Genealogy Chat

Can you get the ww2 army records just with a number. Dont know what regiment he was in. Thank you

The service number is the most important info you can have Contact relevant Service eg Army,Navy,RAF historical disclosure stating name dob and service no they will send you a form to complete Ann

Thank you Ann

you are most welsome I have applied for my fathers and waiting with great anticipation although could well be another couple of months yet - They said 3 months when I phoned originally Ann

You get WW2 army service records from the Army Personnel Centre Historical Disclosures in Glasgow... Google on those words and you should find further info I would hope. There is a fee of about 25 pounds if I remember correctly. See here on the BBC’s website for some good info if links are allowed http://www(.)bbc(.)co(.)uk/dna/ww2/A3043874 I got my grandfathers a few months ago. I only had to wait a few weeks to get them I think, even though I was warned it could take a lot longer. They came with a letter saying something to the effect of 'We used to send out personal cover letters but we are just sending out photocopies of the actual records now to speed things up'. I got about 15 pages worth of info, though the vast majority of it was the same stuff again and again and not very interesting. There was certainly some interesting stuff though! I think what you get is often pot luck... That decent records exist in some cases and information is very scant in others. I spoke to a military historian about mine recently. He felt I had been quite lucky in terms of the amount of info I got... That said, my grandfather served 15 years... If your relative only served during WW2, you might tend to get less I imagine. The military historian I spoke to did mention to me that, if you enquire about an officer, you are much more likely to get quality info, quite possibly photos etc too... That the way the army records system worked is that mere regular soldiers were much less important than officers when it came to record keeping!

I got my father in law's army records, they cost £25 and took about 4 months to arrive. Nice to have them. Irene

Not only British Army records available. We have received information about someone over here in UK with the Polish Army. ..... Wonderful information for a family historian as included was his name, date and place of birth in Poland, ( which had been a huge stumbling block) his parents' names,- including his mother's maiden name and a mention for good measure that he had a younger brother Jan.

Ann, hi. Dont quite understand who you contact, your message doesnt say to where. My uncle was on those ships that carried food, ammunition etc to Russia through the arctic weather, manning a gun on the front of the ship, most of them died of frost bite and cold. Which departments do you think I should apply to, and what address? TED.

Hi Ted, That BBC People's War website I mentioned might be the place for you to go for further help. That project seems to have lots of knowledgable people involved in it... Local historians, numerous WW2 Veterans etc. Al

ATLANTIC CONVOYS records I was given to understand that armed merchant ships were manned by civvy crews but that the gunners were R.N personel or belonged to a group named D.E.M.S. best to find out from a mariner in this case as it happened 60 years ago an ancient mariner Bill

For Ted Lunt. For ratings enlisted from 1939 the address you need is RN Historical Records, Rm 86, Centurion Building, Grange Road, GOSPORT, PO13 9XA. Regards Keith