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- 124th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery during the Second World War -


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World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

124th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery



   124th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery was part of 23rd Division at the outbreak of WW2. They proceeded to France with the BEF in spring 1940. They transferred to 50th Division and saw action in the Middle East, North Africa and North Western Europe.

 

1st Sep 1939 Reorganisation

9th Mar 1940 Orders

10th Mar 1940 Information Received

12th Apr 1940 Lecture

13th May 1940 Orders  location map

20th May 1940 No Withdrawal

22nd May 1940 On the Move

22nd May 1940 On the Move

23rd May 1940 Orders

24th May 1940 Transport

25th May 1940 Orders

26th May 1940 In Defence

27th May 1940 Under Attack

28th May 1940 Poor Conditions

29th May 1940 Shelling

30th May 1940 Perimeter Defence

31st May 1940 Evacuation

31st May 1940 On the Move

2nd Jun 1940 Orders  location map

3rd Jun 1940 Reception Camp  location map

5th Jun 1940 Reorganisation  location map

14th Jun 1940 Divisional HQ Moves  location map

15th Jun 1940 Reorganisation  location map

17th Jun 1940 Reorganisation  location map

22nd June 1940 Reorganisation

28th Oct 1940 Reorganisation

2nd Jan 1941 Reorganisation

22nd April 1941 On the Move

13th June 1941 On the Move

24th July 1941 On the Move

3rd Nov 1941 On the Move

21st Nov 1941 On the Move

12th Jan 1942 On the Move

21st Jan 1942 On the Move

10th Feb 1942 On the Move

9th April 1942 Reorganisation

21st Feb 1942 On the Move

22nd May 1942 In Action

23rd May 1942 Reorganisation

15th Jun 1942 Reorganisation

20th Jun 1942 Reorganisation

28th June 1942 Battle of Mersa Matruh

14th July 1942 Reorganisation

20th Mar 1943 Award

25th of June 1943 Signals

25th of June 1943 Instructions

25th of June 1943 Frequencies

29th June 1943 On the Move

28th of June 1943 Fuel

28th of June 1943 Fuel

28th of June 1943 Orders  location map

28th of June 1943 Ferry Services

10th July 1943 On the Move

15th Jul 1943 Hard Fighting

27th Aug 1943 Into Position

3rd Sep 1943 Anti Aircraft Artillery Support

10th Oct 1943 On the Move

6th Nov 1943 On the Move

6th Jun 1944 Observation

6th Jun 1944 Observation

5th Jul 1944 On the Move

2nd Aug 1944 Orders  location map

15th Aug 1944 Reliefs  location map

22nd Sep 1944 Delay  location map

23rd Sep 1944 In Action  location map

24th Sep 1944 On the Move  location map

25th Sep 1944 In Action  location map

25th Sep 1944 On the Move  location map

26th Sep 1944 In Action  location map

27th Sep 1944 Attack Made

27th Sep 1944 In Action  location map


If you can provide any additional information, especially on actions and locations at specific dates, please add it here.



Those known to have served with

124th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery

during the Second World War 1939-1945.

  • Forden Harold. Gnr.
  • Purcell Roland Thomas. Gnr.
  • Webb Edward. L/Bdr. (d.12th Jul 1943)

The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List

Records of 124th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery from other sources.



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Want to know more about 124th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery ?


There are:502 items tagged 124th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery available in our Library

  These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War.


Gnr. Harold Forden 124 Field Regiment Royal Artillery

My deceased Father was in Stalag 4g I have found out some info on the camp but not that much. As you can see my Father was a gunner in the Royal Artillery during WW2. He saw action at Dunkirk & Africa before being captured at the fall of Tobruk.

Gunner Harold Forden, Royal Artillery

Enlisted into Royal Artillery Regular Army & posted to Depot 04/01/39

Posted to 1st Training Regiment 11/01/39

Posted to 22nd Field Regiment 15/04/39

Posted to 1st General Base Depot 19/04/40

Posted to 3rd Division 10/06/40

Posted to 76th (Highland) Field Regiment 11/06/40

Posted to Depot 21/06/40

Posted to 2nd Reserve Regiment 22/06/40

Posted to 124 Field Regiment 26/06/40

Reported Missing 20/06/42

Confirmed Prisoner of War 13/01/43

Repatriated to UK 14/05/45

Posted to 202 Field Regiment 12/07/45

Attached to Chillwell Motor Transport Group 02/08/45

Posted to 2nd Motor Transport Group 22/08/45

Released to Army Reserve 11/07/46

Discharged from Reserve Liability 30 June 1959

Auth: Navy, Army and Air Forces Reserve Act 1959

Service with Colours: 04/01/39 to 10/07/46

Overseas Service:

British Expeditionary Force 02/10/39 to 01/06/40

Middle East Force 19/05/41 to 30/11/41

Iraq 01/12/41 to 12/02/42

Egypt 13/02/42 to 19/06/42

Prisoner of War 20/06/42 to 13/05/45 Italy, Germany Stalag 4b and 4g

Dad was prisoner of war in Italy, but no records show which camp. He may have been kept in North Africa for some time, before going over to Italy. They were usually shipped into Italy via Benghazi or Brindisi. . After Italy surrendered they were transferred to Austria or Germany. Dad was held in Stalag 4B. The camp opened Oct.39. & was Liberated 23rd April 45. It was located in Muhlberg district 4. he was transferred to 4G on 14/10/43 This was at Oschatz eastern Germany, to the south east of Leipzig, in the direction of Meissen & Dresden & near to the south west of Muhlberg. There were only 20 men permanently based in the camp, the other 4,400 were out on working parties on farms, factories, mines etc.

Stalag 4G was an administrative and holding centre and most of the POWs were assigned to work parties (arbeits kommandos).

Any information, photographs of 4g would be greatly appreciated.

Paul Forden



Gnr. Roland Thomas Purcell 5th Maritime Regiment Royal Artillery

Roland Purcell was my late father, who passed away in 1963. I was only seven years of age at that time and knew very little about my father’s WW2 service. I was looking through some tins of historic paperwork kept by my late mother, and in these tins were some documents related to his wartime service. I then obtained my father’s army records from Glasgow which gave me some detailed information about his service activities. At age 21, he joined the Royal Artillery in January 1941, and after training volunteered for the Maritime Regiment manning guns on merchant ships. This regiment was later renamed Royal Maritime Artillery and the ships were referred to as DEMS (Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships). I then had some research done from the National Archives that detailed which vessels he served on and where the vessels had been.

His first vessel was the MV Antigone. He signed on there in Hull on 12th of January 1942 and sailed on 29th of January 1942 to New York via Loch Ewe in Scotland, arriving in New York on 26th of February 1942.

He remained in New York until he joined the MV Myrtlebank, which was under repair and sailed on 25th of June 1942 calling at Trinidad and Table Bay, South Africa, where it underwent further repairs, then sailing to Port Sudan, Suez, Mombasa via Aden, then to Australia via Dar-es-Salaam, arriving in Melbourne on 15th of December 1942. The ship sailed to Sydney 5 days later and then continued around the coast, collecting wheat before sailing on 20th of January 1943 to South America. It arrived at Balboa, Panama Canal, on 3rd of March 1943, then proceeded to Guantanamo Bay en route back to the UK via New York, from whence it sailed on 20th of March 1943 to Belfast, arriving on 9th of April 1943, and finally sailing to Swansea, where Roland was discharged to shore on 15th of April 1943. There he found that he had been allocated to the newly reformed 5th Maritime Regiment whilst at sea. He was then on leave from 19th of April 1943 until 17th of May 1943.

On 16th of June 1943 he joined the SS Ranitiki in Liverpool. This was a troop ship, and the official log book shows it was to be a 3-month voyage. The ship sailed on 19th of June 1943 going to Freetown, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires before returning to Liverpool on 10th of August 1943 via Freetown, arriving back in Liverpool on 24th of September 1943, where he was paid off.

The trail goes somewhat cool in the next 12 months as the next recorded time served on a ship was on 15th of October 1944, when he signed on to the MV Antonio at Barry Island. It sailed for Bari in Italy via Augusta, Sicily and then to Bone and Algiers, where the vessel stayed until 31st of January 1945 when it called at Gibraltar before returning to the UK, arriving back on 15th of February 1945.

I was told by my late mother that Roland survived a sinking, but there are no records of this in the information I have so far. However, there are some sizable gaps in Roland’s army service. I am wondering if this sinking could have been in the large gap between 1st January 1944 and his next recorded service on a ship in October 1944. This would have included the periods of time prior and subsequent to the Normandy lanings. One of my surviving aunts told me that Roland was aboard vessels that transported troops across the Channel during D-Day.

Roland was at sea again in March 1945, joining the SS Empire Archer at Hartlepool on 17th of March 1945, sailing to the Thames and then on to New York, arriving there on 14th of April 1945 and putting into a shipyard for repairs to a propeller. The ship sailed on 13th of May 1945 to Gibraltar, arriving on 28th of May 1945, then proceeded to Augusta and Oran. It then sailed to Rio de Janeiro, arriving on 2nd of July 1945, then returning to the UK 5 days later with a load of iron ore. The ship arrived back at Dover on 1st of August 1945, where he was discharged. That was his last recorded shipboard service as a gunner.

In October of 1945, he was posted to Germany as part of the BAOR, where he served in the 26th Light AA Regiment, later transferring to the 124th Light AA Regiment, which was re-organized first as the 29th Field Regiment of the RA and then later as the 19th Field Regiment.

On 19th of June 1947, Roland transferred to "A" Class army reserve. On 13th of January 1948, he transferred to "B" Class army reserve at the end of 7 years Colour Service. On 13th of January 1953, he was discharged at the expiry of his 12 years of army service. He was awarded the following wartime campaign medals: Pacific Star, Atlantic Star, Italy Star and 1939-1945 war medals. He was also given a signed memento from the Maritime Royal Artillery as an ‘appreciation of the valuable services you personally rendered’.

Whilst in New York on shore leave during the war, he visited the famous Jack Dempsey’s Restaurant, and in one of his old documents I found a piece of yellow card which read ‘Good luck boys’ and was signed by Jack Dempsey. I have checked the signature, and it is genuine.

It beggars belief that, starting at the age of 21, my father sailed the oceans throughout the Second World War with all the dangers they encompassed, that he travelled the world over and survived where so many thousands did not. It’s ironic, really, that he died of lung cancer at the age of 42 but saw more in his 42 years than most do in a normal lifetime. It is important to his descendants that his wartime story be told, and it was with a sense of pride that my father served his country with distinction as did all his comrades both in the armed services and in the merchant navy. God bless every single one of them.

Ray Purcell



L/Bdr. Edward Webb 124th Field Regiment Royal Artillery (d.12th Jul 1943)

We met in Cairo, Ted with his brother Charlie

Field letter from Field Marshal Montgomery 1943

Mountain range in North Africa

Ted Webb served with 124th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, 8th Army in North Africa.

Patrick Webb









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