Frank Williams WW2 Wrexham TA, RWF mix of units, Killyleagh, Possible Commando time

[ivor43]

Hi.
Well. with what we seem to know about this puzzle, could he not have been in ''Hospital'' for medical checks, tests, etc before the raid.

ivor

[Anniek]

yes that's true, hadn't thought of that. I suppose as well that it was really just to provide some sort of cover story that they came up with these things.

Interestingly that raid on the night of the 21st was originally on the night of the 19th.... perfectly possible the paperwork was completed for the original date and then when they had to redo it a couple of days later it would have been more confusing to add to the original cover?

I am starting to think I should write some sort of mystery book, I am quite enjoying exploring random far fetched possible theories (plus it is a distraction from the Disney princess dress I have had to make for one of my daughters and now the other one wants a dress too)

[ivor43]

Hi all.

A few more bits of info.
My ref to the Welsh Highland Railway as not strictly correct. By 1939 the Railway was no longer in use, But the Track Bed as still in place. But the Festiniog Railway, another Narrow gauge system, was operating,until 1939, from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Portmadoc.
But something has appeared in my digging which may not be widely known.
Although this area may appear wild and remote, it was far from inaccessible.
Porthmadoc was served from the South By the G.W.R. from Birmingham via Shrewsbury, and Mid Wales along the Cambrian Coast where their were a number of airfields and Commando Training camps.
There was also the L.M.S west Coast Main Line London to Holyhead. With it's Branch Line from Llandudno Junction to Blaenau Ffestiniog along the Conway Valley.
There was also a Line from Ruabon on the Shrewsbury to Birkenhead Line Through Llangollen,Corwen ,Bala then on to Trawsfynned.where there was a camp with it's own Station and also a firing range, and Blaeneu Ffestiniog.
So not quite that remote.

ivor

[Anniek]

sounds like it was a very busy place during the war then, funny because it sounded small and quiet. the locals must have had quite a shock.

[ivor43]

Hi.
probably a shock. yes.
But may be not quite as much a shock as the following.

""On April 2 1942 they arrived by train in Porthmadog (with all their mules and horses in cattle trucks which were not very suitable for their animals) and set up camp...

They had white officers but there was an Indian doctor and an Indian vet. The mules and horses were taken out each day for exercise, three abreast, and used to take over an hour to pass, with the vet at the head of the troop on a white horse. His name was Malik Mohammed Khan. I think altogether there must have been about 1,000 men and 1,000 animals between Croesor and Nantmor.

The Indians were only here for just over three months in the spring/summer of 1942 but they made a big impression, partly because local people at that time had never before seen faces of a different colour. People remember the Indians as being very polite and well behaved. The area seemed very quiet when they left.

There is even a spot on the Roman Road from Croesor to Nantmor that is called Pont Traed y Mul to this day by the locals (The Bridge of The Mule's Leg). It was named after the occasion when one of the mules got its leg stuck in the gap between two large, flat slates over a drain, could not be extricated and had to be destroyed, leaving the leg stuck between the slates.

The men took the mules to the Dwyryd river at Penrhyndeudraeth to practise swimming a river - which later in Burma they had to do very often. At the beginning of the war the Indians were not armed, but this must have changed as they used to go to the firing range at Trawsfynydd army camp to practise firing.

The round, white tents of the camp would be in rows and the animals were tethered in rows on 'standings'. A bugle would be blown when it was time for feeding and watering the animals at the river.

One local I spoke to could remember the Indians kneeling, praying in rows and the murmuring sound of their praying." "

(an account of their time in Porthmadog courtesy of Giovanna Bloor from Llanfrothen)


This is an account of the Men of the Royal Indian Service Corps Mule Company with their 1,000 Mules. they came out at Dunkirk their story is the following.

http://www.cwgc.org/foreverindia/sto...ndian-army.php



Ivor

[Anniek]

gosh it really was busy then! fascinating.

[Anniek]

hello again, well I have now picked up my Grandma's ATS records from my mum - a nightmare of abbreviations so that will be fun but I can now see what my mum means, nothing matches up for them having met at all when they said they did. They said they met in January 1942. So in January 1942 Frank was in Killyleagh and she was in Lichfield. She ceased to be attached to NCOs in Lichfield at the end of January but he was then posted to 31st battalion RWF at Lichfield in February. I think she was in Chester by then although she does seem to have been back at Lichfield by their wedding going by the entries and it doesn't actually say she moved in any of that time just that she was no longer attached to those barracks. But if she was there then she would have known he was in hospital in Bangor that summer and that he had two week long periods of leave without her and she had one without him and he wasn't recorded as having the 72hrs leave she was for their wedding and they went to Wales to Beddgelert for a couple of days of honeymoon I believe. Unless they didn't and just said they had? Oh I am now even more confused.

Mum is starting to think she is a figment of her own imagination.