WARTIMES.ca

Hello, I found this site while trying to research my grandfather's service during WWII (Gnr. John Allen Williams, G7439, RCA).

After receiving his service record, I have been looking into the related war diaries to learn more, but I was left with some questions.

I'm hoping to find out more about how the war diaries for HQ 1st CDN Army are organized and where records pertaining to batmen or mess operations might be.

I also found references to his getting permission to marry a Belgian woman, and would love to find where that permission might be listed.

I'll work on posting in the correct areas with more details, but just wanted to introduce myself.

Thanks again for being here!

Markus

G’day Markus,

Welcome.

You could look at the Heritage Canadiana website, and the https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng. Either or both of these could hold details. You may not find anything specifically on batmen, but may find information on mess organisations.

If you don’t already have them, some of your questions may be answered by obtaining his service records. Again https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng,, may be able to help here by looking at the Second World War service records database.

Also, more knowledgeable members may be along to help you further.

Welcome Markus to the site. AND, we’re here to help.

I can help you with questions and help find details for you. To help you better, if you’d like to share the files on this site (just the pages you want, I would suggest the 3 or 4 pages that shows which units and attachments he belongs to) with us to help you.

Can you confirm his unit please, if it’s more than one we can help decipher that.

In the war diaries, you will not necessarily find info on the day to day operation of different sub-units, but we can always try.

So, fire away, give us all the questions you have an if you’d like to share his records, we can help. BUT if you’d like to keep them private, we can work with that also. (By sharing e-mails and then I can look at the info). It’s completely up to you.

Looking forward to helping and seeing your posts

Cheers

Thanks for the welcome, BFBSM. I appreciate the tips! I'll look into those archives in more depth to see what I can find.

Temujin, thanks for the guidance and welcome. I'll create a post in the soldier research board with what you have suggested.

Markus