209247 William Griffith James British Army 145 Coy. Royal Army Service Corps from:Port Talbot I lost my father, William James back in 1977 due to Leukaemia, some say his time held in a Japanese POW camp had something to do with it, as to the way they were treated and tortured in so many ways. I was always interested in what his war service history involved, but he never spoke about it, broke down on occasions, watching a war film on tv, so I never pushed the fact. I remember my mother telling me some years back about him being in a Japanese POW camp and the attrocities that went on at that time. Also that he was a tank driver, drove shermans mostly plus he was a motorcycle despatch rider for a short time. and I found a Gurkahs knife in his bottom drawer and remember him saying that they were the best and ultimate fighting men, amazing soldiers to fight with when he was in Burma. That's the only info I have so far, apart from 7 photos, only 1 of them with any info on the rear which was as follows :
WG James, no.68701, 145 Coy RASC, 6 DTC (or that might be DTE or DT@)
Barnard Castle, County Durham. Might make sense to someone out there or the photos might ring a bell? I've recently been told that the T32871 Tank in one of the photos is a Valentine mk2 and that the white red white painted marks on the turret means that they were on Operation Crusader in 1941 out in North Africa, Egypt or Libya so that might make the regiment the 8th Royal Tank Regiment but with the back of the photo saying " 145 Coy Rasc wouldn't that be the Royal Armed Service Corps which fought with the Chindits in 1942? I know there was alot of regiments made up for special forces like I think I saw somwhere while surfin that the 145 R.A.S.C. were changed to the 21st Tank Brigade.
I'm sure with time the info will raise its head, it means a lot to me and my family, with my children already interested in what, why, which, when, where and wanting to know how all these brave soldiers from all around the world helped the world to be a better place right now.
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