Hello world!

[bedfordbluetom]

My name is Paul and I have spent more than a decade trying to trace where my dad was wounded in the retreat to Dunkirk. Proving harder than I thought!

[christanel]

Welcome to the British-Genealogy forums Paul.
Was your dad in the British army? If so the MoD still holds his records. You don't need his regiment or service number to apply for his records but you do need a copy of his death certificate, his birth date and 30 pounds. Then you need a lot of patience because there is a long wait before you receive them. They are catching up but still a long wait.
Read this 'sticky' which explains and also gives the link where you can download the application forms.

Christina

[Pam Downes]

Hi Paul,

First of all, I received my dad's service records in June this year after sending off for them in November 2020, though much of the intervening time meant that the army records office wasn't operating because of Covid. The cheque I originally sent was out of date so they trusted me to send them another after I'd received the records. Somewhere I have an email address for the army records office. I will find it and send it to you by Private Message. You can then write and, explaining that you're applying from NZ, ask approximately how long it's taking for requests to be actioned because (unless you still have a UK bank account or a relative/friend who can write a sterling cheque) it might be costly to get such a cheque supplied by a NZ bank.

As regards knowing where your dad was wounded don't assume his service records will tell you. I know my dad was torpedoed but there is nothing about that in his records. Just that he embarked for West Africa in 1941 and returned in 1943. Fortunately he was never wounded so there might have been more pages concerning such wounds/hospitalization, but on his records there's a (printed) space of three lines for 'wounded' with another three for 'effects of wounds'.

Once you have your dad's records and know his regiment, etc, then you might need a copy of the war diaries which are obtainable from The National Archives in Kew.

Pam

[ForcesVeteran]

Hi everyone, The application procedure has changed in the last few months and further details of the way to apply for Full Service Records is here:

https://www.gov.uk/get-copy-military...-elses-records