Thanks Bas!!!!

Warning......this is not really about amateur radio.....

There has been a bit of a WW2 mystery in my family for a couple of years that we have been unable to figure out. But thanks to a fellow ham, we now have the answer!

The mystery was a picture that was sent to me when I was doing some research into my father's WW2 RAF Regiment Squadron. Here's what I knew: the picture was taken in November 1944, and it's somewhere in the Netherlands. Here's the picture:

What was interesting to me, when this photograph arrived is the fact my Dad is in the picture. He's the Corporal on the left side of the picture with Flying Officer Norman Page MC. My Dad was Norman Page's signaller, and served with him in No. 4 Flight, 2816 Squadron. The armoured car, and the other airmen, were with 2777 Squadron. Both of these Squadrons worked together in 1313 Wing of the RAF Regiment.

I knew from stories my Dad had told me that they were in the Netherlands searching for V2 rocket launch sites, Luftwaffe control centres, radar stations, and weapons stores.

Middelburg was liberated from the Germans on the 6th November, 1944. 

As you can see from the picture there is no detail about where it was taken. The road sign gives us a few clues, but to somebody who's never been to the Netherlands, there's not much to go on.

I tried for quite a while to try and figure out using the distances shown on the road sign, all with no luck. In the end I had the bright idea to contact a fellow ham radio operator in the Netherlands, Bas, PE4BAS. I sent the picture to Bas and asked him if he had any idea where this might be.  The answer arrived within 10 minutes, it was Middelburg, The Netherlands. Now we knew!

By the time I had composed an email thanking Bas for the information, he had already sent another email, this time with a modern picture.  Here's the picture Bas sent:

You will notice the same two building in the background of both pictures. Absolute proof it is the town of Middelburg. 

So this mystery is now solved thanks to Bas. I can't thank him enough for helping with this, I would never have figured it out by myself. 

Middelburg, The Netherlands.

A picture of the Humber Armoured Cars of 2777 Squadron in the same location
on the same day.

Bedankt voor je hulp, Bas. Ik waardeer het enorm!

Stay Safe Out There!

Remembrance Day 2024...

 

In Loving Memory of the

Officers, NCO's, and Men

of

2816 Squadron, RAF Regiment.

December 1941 -  June 1946

Lest We Forget.

In Remembrance...

In Loving Memory

of the 

Officers, NCO's, and Men

of

2816 Squadron, RAF Regiment

December 1941 - June 1946

Per Ardua

What I remember

Dad with N0.19 Radio Set

With Remembrance Day just around the corner I thought it important to mark this occasion with a non-ham radio blog entry.

My Dad was a very special guy to me, and I can’t, even now, begin to describe how I felt on the 23rd May, 1993, when he passed away. Not a day has gone by since then when I have not taken a moment each day to think about him.

He enlisted in 1942, at the age of 16, in the Royal Air Force Regiment, and after his basic training and then trade training as a signaller, he was posted to 2816 Squadron, RAF Regiment where he spent the entire war training and then fighting through North West Europe with them. Dad saw action at the D-Day Landings, Rouen, St Pol, Moerkerke, the Leopold Canal (December 1944), Damme, Grimbergenand and Woerndrecht/Deurne, where the Squadron was based during Operation 'Bodenplatte' (the Luftwaffe attack on Allied airfields on 1 January 1945). Further moves east took it to Antwerp, Ahlhorn, Hustedt and Celle, where it disbanded in June 1946. After the Squadron was disbanded he was posted to 2742 Squadron at RAF Station Ramat David in Palestine, from where he was eventually discharged in 1948. 

As far back as I can remember he regaled us all with stories about his war experiences. I suppose looking back on it now it was his way of getting therapy from some of the stuff he witnessed while overseas.

Every two years my Dad faithfully returned to the UK to attend 2816 Squadron's reunion, always held in a large pub in Glasshouse Street in London, and always well attended by its Veterans. Those of you with a military background will appreciate the humour of holding a military reunion in "Glasshouse" street! He always came home with new stories, as somebody always jogged his memory about a long forgotten event.

My Dad was not a special person, just one of a couple of million who felt it was their duty to step forward, and do something for their country at a time of great need.  Duty, was a powerful word in those days, and todays generation would do well to remember that citizenship, is not a free ride.

Of course there has to be a ham radio connection to this story....after my family immigrated to Canada in 1966 my dad became a ham, a natural thing for him to do considering his war time service as a signaller. He loved operating CW, and many an evening I remember sitting with him at the kitchen table, his SB-101 blaring 50 wpm CW at us, and him sitting there reading his library book, drinking tea, and copying the CW…all at the same time.

He was licensed in 1970 as VE7CVQ, a callsign that I now very proudly hold in his memory. That callsign only gets used three times a year these days, his birthday, the day we lost him, and Remembrance Day.

Lest we forget.



In Memory of the Officers and Men
of 2816 Squadron, RAF Regiment, 1942 - 1946
Lest We Forget