British Expeditionary Force 1939

[trainspotter1948]

From my father's war records, I have found that he was sent to France very shortly after war was declared.
He was in Movement Control which at that time was part of the Royal Engineers.
His pre war job was something clerical to do with the railways - might have been with the Great Northern as he later played cricket with them at Gordon Hill - or it might have been London Midland, but certainly a London based company.
For him to be mobilised so quickly and without any obvious entry of training in his record, I can only assume that he was already part of some Territorial Force that specialised in moving trains around.
I know of Longmoor Camp and that might be another line of research to follow, but does anyone have any knowledge of such a Territorial Force made up of railwaymen?
I am going to try and get to Kew Archives before Christmas to examine the RE War Diaries but if anyone has any knowledge of a pre war group, it would be useful to go there armed with more than a hunch.

TIA

[52D]

Rob Langham of these pages is your man to ask.

[Rlangham]

Afraid my knowledge suddenly grinds to a halt with the end of 1918 - this book will no doubt be of a lot of use though, recommend getting it while you can - his excellent First World War volume (a vital research tool) is now £125 second hand!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1907730 ... X110_SY165

[Mickey]

The BEF were located in the northern sector of the line in France but fell back on Dunkirk when the German's squeezed the BEF and some French fignting troops into the town of Dunkirk to annihilate them when Adolf issued his famous STOP ORDER.

It is believed that Hitler deliberately halted his panzers and leading elements in the attack and to allow the BEF to escape back across the English channel so as not to humiliate the british because he was looking to make peace with them but whatever the reason was the 3 days halt in the German advance allowed the Royal Navy just enough time to organize an evacuation of the british army on the beaches of Dunkirk which included a flotilla of the famous 'little boats' as well as RN vessels.

That comes from watching WW2 dvds and learning something other than railways.

[Autocar Publicity]

A three volume series on the Longmoor Railway has just been published - http://lightmoor.co.uk/view_book.php?ref=L9693 and this may provide some leads & background.

Railwaymen were traditionally a reserved occupation, so I'd guess they'd normally only serve in engineering units to support logistics. If you've not already looked, I'd suggest a look at the order of battle of the TA to see what engineering units existed. Have you approached the TA themselves? Or the Imperial War Museum? Pen & Sword are publishers concentrating on military matters.

[Bryan]

This forum normally gets results from queries very quickly.

http://ww2talk.com/forums/forum/4-main-ww2-talk-forum/

There are a number of ex RE members on there and some have details of RE War Diaries

[trainspotter1948]

Gentlemen,
Thanks for the leads. I will follow them up.
And when I find out about the railwaymen, I will report back.

[Bryan]

I have asked the question on the suggested forum, await an answer.

[trainspotter1948]

Thanks Ploughman.
I went to the WW2 site and saw the reply.
We'll see if anyone else posts something.
I appreciate your help,

[geordie809]

Good Morning,
I have just come across this site after a search in google and have seen your comments, I am the Historical Secretary of the Movements Control Association and willing to help you to further your research please email me for further info, i appreciate the original post was posted in 2014 but here to help

regards

mick

[stiv]

I am presently researching a friends grand dads pre, post ww2 service. he worked at the faverdale wagon works in Darlington. after serving in Egypt and France in ww1 he joined the 153rd royal engineers railway territorial division and spent annual camp service at longmoor then called up to the railway battalion in ww2, connected to G.H.Q. he stayed in the uk during the war and continued working with L.N.E.R