Did you know Army destroy some records??

[Guest]

When I ordered my fathers I also ordered a couple more, they could not find one of them so I rang and gave them a surname he often used, they then said if he had been discharged through illness then the whole of his records were quite probably destroyed ????????
Is that right ?? I do hope not .

[Janet]

Val

Are you talking Second World War? My father was supposed to have been invalided out of the navy sometime late 1944 onwards with TB. The MOD have not given me any info beyond 1944 but have given the reason that they have not got the records organised beyond that year, rather than the records having been destroyed. I know my father was not demobbed from the navy until after May 1945 and I am hoping that the last year will become apparent when the Second World War Records are released sometime around 2015. Hope I am still around then!! You can use the War Diaries to find out where he was in the years that are missing for you.

Janet

[Guest]

Yes second world war, they said if somebody had been discharged early for medical reasons then quite often the whole of his records would be destroyed .
They will never release the medical records anyway thats what they told me , unless they are wrong !!
How do you access the war diaries ??? thanks

[Christine in Herts]

Some WW1 Diaries are available via DocsOnline.
and see Research Guides - British Army War Diaries: First World War, 1914-1918

Air Ministry Combat Reports, 1939 - 1945 - likewise.

also

Research guides

For more information click on the links below to see the free, online research guides. Please note that these records are not available from DocumentsOnline.

Royal Air Force: Second World War, 1939-1945: Service Records

Royal Air Force: Operational Records

Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve

Royal Navy: Operational Records, Second World War, 1939-1945

Prisoners of War, British: 1939-1953

Military maps of the Second World War

War Dead: First and Second World Wars

An Inventory of Photographic Series in The National Archives

Christine