Book Number Four

I’m excited to report that it is now all official and that my next book to be published, will be a history of 142nd Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps.

The Regiment were as many of you will know, formerly the 7th Battalion, the Suffolk Regiment before they were converted to armoured troops in 1941, so it follows nicely behind my previous volumes on the 1st and 2nd Battalion’s. I’ve not forgotten the 4th and 5th Battalion’s who were captured at Singapore, but these will be following in the future!

The contract has been duly signed and returned to the publishers and now like history repeating itself, the hard work begins.

The manuscript needs to be finalised and delivered to them within the next month or so but one section has proved quite a challenge, that being the appendices. Whilst most are relatively easy to research and collate (e.g. Honours and Awards, Roll of Honour etc.) what has made this book a little more challenging is explaining the composition of the regiment of the RAC.

I’m familiar with ‘Platoon’s,’ ‘Companies’ and ‘Battalion’s’ but to get my head around ‘Troop’s’ and ‘Squadron’s’ has been quite difficult. Added to this, is the complex way in which these various elements were supported in battle and how the numerous rear ‘Echelons’ fitted into the overall picture (as an example, there was four levels of support for the fighting tanks at the front!).

Then, to compound this, there is the curious terminology that the RAC used. ‘Forward Rally’, ‘Rear Rally’ ‘Harbours’ and ‘Laagers’ are all positions and phrases that take some understanding and to the casual reader, these do need to explained, as many were hangovers from an ancient past when the cavalry rode horses into battle.

The choice of photographs is virtually complete as there are precious few and it has been a struggle to reach 40 in total, but all the known are going in and I am chasing a few more which will hopefully arrive in time, but what I have yet to consider are the accompanying maps. There needs to be at least one of each of the major actions they fought in both Tunisia and Italy, but that’s quite a bit of work(!) but to whet your appetite, you can expect to see names such as ‘Dj Doujat,’ Gueriat el Atach,’ ‘Hitler Line,’ ‘Advance to Florence’ and ‘Gothic Line’ featuring in the final work.

It’s going to be a busy few weeks ahead particularly over the Easter weekend, but please do keep checking back to see how I’m getting on with it all.