Cap badge & World War II campaign medals mystery
QHere is a photograph of John Bell in Army uniform, my friend Christopher Bell’s late father, born 22 May 1923 in Rotherham, Yorkshire. We are trying to find his Second World War service record and medal awards, but cannot identify the regiment of the cap badge.Christopher remembers being told that John was a ‘heavy gunner’ and served in India and Burma from 1943/1944.
John Spacie
A Gunner John Bell (see facing page) is wearing khaki battledress and side (or forage) cap for the period 1939-42. The cap badge is that of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. The National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939 made it compulsory for men aged between 18 and 41 to be conscripted. Born in 1923, John Bell would have been called-up on, or shortly before, his 18th birthday around May 1941. After basic training, those selected for the artillery moved to specialist training centres for instruction on the different types of guns used: field, medium/heavy, anti-tank and coastal.
APPLYING FOR A WWII SERVICE RECORD IS NOW FREE OF CHARGE
On 1 April 2023, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) began moving previously closed WWII service records to TNA as part of a six-year planned digitalisation program. Ancestry. have won the contract
