Regimental Numberblock of Servicenumber F88499

[RickM]

Hi,
Does anyone knows which Regiment was given the numberblock in which fits Servicenumber F88499?

I know the F stands for district Nova Scotia but the number itself is way higher than the (incomplete) lists I can find on the internet. It´s 100% sure WWII Canadian.

I hope someone here has the complete list availble to help me further.

Thanx in advance.

[Mark W. Tonner]

Originally Posted by RickM

Hi,
Does anyone knows which Regiment was given the numberblock in which fits Servicenumber F88499?

The Regimental number F88499 is from the block F86000 to F89749, which was allotted to No. 6 District Depot itself, and not a specific regiment.

Cheers

[RickM]

Okay, Thanx so much for the quick reply and information, Mark.
Another Service Number I have appears to be from the same block: F88857.

Too bad it reveals no further Unit-information. Possibly late-war reinforcements/replacements? Various Highlander/Nova Scotia Regiments have been in the area, for instance the Prince Edward Island Highlanders.

[RickM]

By any chance 2nd Heavy AA Regiment, RCA is mentioned in the District 6 list?

[Darrell Zinck]

Originally Posted by RickM

By any chance 2nd Heavy AA Regiment, RCA is mentioned in the District 6 list?

Hi Rick

No, it is not.

The fol AA units (and their # block) appear under the Active Force for No.6:

-6th AA Bty, RCA - F7050- F8049
-7th AA Bty, RCA - F12100 - F13099
-1st AA Bty, RCA - F20250- F21249
-14th AA Bty, RCA - F85000 - F85499
There are some other RCA units listed (Hvy, Med, and Fd Btys as well as S/L and Z Force number blocks) but no Hvy AA.

For No. 6 under Reserve Force there is the fol:

-6th AA Bty, RCA - F408500 - F409499
-1st AA Bty, RCA - F417000 - F417499
-7th AA Bty, RCA - F421000 - 421499

Again, no Hvy AA units mentioned but the other RCA units are:

-HQ 14 Fd Bde
-52, 87 and 88 Fd Btys
-1st (PEI) Med Bde HQ
-2nd and 8th Med Btys
-1st (Halifax) Coast Bde
-16th Coast Bde HQ
-6th, 9th, 36th and 86th Hvy Btys
-9th Searchlight Bty


I hope that is of some small help to you.

regards
Darrell

[Mark W. Tonner]

Originally Posted by RickM

By any chance 2nd Heavy AA Regiment, RCA is mentioned in the District 6 list?

Rick;

The only component (or sub unit) of the 2nd Heavy AA Regiment, RCA, that can trace its ‘roots’ back to Military District No. 6, was the 8th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery, RCA, which was initially embodied as a unit of the Canadian Active Service Force, under the designation of the 8th Medium Battery (H), RCA, CASF (Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island) (Regimental Number block F15150 to F16149), effective 1 September 1939. The 8th Medium Battery (H), RCA, CASF, after a series of reorganizations and redesignations, was subsequently converted and redesignated the 8th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery, RCA, effective 24 May 1941, and was allocated to the 2nd Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment (Mobile), RCA.

Cheers

[David Dunlop]

OK, this is an interesting thread.

I knew the Army Service Numbers were all prefixed with a letter code for the various military regions across Canada, but I never knew the system was also used to define, or identify a particular military unit via blocks of numbers.

Dug out my copy of the XII Manitoba Dragoons Regimental Diary and started looking at all the member Service Numbers, and sure enough, most numbers are from the Military District Block H-77XXX for the ranks of L/Cpl and above. But interestingly, for the Troopers, about 50 to 60% of the unit strength came from other areas of Canada: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, K, L, M and P. The number of digits for any prefixed Service Number run from a low of one to a high of six.

With such a hodge podge of service numbers in just one Regiment, it makes me wonder why they even bothered blocking them out to specific units in the first place?

David

[RickM]

Thanx for the information gentlemen.
Since we are talking about leavecentre Holland in summer 1945, its even more complicated, as I understand frequently soldiers were transfered to other units in the last days before leaving, to concentrate residents of the same region in the same ship.

[David Dunlop]

RickM.

Not totally sure it would make any sense to use any given military unit as a 'home reference' for repatriating servicemen after the war. Yes, Regiments are typically headquartered/based in a specific part of the country, but as the XII Manitoba Dragoons records show, a Regiment will have a very mixed group of individuals in it, on the basis of where they actually lived in Canada at the time of their enlistments. The XII MD's were based in Virden, Manitoba during the war but as I mentioned earlier, their members were scattered all across the country.

When I looked at troop ship manifests of Canadian Servicemen who came back to Canada via New York City after the war, they were definitely sorted by the Military Districts in Canada in which they enlisted. You would find quite a selection of units on any given ship, but all the troops (with some exceptions) would be from one primary Military District. This greatly simplified transport by rail once back in North America. This sorting was done at a number of Canadian Military processing centres across Europe and The UK.

Cheers for now,

David

[Bill Alexander]

Some additional points. The XII Manitoba Dragoons were mobilized as the 18th Recce later converted to 18th Armoured Car Regt, which was recruited from three Manitoba units, the 12 Manitoba Dragoons, the 2nd Armoured Car Regt and the Manitoba Mounted Rifles. After some debate about an appropriate badge for the 18th Armoured Car it was re-designated the 12th Manitoba Dragoons. More detail about the evoulution of the XII Manitoba Dragoons can be read here https://servicepub.wordpress.com/201...ent-cap-badge/. Even with three regiments contributing to the unit that would be named the XII Manitoba Dragoos, the majority of alpha prefix for service numbers would be MD 10.
Active service regiments, whether infantry, armoured or artillery saw a lot of change over the period they were mobilized. They initially were recruited from a particular region, but as men were promoted, transfered, or discharged, the "localization" was diluted. The army could not and in some cases did not want the regiments reinforced with personnel from the home base. This was further emphasised by the impact of Dieppe on certain regiments. The RHLI suffered heavy casualties and in terms of the recruitment area, whole communities lost most of the men who had enlisted. Senior levels of the army did not want to have battle losses impact any particular region so significantly. Not only were communities devastated, it was bad for morale and for future recruiting. A policy to diversify the demographics of regiments was used for reinforcements after that date. Additionally, some regimental areas could not keep up with the demands for replacement personnel for their unit. These factors resulted in a more random assignment of personnel to the active units.

[David Dunlop]

Bill.

Odd isn't it that it took them Dieppe to figure it out. One only has to visit any number of small towns in Canada and look at their WW1 Memorials to see how devastated regions were in that war. All those young men signed up at the nearest enlistment centre, and after the war it was a real struggle for some towns to get back up to speed with so many lost or too injured to work productively any more.

David

[servicepub (RIP)]

Understand that Regimental Numbers were issued at point of enlistment. In the early days of the war enlistment and training were a unit's responsibility. It was soon realised that this was inefficient so recruiting centres were established as well as training centres.
This meant that early volunteers signed up at the unit and usually stayed with the unit. Later recruits were from the area/district and would be posted to a unit after they finished their training (at various levels of training centres).
Typically, soldiers were sent to a reinforcement centre in the UK for continued and specialist training and from there sent to a unit that had lost troops in action. This is how a soldier from BC could end up in a NB unit.