The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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206011 Gunner Albert Briggs British Army X (1v) List 1C.R.U. Royal Artillery Searchlight ( S/L 263 ) from:Manchester My dear father Albert Briggs was called up on 12 December 1940 just a few months after the death of his mother. I was just 3yrs. old, my sister Amelia was 6yrs of age. We were living in a small terraced house in Withington which my father was decorating so as to leave it "nice" for his family. That evening a bomb was dropped om the shelter which stood in the middle of the street and as a result our house caught some of the impact. We usually went into that shelter but that particular evening my mum and dad decided not to for some reason. As a consequence our home was not fit to live in so there we were homeless and dad just about to go off to war. My mum, sister and myself went to live with an aunt and dad, of course, had to go away. Three months later my dear sister, whom I have no recollection, caught diphtheria, which I believe was prevalent at the time, and subsequently died on St. Patrick's Day 17th March. My mum was admitted to hospital and was confirmed as a carrier. All her life my mum blamed herself for Amelia's death but of course she wasn't. I cannot imagine what torment both mum and dad bore. I believe dad was given compassionate leave and because of the circumstances he did not return to his unit on time. The Redcaps came to take him back and I am sure they were just doing there job and dealt leniently with him He was in the Royal Artillery Searchlight unit 8th Army and went to both North Africa and Italy. He always wished to return to Italy but did not get the opportunity to do so. He served in Italy from 1943 until demob in 1945 I wondered if anyone would be able to tell me where abouts in Italy his unit went as my family and I wish to make that journey in memory of my dear father. I understand that the National Archives has War Diaries but they have estimated the charge for copying and posting the info to me would be over £2,000. If anyone out there could help me I would be most grateful Many thanks Florence Swinton Add to this record.  Related Content: Royal Artillery Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.