FA+
Shop
My God...Art Imitates Life, As It Were!
3 months ago
General
A Peek Into My Mind. Be Afraid.
I was delighted to receive today a copy of the official records for Louis Patrick Costello, one of my paternal grand uncles (the younger brother of my grandfather, James Sr.). Fascinating in a number of ways -- and a few things had me bust a gut in laughing.
He was 5 feet, 6 3/4 inches high, with brown hair and blue eyes (ilke me). Initial reaction: a roebuck of a human. (Oddly, a later document gives slightly different data, 5' 8", grey eyes, and fair hair.)
As I suspected, given his later profession in life (podiatrist), he'd been in the Royal Army Medical Corps. As such, then, he was not a combatant, though he obviously served. And in some fairly hairy places, too. The records show that he was in Crete for the Battle of Crete in May-June, 1941 -- something family legend had not told me. From 1941 to 1943, he served in Egypt and Palestine; he was serving in Egypt from February of 1942 to October of 1943, so he certainly would have been in theater for both battles of Alamein, making family legend highly likely.
The records appear to show that he was with the 168th Light Field Ambulance, which was attached to 8 Armoured Brigade; there's a diary by a member of the 168th LFA that I've ordered -- I'm going to see if my grand-uncle is mentioned in it.
The records show he served in Northwest Europe from June 11, 1944 through June 22, 1945, meaning he wouldn't have seen action on D-Day; what actions he might have been involved in can only be speculated upon.
One minor surprise: he enlisted in October of 1938. I wonder if the events of Munich, the month before, had anything to do with it. His civilian occupation was listed as "musician."
I had to laugh when he listed as his next of kin his older brother Michael Joseph -- who at that time was a general in the Irish Army!
He was given "exemplary" ratings for conduct upon his initial discharge in November of 1945 -- more on THAT, anon. Apparently, he was engaged mostly in nursing duties (Nursing Orderly Class Two), and was described as smart, industrious and capable in 1945 documents, though later 1952 documents (when he was called back) describe a "lack of tenacity of purpose."
On the other paw, at various times he was given assorted minor punishments, mostly for being pissed. He got 21 days for insubordination in June, 1941 (when he was in Palestine, a few weeks after he got evacuated from Crete), and got another dose a few weeks later. He also got a field court martial for being AWOL at one point (seemingly only for a day or so), and another for being pissed again. He seems to have had a clean record after 1942, though, except for getting pissed in Trieste, which resulted in him getting busted to Private, again. Maybe he had a rough time in Crete.
Rank: at various times, he bounced up and down from Private to Corporal and back again -- now where have we seen THAT before?
Awards: a fairly routine collection of 1939-1945 Star, Africa Star with 8th Army Clasp, Italy Star, and France-and-Germany Star, along with the Defence Medal and Victory Medal.
In other words: if my grand uncle had been a roebuck or a European mink, he would have fit right in with the Imperial & Royal Army as a squaddie.
He was 5 feet, 6 3/4 inches high, with brown hair and blue eyes (ilke me). Initial reaction: a roebuck of a human. (Oddly, a later document gives slightly different data, 5' 8", grey eyes, and fair hair.)
As I suspected, given his later profession in life (podiatrist), he'd been in the Royal Army Medical Corps. As such, then, he was not a combatant, though he obviously served. And in some fairly hairy places, too. The records show that he was in Crete for the Battle of Crete in May-June, 1941 -- something family legend had not told me. From 1941 to 1943, he served in Egypt and Palestine; he was serving in Egypt from February of 1942 to October of 1943, so he certainly would have been in theater for both battles of Alamein, making family legend highly likely.
The records appear to show that he was with the 168th Light Field Ambulance, which was attached to 8 Armoured Brigade; there's a diary by a member of the 168th LFA that I've ordered -- I'm going to see if my grand-uncle is mentioned in it.
The records show he served in Northwest Europe from June 11, 1944 through June 22, 1945, meaning he wouldn't have seen action on D-Day; what actions he might have been involved in can only be speculated upon.
One minor surprise: he enlisted in October of 1938. I wonder if the events of Munich, the month before, had anything to do with it. His civilian occupation was listed as "musician."
I had to laugh when he listed as his next of kin his older brother Michael Joseph -- who at that time was a general in the Irish Army!
He was given "exemplary" ratings for conduct upon his initial discharge in November of 1945 -- more on THAT, anon. Apparently, he was engaged mostly in nursing duties (Nursing Orderly Class Two), and was described as smart, industrious and capable in 1945 documents, though later 1952 documents (when he was called back) describe a "lack of tenacity of purpose."
On the other paw, at various times he was given assorted minor punishments, mostly for being pissed. He got 21 days for insubordination in June, 1941 (when he was in Palestine, a few weeks after he got evacuated from Crete), and got another dose a few weeks later. He also got a field court martial for being AWOL at one point (seemingly only for a day or so), and another for being pissed again. He seems to have had a clean record after 1942, though, except for getting pissed in Trieste, which resulted in him getting busted to Private, again. Maybe he had a rough time in Crete.
Rank: at various times, he bounced up and down from Private to Corporal and back again -- now where have we seen THAT before?
Awards: a fairly routine collection of 1939-1945 Star, Africa Star with 8th Army Clasp, Italy Star, and France-and-Germany Star, along with the Defence Medal and Victory Medal.
In other words: if my grand uncle had been a roebuck or a European mink, he would have fit right in with the Imperial & Royal Army as a squaddie.
Dad was a good soldier all the way through WWII. He was sent to the Battle of the Bulge, hated what he was doing (repatriation duty) and refused a Purple Heart for being wounded... by an exploding stove. He spoke conversational German, having been raised by his first-generation grandmother, so he was sent to an Allied POW camp to question German prisoners. He received a field promotion from PFC to Sergeant because he had brains and knew how to drill troops. He remained in Europe into 1946 after most of the rest of the 84th Division mustered out.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/10695617/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/3935481/
then he got sent to a ship. USS Porterfield. On the way over to Korea, he was selected to train as a radioman. Cue montage of learning to copy morse code on a bouncy little ship at sea. He worked 8 on and 8 off shifts for most of the next year, since they were critically short of radiomen. They did everything, but mostly shore bombardment and escorting the various aircraft carriers. For President Truman's flight to meet Macarthur, the navy stationed a string of ships every fifty miles or so along the route to provide radionavigation signals and to be available in case the plane crashed. He was part of that.
His father was in the US army. Enlisted too late to see combat in WW1, Spent many years in Hawaii as a bugler. Retired from the army in 1938, when WW2 broke out, he was working in the mines and was an exempt occupation. I never met him.
My other grandfather was Canadian, working as a carpenter in Boston when WW1 broke out. He and his brother went down to the embassy to enlist in the horse cavalry. Both were enlisted, but my grandfather was a good carpenter, and when they found out, he got schlepped over to the RCAF and spent the rest of the war building airplanes just a few miles from his parents home. On armistice day, he got sent home and they said they will mail out his discharge papers. His brother did make it into the horse cavalry. Went over to france where they mostly were kept in reserve ready for the big breakout that never happened. Then he got assigned to the russian expiditionary force, and did a lot of fighting in russia against the red russians. He didn't make it home until two years after the armistice.
I enjoy hearing about family stories like the ones you tell. So many fascinating and occasionally comic angles (like the cook). USS Porterfield seems to have had a very long and distinguished career in two wars -- no less than 14 battle stars overall.
Vix
Any relation?