240440 Sgt. Frank Raymond Wyles British Army Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers from:Langley Mill, Derbyshire Ray Wyles enlisted at Derby Recruiting Office to General Service Corps embodied Territorial Army 21st of January 1943. He was then posted to 7th Holding Company on 03/03/1943. The next move was to No 25 (Preston) Technical Training Group. The Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers laid claim to him on the 4th of March 1943. The trade he carried was as an armourer.
155 Infantry Brigade had the pleasure of his company from 18th of December 1943. (A typical posting order just in time to catch Christmas Duties. I wonder if he checked the small arms on Santas sleigh.)
He must have been popular there because on the 19th of January 1944 he was posted to Static Workshops REME. The next posting was on 1st of December 1945 to 3 Command Workshops. From there he was attached to 3 (WA) PTC on 28th of Feb 1946, he was posted to 163 (Inf) OCTU and then discharged on 11th of June 1947.
The tales I can remember from his REME career are as follows.
He was in front of the magistrates at Aldershot or Farnham. The charge was driving a motorcycle at 120 mph on Farnham by-pass. His defending officer got him off that charge with a right rollicking from the bench. The police men in the patrol car had an even bigger rollicking, in private, with magistrate. The police were asked about the calibration of the speedometer by the defending officer.
They said the speedo had been calibrated on the start of their duty and confirmed the speedometer read up to 100mph. Then crunch came when asked if the speedometer read up to 100mph how did they know the bike was doing 120mph.
The time spent in West Africa produced a few more oh dear events. He was charged by the Provost Marshall of WA but he never said what he did. The result was in front of his CO and reduced in rank from Sgt to Cfn. This resulted in a rapid posting to somewhere out the way. He duly got his clearance chit signed and reported to the Orderly Room. He mentioned that the slot was for a Sgt and he was a Cfn. He was told just go and behave yourself. Six weeks later three tapes back on his sleeve.
He was in a syndicate playing Monopoly for a penny a point. At one stage he owed the Bank of Monopoly £250,000 but he did manage to get the balance back in the black.
He said he had been flown back from West Africa to go to a unit in France. He got there on D Day +6. The telegram he sent a very confused wife which read "You are now in my thoughts more than ever Ray".
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