Second World War: Researching the Canadian Fallen - Resources

For those who attended my presentation on Second World War: Research the Canadian Fallen that I gave to the Lambton Branch of Ontario Ancestors on November 12, 2020 here is the list of just some of the resources I use in my own research of those that served Canada in the Second World War.

Library and Archives Canada Pages

• Military Heritage: Second World War
• War Diaries, Ships Logs, Operation Record Books
• Military medals, honours and awards, 1912-1969
• Requests for Military Service Files
• Guide to Sources Relating to Canadian Naval Vessels
  
• Merchant Marines
• The Canada Gazette Archive
  

Ancestry Collections

• Canada, Military Honours and Awards Citation Cards, 1900-1961
• Canada, Selected Service Records of War Dead, 1939-1945
• Canada, War Graves Registers (Circumstances of Casualty), 1914-1948
• Canada, World War II Records and Service Files of War Dead, 1939-1947
• UK, Army Roll of Honour, 1939-1945
• UK, Merchant Seamen Deaths, 1939 -1953
• UK, Navy Lists, 1888-1970
• UK, Victoria Cross Medals, 1857-2007
• UK, World War II Allied Prisoners of War, 1939-1945
  

Maps

• Library of Congress World War II Maps
• McMaster University Maps: World War II
• Project ’44
  

Photographs

• Findmypast - World War Two Canadian Photograph Collection
• For Posterity’s Sake
• Royal Canadian Legion “Military Service Recognition Books” - See John D. Reid's Canada's Anglo-Celtic Connections blog post "Find Family in Royal Canadian Legion Military Service Recognition Books"
  

Other Sites

• Canada Books of Remembrance
• Canadian Army Overseas Honours and Awards (1939-45)
• Canadian Virtual War Memorial
• Canadiana Héritage
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• Legion Magazine Last Post
• Merchant Navy War Dead Registry
• Military Heritage Research Centre
• RCAF Association Search Awards
• The Gazette (London)
• The National Archives (Kew)

Canadians as POWs in the Second World War on Findmypast

As many of us know, researching those that served Canadian and survived the Second War can be a bit of a challenge since many of the records are still safeguarded by privacy rules. So it is always a good day when one stumbles upon another online collection to peruse during these strange times of COVID-19 restrictions.

On Findmypast there is the "Prisoners Of War 1715-1945" record set that has 3,586,738 individual records in the set. That may seem like a lot but you need to keep in mind that those records are from The National Archives (TNA) in Kew, England (a few few other collections) and cover over 200 years of conflict that the United Kingdom, and other allies, has been involved in. The documents come from a number of agencies such as the Foreign Office (FO), Colonial Office (CO), War Office (WO), Admiralty (ADM) and Air Force (AIR). Wars covered include the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815), Crimean War (1853-1856), Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), First World War (1914-1918), and the Second World War (1939-1945). Many of the records are digitized but some are transcription only.

However, I'm more interested in locating any records from the Second World War of Canadians found in that record set. The first step is to narrow down the years. For that I selected 1942 as the year, minus or plus 5 years¹.

Screen capture of the advanced search screen for the Prisoners of War 1715-1945 record set on Findmypast with 1942 -/+ 5 years filter.

That left me with 512,918 results to filter through. Keep in mind that there will be duplicates where the same person is mentioned in multiple documents. 

At this point I could type in the surname of someone that I know was a prisoner of war to see if a record in the set exists for them. However, in the research into my own family lines I haven't come across anyone that may have been a prisoner of war during the Second World War...the War of Independence undertaken by what became the United States of America, yes, but not the Second World War. Instead I decided to see what I could find for records that might have a mention of Canadians. For that I went to the Advance search page and typed "Canadian" (without the quotes) in the "Additional keywords" field. That gave me 2,295 results.

So just what do I see when I browse through the records?

There are are great many from the "Prisoners of war, Far East" subset of records from The National Archives. The description page at Findmypast states that one may find records from:

• Japanese index cards of Allied prisoners – includes name, nationality, place of capture, parents’ names, rank, unit and more.
• Lists of prisoners created by liberating armies during 1945.
• Regimental nominal rolls – includes name, rank, regiment and date.
• War diaries and testimonies of prisoners.
• Lists of those who died while imprisoned.
• Photographs of prison camps – includes over 45 photographs of prisoners in Japanese camps (WO 341/2045).
• Correspondence between the International Red Cross and the governments of belligerent nations.
• Lists of recommendations for honours and awards for service while imprisoned.

Here is an example of a card from The National Archives "WO 345 Japanese Index Cards of Allied POWs 1942-1947" collection and has been made available on Findmypast for a Parkman Huston, born 8 Sep 1896 in Canada².

"Prisoners Of War 1715-1945," database and images, Findmypast (www.findmypast.com : accessed 30 Sep 2020), Parkman Huston, born 1896, year 1941; citng The National Archives (Kew), WO 345/27, Japanese Index Cards of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees, Second World War, 1942-1945.

An abstract of this card can also be found in the Ancestry "UK, Allied Prisoners of War, 1939-1945" collection. However, if you are using Ancestry you will also need to have a Fold3 subscription since that is where the image has been placed in their "UK, Allied Prisoners of War, 1939-1945" collection.

Sometimes you will come across entries in the Findmypast database without an image. One example is the entry for F/O H. T. Huston of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) 405th Squadron.

Screen capture from the Findmypast "Prisoners Of War 1715-1945" record set for F/O H T Huston of RCAF 405 Squadron, 1941.

Here Findmypast tells you that the information came from The National Archives WO 208/3316 report 1591. To find the file on The National Archives site you need to do a Discovery search combining the Archive reference of WO 208/3316 and the Report Number 1591 so that your search query is "WO 208/3316/1591".

Screen capture of The National Archives at Kew catalogue description of WO/208/3316/1591, Flying Officer H T Huston, service number J 13071, RCAF.

In this case the search results show that the record has not been digitized and one will have to visit The National Archives at Kew to see it. However, it did give a valuable piece of information that Findmypast didn't record...his service number "J 13071". With his name and service number you might be able to find him in the Operations Record Books for RCAF 405th Squadron.

Other times you might get lucky like I did with W/O G E Grandy of RCAF 407th Squadron where his details are recorded in WO 208/3324/2659. Normally you would have to pay or be connected to the TNA WiFi network to access the record. However, with COVID-19 restrictions in place The National Archives have generously opened up their digitized downloads to anyone with a free account on their site.

Extract from The National Archives at Kew of WO 208/3324/2659, Escape/Evasion Report for flight crew of Wellington Mk 14 from R.A.F. Wick piloted by F/O G. A Biddle, crashed 26 Set 1944.

What I received as a downloadable PDF was a three page document of the statement provided by the flight crew of the events from 26 Sep 1944 after they took off from R.A.F. Wick in their Wellington Mk 14 aircraft to when they finally returned to Scalloway, Shetland Islands on 12 Oct 1944 all the while evading capture by the German forces occupying Norway. The last page had a genealogical bonus since it listed their date of birth, post in the crew (wireless operator/air gunner in the case of W/O Grandy), peacetime profession, and their address back home. The tale of what happened to this crew, although told in the usual military clinical detachment, took my breath away as I read it.

There are even lists concerning prisoners in various P.O.W. camps in Germany.

"Prisoners Of War 1715-1945," database and images, Findmypast (www.findmypast.com : accessed 30 Sep 2020), Daniel Almon, S/Sgt, R-65355, arrivals from Stalag 2.D., 6 Apr 1944; citing The National Archives (Kew), AIR 40/276, Stalag 357 rolls Jan 1944-Mar 1945.

Of course, these records are not just for Canadians and you will find entries for other Allied nations including the UK, Australia, and even Americans.

Could you go to The National Archives site and search there for free? Yes you can but the value add of Findmypast is that they have name indexed the records so you don't have to know to look in the 6 Apr 1944 arrivals from Stalag 2.D to Lager K for your relative. Even if you do come across a record on TNA it might just point you to Findmypast to view the image.

If you are looking for more information as to what The National Archives (Kew) holds in respect to Prisoner of War files from the Second World War make sure you read their "British and Commonwealth prisoners of the Second World War and the Korean War" research guide.

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1. Why minus or plus five years? Findmypast only provides the option to filter the year by minus or plus 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 40 years. Three years would be perfect and two years is not enough so five years it is.

2. There are a number of records for him found on the various genealogy sites including at least one document with a pre-Second World War picture.

Second World War RCAF Operations Record Books

In my post "Researching Canadian Soldiers Who Died in the Second World War" I discussed how we can use the various online resources to learn more about those that made the ultimate sacrifice for Canada. However, I really only talked about the War Diaries of the Canadian Army to learn more about what was happening in the unit that the individual was in. In this post I'm going to look at the Second World War Operations Record Books for the Royal Canadian Air Force.

As with any research into the Canadian military I always head over to the Library and Archives Canada Military Heritage landing page. Since I'm looking for information about the Second World War I click on "Second World War: 1939-1945" to bring up the topic page. Reading through that page we see that there is a Research Guide for "War Diaries, Ship Logs and Operations Record Books "

However, the research guidance there is a little sparse:

Second World War (1939-1945) and Korean Conflict (1950-1953)

References to the Operations Record Books (RG24-E-7) can be identified by using the Advanced Archives Search.

• In the pull down menu, select Finding Aid Number, and enter: 24-104a
• Enter a keyword, for example, the unit name or number or date: "Royal Air Force Bomber"
• Some volumes are available on microfilm.
• Some of the microfilm reels have been digitized on our partner site Héritage.

Since I find learning is often best done by doing, let's look at an example. I'm going to look for the Operations Records Books for No. 426 Squadron. Why that unit? It was the squadron that my 1st cousin twice removed, David Douglas Dakin (J86386), served in when he was posted there in March 1944.

You might be wondering how I know that little tidbit. It might have come from his service file but he passed away in 2012 and his file is now embargoed for 20 years with limited information available to immediate family members only¹. So that option was not available for me. However, I was lucky enough to come across his name when I searched the RCAF Association "Search Awards". There I found a very lengthy write up of his service in the RCAF including being awarded with the Distinguished Flying Cross. The other place I found him was in the Last Post database of the Legion Magazine.

But back to searching for the RCAF Operations Records Books.

The first step is to go to the Library and Archives Canada Collection Search page. That is not the search box on the right side of the Library and Archives Canada home page but it is found under the "Search the Collection" tab. Going there will bring up a page similar to this:

Screen capture of Library and Archives Canada Collection Search page looking for "24-104a 426 squadron"

Here I've already filled in the key details that the Research Guide told me to use:

• Finding Aid Number: 24-104a
• Squadron: 426 

I also added the word "squadron" to my search otherwise over 9,000 results were returned and the vast majority had nothing to do with the unit I was looking for. That search returned only 19 results:

Screen capture of Library and Archives Canada Collection Search results page looking for "24-104a 426 squadron"

The first result was actually the one I was looking for so I clicked on the link to display the following page:

Screen capture of Library and Archives Canada page concerning No. 426 (B) Squadron for Oct 42-Feb 45.

However, what is initially shown doesn't help me find the Operations Record Books. That is hidden under the Record Information - Details bar. If that is clicked we now see this extra information.

Screen capture of Library and Archives Canada page concerning No. 426 (B) Squadron for Oct 42-Feb 45, Record Information Details.

We learn that the Operations Record Book for No. 426 (B) Squadron is available on microfilm reel C-12298. Remember that in the Research Guide that some of the microfilms have been digitized and put on the Héritage site. So how about popping over there in the hopes that the microfilm we want has been digitized.

Screen capture of Canadian Héritage search screen looking for C-12298.

You can see that I've already typed in the microfilm number and I've used quotes around the microfilm number. The quotes are important since without them you will often get all kinds of extraneous results.

Screen capture of Canadian Héritage search results screen when looking for microfilm C-12298.

As you can see the first result is the one we are looking for. So I clicked on the link.

This is where it gets a bit challenging. There may be multiple Operations Record Books for different squadrons on the microfilm. In the case of C-12298, No. 425 Squadron was at the start and it wasn't until I got to image 1453 where No. 426 (Bomber) Squadron's book began.

Screen capture of Canadian Héritage page for No. 426 (Bomber) Squadron Operations Record Book.

So what will you find in these books?

Just like the War Diaries for the Canadian Army there are the standard entries of what was happening in the unit.

Canada, "Royal Canadian Air Force Operations Record Books, 1936-1965," No. 426 (Bomber) Squadron, image 1877; digital images, Canadian Research Knowledge Network,  Héritage (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/ : accessed 15 Sep 2020); citing Library and Archives Canada, RG24-E-7. Volume/box number: 22686, Reel C-12298.

This is the first page for March 1944 for No. 426 Squadron. Here we learn of a crew reassignment, that on the 2nd the weather was a "beautiful clear day", and on the 5th an air accident occurred with details of what happened and who was in the aircraft.

Canada, "Royal Canadian Air Force Operations Record Books, 1936-1965," No. 426 (Bomber) Squadron, image 1879; digital images, Canadian Research Knowledge Network,  Héritage (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/ : accessed 15 Sep 2020); citing Library and Archives Canada, RG24-E-7. Volume/box number: 22686, Reel C-12298.

Here we learn that on the 15th of March, 1944 air operations took place with 16 aircraft involved. Regrettably two aircraft never made it back home so the names of the crew are listed along with their service numbers and function in the airplane.

Canada, "Royal Canadian Air Force Operations Record Books, 1936-1965," No. 426 (Bomber) Squadron, image 1883; digital images, Canadian Research Knowledge Network,  Héritage (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/ : accessed 15 Sep 2020); citing Library and Archives Canada, RG24-E-7. Volume/box number: 22686, Reel C-12298.

You might also come across a page, like above, where it details who is coming into or leaving the squadron. This is where Flight Sergeant D. D. Dakin first appears with the squadron as a pilot. 

Sometimes the records continue onto the next microfilm. That was the case with No. 426 Squadron, the Operations Record Book continued on microfilm C-12298. There I found F/S Dakin in a Lancaster bombing Frankfurt on 18 Mar 1944 leaving at 19h01 and arriving back to the airbase at 00h59.

Canada, "Royal Canadian Air Force Operations Record Books, 1936-1965," No. 426 (Bomber) Squadron, image 10; digital images, Canadian Research Knowledge Network,  Héritage (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/ : accessed 15 Sep 2020); citing Library and Archives Canada, RG24-E-7. Volume/box number: 22686, Reel C-12299.

You might even come across an incident report describing an unusual event like the "collision with friendly aircraft over target area" below.

Canada, "Royal Canadian Air Force Operations Record Books, 1936-1965," No. 426 (Bomber) Squadron, image 54; digital images, Canadian Research Knowledge Network,  Héritage (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/ : accessed 15 Sep 2020); citing Library and Archives Canada, RG24-E-7. Volume/box number: 22686, Reel C-12299.

Through these records you can often follow the career of a crew member. Events such as when they promoted or commissioned can be discovered along with the details about the various sorties they flew. When the squadron was moved to another base you might even come across entries where the non-flying personnel are mentioned and how they were to get to the new location.

Keep in mind that these are the Operation Record Books for Canadian squadrons. For the Royal Air Force Operations Record Books you need to go to TheGenealogist or pay an in person visit to The National Archives in England. In doing so you just might find a Canadian who enlisted with the RCAF serving with the RAF.

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1. If you have a living family member that served Canada in the Second World War then I strongly recommend that they order a copy of their service file. Instructions for doing so can be found at Restricted records held by Library and Archives Canada (service files after 1919).

Canadian War Diaries from the Second World War

With the 75th anniversary commemorating the end of the Second World War occurring this year more people are researching what happened to their ancestors and relatives that served during that war. Unlike the First World War, many of the personnel service records are not easily available to researchers due to privacy restrictions. For researching into those that served Canada during the Second World War I'll generally send people to the Second World War: 1939-1945 landing page on the Library and Archives Canada site as a starting point.

One often overlooked resource when researching the events that involved our men and women that served and fought in the Second World War are the War Diaries, Ships Logs, and Operations Record Books. Keep in mind that these are not the diaries of those that served but of the units and ships. You will often find mentions of officers but in these diaries and logs it is uncommon to find the enlisted personnel recorded in the pages. Unlike the First World War where the war diaries of the Canadian Expeditionary Force have been digitized, not all the Army war diaries from the Second World War have been digitized or even microfilmed. From the Library and Archives Canada page their guidance for searching states:

Second World War (1939-1945) and Korean Conflict (1950-1953)

References to War diaries (RG24-C-3) can be identified by using the Advanced Archives Search.

• In the pull down menu, select Finding Aid Number, and enter: 24-60
• Enter a keyword, for example, the unit name: "Royal Canadian Dragoons" or "Princess Patricia's"
• Some volumes are available on microfilm.
• Some of the microfilm reels have been digitized on our partner site Héritage.

Sounds almost simple doesn't it? It is, and yet, like most of our research, it often isn't. I'm going to walk you through a few examples.

First of all, you need to go to the Library and Archives Canada Enhanced Archives Search - Advanced page. Once there you need to instruct the search engine to search by Finding aid number 24-60 and also by the keyword of the regiment or unit you are interested in finding. In this case it is the unit of my grand-uncle Ronald McGregor Warrener who died on July 25, 1943 in Sicily, the 48th Highlanders.

Screen capture from Library and Archives Canada Enhanced Archives Search - Advanced with search terms of Finding aid number 24-60 and keyword 48th highlanders.

If everything works out, after you click the Submit button, you will get a list of results.

Screen capture with the results from the Library and Archives Canada Enhanced Archives Search - Advanced with search terms of Finding aid number 24-60 and keyword 48th highlanders.

In this case you see that there are several items with PDFs. The first for May 1944 to August 1945 and the second from August 1945 to October 1945. The PDFs contain the digitized regimental war diaries. However, the one that I'm interested in is #3, March 1942 to April 1944. There are no images or indications of PDF files so I will will need to click on that link to see what is available.

Screen capture from Library and Archives Canada record description for 48th Highlanders of Canada, Canadian Active Service Force, 1902/03-1944/04.

What you will find is a description of the item in the collection. For our purposes the "Conditions of access" is what we are interested in. In this case, there are no references to a microfilm and no links to a Online MIKAN item are found in the description. This means that we will need to visit Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa or have someone visit that place for us to view the actual regimental war diaries. Fortunately, back in 2015 I did just that.

Photo of the spine of the Regimental War Diary for the 48th Highlanders of Canada, May 43 to Apr 44

In addition to the weather report and the often boring daily accounts of unit business you some times find funny or interesting items in the diary, like what they thought of films "Saboteur", rated poor, and "Footlight Serenade", which was rated as good.

Regimental War Diary for the 48th Highlanders of Canada, 26-27 May 1943

Or, in the case of the entry for July 25, 1943, a very bad day with the death of Lt. R. F. Osler and 10 O.Rs. along with 2 missing and 38 wounded. It was through reading about that day in the book "Dileas: History of The 48th Highlanders of Canada 1929-1956" by Kim Beattie that I learned more about what happened to to "Pte. Red (R.M.) Warriner" and the rest of his brothers-in-arms of Dog Company.

Regimental War Diary for the 48th Highlanders of Canada, 25 Jul 1943

Sometimes, in the search for the war diaries, you will come across a description like this for the Headquarters of the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade:

Screen capture from Library and Archives Canada record description for Headquarters, 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 1944/05-1944/06.

In the "Conditions of access" you will note that there are references to two microfilm reels, T-12331 and T-12332. Remember that one of the bullets in the guidance from Library and Archives Canada was that "Some of the microfilm reels have been digitized on our partner site Héritage." Let's open a new tab in our browser and head over to the Héritage site to search their catalogue. If you haven't used the Héritage site before, pop over to my post "Old School" Research With a Modern Twist" to learn about what that site has and how to search it. As you can see below, I've entered in the microfilm number T-12331 in quotes in the search box.

Screen capture from Héritage site looking for microfilm T-12331.

We see that there are two results returned when searching for T-12331.

Screen capture from Héritage site with search results when looking for microfilm T-12331.

Clicking on "War diaries : T-12331" will bring up the first image from that microfilm. You might have noticed that there are 1674 pages. There is no easy way to search the diary for mentions of any names since, unlike the T-1489 microfilm, it hasn't been indexed for a full-text search. You will need to flip through the various digitized pages to find the dates that you are interested in.

Since this is from the Headquarters of the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade it has quite of bit of military information about the upcoming Operation Overlord, the landings on Normandy Beach. You will find various maps, unit boarding allocations for the landing crafts, and other details. There is also some interesting art work!

"Cover page for Signal Instructions, Appendix "D" 9 CDN INF BDE Operations Order No. 1, 18 May 1944.", War diaries : T-12331. Library and Archives Canada. Heritage microfilm T-12331, image 515.

As for the number of digitized microfilms that may pertain to the Second World War regimental war diaries hosted on the Héritage site, it has 1353 reels available in this collection. Unfortunately the metadata provided for the microfilms doesn't include the name of the units. So flipping through the microfilms will be time consuming. To learn what units may be on a specific microfilm go back to the Library and Archives Canada Enhanced Archives Search - Advanced page and enter in the Finding aid number 24-60 and for Any Keyword use the microfilm number. For example, on microfilm T-10561 the search results include:

• 7th Canadian Division - war diaries [textual record]. 1942-1943. Series.
• 7th Canadian Division - General Staff. 1942/06-1943/09
• 6th Canadian Division - Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General. 1942/06-1943/10
• 6th Canadian Division - Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General. 1944/01-1944/05

I have come across a few cases where this search doesn't return any results but it is better than nothing.

I hope that you have fun learning more about what happened in the Canadian units that your ancestor or relative served in during the Second World War.

Researching Canadian Soldiers Who Died in the Second World War

Cross of Sacrifice at Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

With the 75th anniversary commemorating the end of the Second World War in Europe approaching I've been seeing a number of posts in various Facebook genealogy groups asking about how to research family members that served in that war. This post will focus on some of the key resources I use to find information about those Canadians that served and died during the Second World War.

As an aside, for records for those that survived the war you will need to visit the Library and Archives Canada page "Requests for Military Service Files". Be forewarned, there appears to be about a 14-18 month backlog in processing the requests. If the service member is still alive, make sure that they request their file right now. Once they pass away, for a period of 20 years, only limited personal information will be released to an immediate family member (spouse, parent, sibling, child or grandchild) of the individual concerned if proof of relationship and proof of death are provided.

My starting point for any of research of a Canadian that served and died in the military during the Second World War is the Second World War: 1939-1945 at Library and Archives Canada. From that page you can learn about what databases and records are available, read the research guides, and find other sources of possible information. You can also go to the Service Files of the Second World War - War Dead, 1939-1947 to start your search.

When you search you can just put in the surname and given name(s) of the person. However, if you click on "Show Advanced Search Options" you can fill in additional details. I normally don't use the advanced search fields but for a common name it might help limit the number of entries returned.

Partial screen capture from a search for William Smith in the Library and Archives Canada database "Service Files of the Second World War - War Dead, 1939-1947".

What you will hopefully see is a short list of results with their name, date of birth, date of death, service number, a an item number you can click on to see additional details and possibly download the service file. Most of the results won't have a PDF of the service file attached to them. In fact, only a very small number of the files have been digitized and placed on the Library and Archives Canada site. But don't fret for there are other ways of viewing the files. Keep in mind that the digitization efforts have focused on creating a "genealogy package". This is a selection of what has been determined to be the most relevant documents from the file which highlights the service including enlistment, units served with, family details, medal entitlements, and circumstances of death.

One of the easiest ways of view the files is through Ancestry in their Canada, WWII Service Files of War Dead, 1939-1947 collection. According to the Library and Archives Canada page you only need a free account and not a paid subscription to access this collection. Alternately, if you don't want to give Ancestry your e-mail address you can get access to the institution version of Ancestry at your local library or Family History Center (and affiliates).

Partial screen capture of the abstracted record for William Scott, service number K23205, in the Ancestry "Canada, WWII Service Files of War Dead, 1939-1947" collection.

When you do find the entry on Ancestry don't click on the "View" button. That will only bring you to the attestation paper. Instead, click on the "View File Start" since that will bring you to the start of the file folder. From there you can download to your computer the individual pages in the service file. Be forewarned, some of these files can get quite large but there are all kinds of interesting details in the files.

Now that you have the service file, what next?

Stop and take the time to read the file.

Then re-read that file.

And then once more read the file!

There are all kinds of nuggets of information in those files. Often I will go through the file five or six times and record the details into my own genealogy database. To help me decipher the abbreviations in the file I sometimes consult the "Military Abbreviations used in Service Files" page on the LAC web site.

Once that is done I usually head over to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site to search for the person there. If the name is relatively common you will probably want to filter by "Served with" and the "War". On that site you may find the pages from the Graves Registration Reports, Graves Concentration Reports, and what was written on the grave marker or memorial.

Next I head off to the Canadian Virtual War Memorial to see what they might have on their site. Yu might find an image of the grave marker or memorial, a link to the Second World War Book of Remembrance, and, since people can upload their own images, sometimes copies of newspaper articles or pictures of the person.

If there was a grave marker but I haven't found an image of it yet I will check Find A Grave to see if someone has uploaded the picture. That is how I first saw the marker for my Grand Uncle Ronald MacGregor Warrener who was buried in the Agira Canadian War Cemetery in Italy.

In the service file you may come across a "Field Service" report that details the cause of death and where the body was initially buried.

Canada, "Military Service Record: William Scott, Regimental Number K23205, RG 24, Volume 27004," Field Report; Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa.

Often this is a temporary burial but it usually fairly close to where the person died. Sometimes there is enough information in the burial location to find the place on Google Maps. For maps from the war I will often head over to the Digital Archive @ McMaster University Library Maps Collection and select the World War II (1939-1945) collection. However, most of those maps are from before the Invasion of Normandy on 6 Jun 1944. But sometimes I get lucky and find a map from after the invasion that has the details I am looking for.

If you are looking for the War Diaries from the Second World War of the unit they served in you might be fortunate enough to find them digitized on the LAC partner site Héritage. Visit the War Diaries, Ship Logs and Operations Record Books page for details about how to search for any diaries held by Library and Archives Canada.

Sample page of a War Diary for the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, microfilm T-10530, Library and Archives Canada, http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_t10530.

Keep in mind that these are not the diaries written by the person that served in the war but of the activities of the unit. However, there will be details about what was happening with the unit including where they may have run into the enemy.

Don't forget to do a Google search of the unit that they served in. There are books that have been written about the various units in the Second World War. For example, in the case of William Scott above, he was in the "65 Cdn A/Tk Bty 5 Cdn A/Tk Regt". This translates into "65th Canadian Anti-Tank Battery, 5th Canadian Anti-Tank Regiment". A search on the "5th Canadian Anti-Tank Regiment" yields a link to WorldCat where you can find the book "The History of the 5th Canadian Anti-tank Regiment : 10 Sept., 1941-10 June, 1945" about the regiment's role in the Second World War. There is even a book written about the battery William Scott was in called "The History of the 65th Canadian Anti-tank Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery : 9 September 1941- 20 September 1945".

If the regiment has a museum or an archivist, like the the 48th Highlanders of Canada which my Grand Uncle Ronald Warrener served in, then reach out to them to see what they might have in their files. I actually visited the museum of the 48th Highlanders of Canada on one of my trips to Toronto. They didn't have much on hand about Ronald but a few weeks later I received a package in the mail with a chapter describing the battle he was in and he was even mentioned by name. I returned the favour and sent what I had about Ronald back to them for their files.

Hopefully some of the sites and tips in this post will help you to learn more about those Canadians that served and died in the Second World War.

RCAF Graves in Guyana?

A little while ago a friend posted several pictures on Facebook of grave markers that he had seen in the British Military Cemetery in Georgetown, Guyana with the comment:

"Here is a mystery for you Ken..
Walking through the British Military Cemetery in Guyana, and saw these Canadian memorials
What happened to the crews on April 11th 1944 and May 20th 1943"

F. A. R. Milbury, R113616	H. D. G. Ward, R117558
K. F. Probert	R. F. Stubner
"Ian Mackenzie", Facebook (www.facebook.com/madmack66 : accessed 5 Sep 2018), post from 23 Aug 2018 at 20:49.

Here are the steps I took to answer his question.

I first went to the Library and Archives Canada page for the "Service Files of the Second World War - War Dwad, 1939-1947" and started my search via the "Search: Database" link  using their last names, or in the case of H. D. G. Ward, the service number. Why use the service number just for him? There are 184 names containing the word "ward"! Even after adding "H" for the Given Name(s) there were 81 service members found.

Since each of the grave markers also gave the date of death I could quickly verify that I had found the right person for those markers without a service number.

Surname	Given Names (s)	Date of Birth	Date of Death	Service Number
Milbury	Francis Arthur Robert	21 Sep 1921	20 May 1943	R113616
Ward	Hugh Dennis George	11 Feb 1923	20 May 1943	R117558
Probert	K F	16 Nov 1919	11 Apr 1944	J29636
Stubner	R F	23 Sep 1914	11 Apr 1944	J29635

In each case I clicked on the associated Item Number for the person to see if there was a PDF file available from Library and Archives Canada. Unfortunately  the pages for each of the service members stated "No PDF file available". I could physically visit the Library and Archives Canada building in Ottawa but that will take a bit of time to request the files and I wouldn't be able to get there until the next day anyway. So I will continue my online search for information about what happened to these people.

Since these service members were from the Commonwealth the next site I went to was the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Using what I had learned from the LAC search I was able to quickly locate the same service members here. The CWGC site even told me the name of the cemetery, "Georgetown (Rabbit Walk) Cemetery".

Within each page for the service members there were town tables in the CWGC Archives section: "Grave Registration" and "Headstone". The Headstone document provides was what actually inscribed on the headstone. In this case, all four of the personnel we are interested in were recorded on the same sheet.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission, "War Dead Records", database on-line, CWGC (www.cwgc.org : accessed 5 Sep 2018), Headstone document for Francis Arthur Robert Milbury, service number R/113616.

The Grave Registration document has these four service members listed plus two others from the R.A.F. that died on the same dates. Could these all be related to aircraft crashes and what were they doing in Guyana?

Commonwealth War Graves Commission, "War Dead Records", database on-line, CWGC (www.cwgc.org : accessed 5 Sep 2018), Grave Registration document for Francis Arthur Robert Milbury, service number R/113616.

My next stop was to the Canadian Virtual War Memorial where I did yet another search for these R.C.A.F. service members. In each case there was a link to the image of the page from the Second World War Book of Remembrance that lies within the Memorial Chamber in the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. For Flying Officer Richard Frank Stubner (another fact we didn't have until now: his forenames) there was even a newspaper clipping from the Winnipeg Evening Tribune announcing his death. Pilot Officer Francis Arthur Robert Milbury had a picture with a short biography submitted under the Digital Collection section for him.

My final stop in this brief research adventure was to Ancestry since they have a collection called "Canada, WWII Service Files of War Dead, 1939-1947". This is a free collection that should be searchable and viewable as long as you have an account (not a paid subscription) with Ancestry.ca. For example, using my paid Ancestry subscription, when I did a search for Milbury and selected "View Record" for Francis Arthur Robert Milbury I saw this:

Ancestry search results page for Francis Arthur Robert Milbury

The initial inclination is to click the "View" button. Don't do that! Instead click on the "View File Start" link. This will take you to the very beginning of the digitized paper file. Use the right arrow button to work your way though the file. There is often much more than the attestation forms such as the service book (with entries written in the service member's own hand), notification of death forms, and even hand written correspondence from family members pertaining to the death.

So what did happen on 20 May 1943 to Francis Arthur Robert Milbury and Hugh Denis George Ward¹. Form 551, "Royal Air Force. Officer or Airman-Report on Accidental or Self-inflicted Injuries or Immediate Death Therefrom." for F. A. R. Milbury states that he was:

Deceased (Killed outright)
Baltimore FA/520. Ran off runway in landing. Aircraft Crashed and burnt.
Deceased was Captain of Aircraft

Later on another form in his file states "Killed when aircraft FA.250, of which he was pilot, crashed at Georgetown, British Guiana while on ferry flight." He was with No. 45 (AT) Group at the time of the accident.

In H. D. G. Ward's service file the "Clinical Record Brief" form states that the wounds from 20 May 1943 were "...accidentally incurred in an airplane crash at Atkinson Field, British Guiana at approximately 1:15PM, May 20, 1943. Type of plane A-30." Another form states that he was the navigator on that ferry flight.

The No. 45 (AT) Group was a based at Dorval, Quebec, Canada and was part of the R.A.F. Transport Command and ferried aircraft from factories to the operational units. For this flight they were ferrying a Martin Baltimore light attack bomber. The A-30 designation was for those aircraft part of the United States Lend-Lease Act.

For the incident involving Kenneth Frederick Probert and Richard Frank Stubner, their service files also provided quite a bit of information. They were ferrying a Martin B-26 Marauder aircraft, HD.149, from Nassau to Accra when it crash at Atkinson Field in British Guiana. In a letter in R. F. Stubner's file to Miss Laura Taylor of Clandeboye, Manitoba, dated 6 Feb 1946 it states:

Dear Miss Taylor,

Further to our letter of December 20th,

1945, the names of the crew members of Pilot Officer
Richard Frank Stubner are as follows:-

Pilot: Howard WEIBEN, American Civilian
2nd Pilot: P/O Stanley BLACKBURN, (65124).
Navigator: P/O Kenneth PROBART, (J.29636).

I trust this is the information you desired.

So in both cases these servicemen were ferrying aircraft from North America to operational bases overseas via the South Atlantic ferry route.

From just a bit of information on the headstones we were able to learn a bit more about the people and the part they were playing in the effort of the Allies to fight in the Second World War.

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1. Note that he wrote his name as "Hugh Denis George Ward" and not "Hugh Dennis George Ward" in his Royal Canadian Air Force Service Book.