5th Battalion Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire

[busybee133]

Hi
I'm trying to locate any information about this battalion during WW2. My grandfather served as an electrician signal engineer. We have his service book, but it doesn't record where he was posted to. Is there any way of finding where he went? Would applying for his military records give us this information?

[Peter Goodey]

Would applying for his military records give us this information?

Yes.

Also see: War Diaries at the National Archives:
https://discovery.nationalarchives.go...ails/r/C790191

Also see Wikipedia "Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment"

It says the 5th battalion was shipped to Malaya "in early 1942. It surrendered to the Imperial Japanese Army with the Fall of Singapore and the men spent the rest of the war as POWs."

Does that accord with family memories?

[busybee133]

Thank you - there was some mention of him being one of the first people to free a POW camp but I'm not sure where this came from, it might be that he was the POW? His service book does have a page with his leave dates on there and he was on privilege leave at times in 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945 so this would make it unlikely that he was POW himself. I'm not sure what privilege leave is. I was surprised that the service book doesn't have the places that he was sent to listed in it.
I will look into requesting his military record.

[Peter Goodey]

You will also have seen in the Wikipedia article that, at the start of the, war the 5th battalion spawned the 6th, a second line duplicate.

Could he have started in the 5th but ended up in the 6th (which didn't see active service)?