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Hi, I'm wondering if anyone can give me advice on finding out my grandfathers WW2 records, i dont have any info at all on his service in the army, but i do have his medals. Is it possible to tell from the medals i have where he fought or anything? He had 4 medals as follows: The France and Germany Star The 1939-1945 Star The 1939-1945 Defence Medal The fourth medal just says 1939-1945 on the back its round and has the king wearing his crown and a green and orange material tab on it? Thanks Kim.

There is a site that may help change stars for dots gov-records-military*com. I think it is about £30 for someones records. I don't know what info you will need to get your Dads war records Just looking at my Dads medals his Defence Medal is the one with the orange and green tab. He too had the Germany and France Star one I thought was a Dunkirk medal but can't find one with Dunkirk on it. I have 2 round ones and 2 stars sorry don't know anymore about them. Germaine x

Kim The four medals you have are (in order of wearing from left to right as you look at them laid out flat): 1939-45 Star (Dark blue, red and light blue ribbon) France and Germany Star (Dark blue, white, red, white and dark blue) Defence Medal (Green, orange and black) War Medal 1939-45 (Red white and dark blue ribbon) In terms of where he served, from the medals you can only say with certainty that he served in North West Europe (France, Belgium, Holland or Germany between 6 June 1944 (D Day) and 8 May 1945 (VE Day). The F&G Star is awarded for service of one day or more in those countries between those dates. The 1939-45 Star was awarded for 180 days operational service overseas in areas qualifying for a 'Campaign Star' like the F&G Star. However this doesn't mean that he served in North West Europe for 180 days or more. The 1939-45 Star could also be awarded for service of one day or more in France between 10 May and 19 June 1940. This one day award also applied to certain other areas that didn't attract the award of a campaign star like Norway in spring of 1940, Madagascar in 1942 and several other areas. If an individual didn't complete 180 days service becasue of being wounded or killed the award of the 1939-45 Star was automatic. From this you can see that it isn't easy to determine how your grandfather qualified for this award. Similarly the qualifying conditions for the Defence Medal are just as varied. It can be awarded for service of three years (1080 days) in the UK between 3 Sep 1939 and 8 May 1945. It can also be awarded for non-operational service of 1 year overseas. Examples of non-operational areas are India, USA, West Indies. Just to complicate matters further there was a 6 months qualifying period for service in other areas overseas deemed at risk from air attack or 'closely threatened'. Palestine was one such area. Service that fell short of the one year of 6 months could be aggregated with qualifying service in the UK to total three years. The War Medal 1939-45 was awarded for full-time service of 28 days or more between 3 Sep 1939 and 2 Sep 1945. It is also sometimes erroneously referred to as the Victory Medal. If you want to know where he served you could try writing to the Ministry of Defence, Service Personnel and Veterans Agency, Historical Disclosures, MP400, Kentigern House, Brown Street, Glasgow G2 5EX. You should be aware that you will in all probability need his army number and regiment to enable a search to be carried out. Not sure if there is a charge for relatives or not. Good luck with your search. Andrew PS Germaine. There was no official medal for service at Dunkirk. Service there was recognised by the one day award of the 1939-45 Star as described above. A 'Dunkirk Medal' was produced and issued by the Dunkirk Vets Association, but this has no official standing as it is purely a commemorative medallion.

If you have a look at the London Gazette Archive site, and put his name in the searh box it might bring up a result. Worth a try. Frances

Hi, Thanks everyone for the info, i had a quick look at the gazette archive but cant find him there. I have been told that he was at Dunkirk so that would explain that medal, i didnt realise it was so complicated, and i think two of my ribbons have been mixed up on the medals so its good to know how they should be. Got a few other questions maybe you could help with, but relating to WW1 i have an Irish great grandfather who was from Cork, that was supposedly in the Royal Horse Artillary, but on his marriage certificate 1920 it says 'bomb' R7A, would that fit? I've been told he was the colonels groom and died about 1939 of T.B. I dont have any army number or anything for him, he also went A.W.O.L to fight in the Irish civil war, so sounds like an interesting character, just wanted to know whether his records would be found with the english or whether theres a difference, also have scottish great grandfather that was possibley a stretcher bearer, so same applies? Thanks Kim.

Kim Your great grandfather's marriage certificate has his rank 'Bomb' being short for Bombardier and his Regiment 'R7A'. If you revisist the certificate, I think you'll find that 'R7A' is actually 'RFA' - Royal Field Artillery. If it is an unusual surname, you could try looking to see if there is a 1914-18 War Medal index card for him via the National Archives 'Documents ONline' website. Just 'Google' 'National Archives and it will give you the link. Andrew

Try,
The, Historic Dsclosure Section
Mail Point 555
Kentigem House
65 Brown Street
Glasgow
G2 5EX