past and always gained the impression he was a dedicated and knowledgeable researcher. So for the sake of progress we will take details from his book as being correct.

[MaxD]

Brilliant!  Tanag may be Tanah about 200km NW of Suez. 

maxD