Military Chat

I have my grandads war record and his medals. But what I'd really like is to know more about the actual "battles" he may have taken part in etc etc. More meat on the bones really.
Unfortunately due to family illness I don't have the time myself to do this and was wondering if there is a company or someone who would do this for me? I am willing to pay as I know this will take time. Has anyone had this done for them and was it useful, worthwhile?
Many thanks for any help or advice.

You could google to see if the regiment he was in has a regimental museum (most regiments have one I think) and perhaps someone there could either help you or could point you in the right direction.

Kath. x

You could get a broad outline via:
http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/

For example, suppose I knew he was in the 1/5 bn (battalion) of the DLI.
I could click on the infantry regiments link, then the Durham Light Infantry Link and see he was in the 50th Divission for most of the war.
There's a 50th Div link at foot of page, saying what that division did for most of the war.
There's no 39th div link for the final few months, but there is at:
http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/

From there it's clear that the 50th Div was so chewed up (as was the 39th) tha he spent the rest of the war behind front lines at training camps and other depot duties.

There are links under:
http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/battles/
describing the individual bettles the division was in.

There are War Diaries, which give a day by day account of what a unit was involved in and where. For WW1, you can download them from the National Archives website for a small fee. If WW2, they aren't available online but are at the National Archives

Ancestry has WDs for most of the units in France, but not much for units in other theatres.

There can be considerable variation in how verbose the WDs are.. My wife's gt uncle was in the 1/5th DLI and their WDs for the whole war run yo 229 pp,
My grandad was also in the 50th Div - in the 447th Field Coy RE and their WDs run to 447 pp.
My dad's cousin was in the 13th bn CEF in the Canadian 1st Div, and their WDs run to 1972 pp - another cousin was in the 3rd siege batt CGA (heavy artillary) and his unit (from mid 1916 on) ran to 209 pp.

The unit above them usually gives a clearer picture of the more general action - this is usually a brigade, so the 150th Bde was in charge of 4 bn's (incl 1/5th DLI).
Their WDs ran to 1082 pp thru 7/1917 (when William was killed) cf 180 pp for the 1/5th DLI in the same period).

I spent many hours downloading this stuff - (Canadian WDs are free, as are Oz WDs on their nations' sites). I don't have an Ancestry sub, but I did sign up for the newsletter, and got an advisory around some Remembrance Day of a freebie for military records for a few days.

Thanks for all the replies.

My grandad served during WW2 so it looks like I might have some difficulty getting the information I'm looking for. We live in NE Scotland so popping to London to where the records are kept is out of the question just now with various family illnesses etc taking up my time.

Maybe something for the future for me to do once life gets a bit more settled.

Many thanks though everyone for your input and help.

If you know his units with dates, War Diaries are at the National Archives - not online though - you'd have to go there or pay someone to get them for you