Regimental Numberblock of Servicenumber F88499

[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