True to his word David emailed me again, this time with some findings.
David had discovered three reference pieces he was in the process of exploring further. The first a booklet, produced by Gale and Polden in August 1941 entitled “70th Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment”
The second item David had unearthed is a book called “70th Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment - a collection of reports and tales of life in the newly formed young soldier’s battalion in the Second World War”.
He noted this was a privately produced book for the branch of the Regimental Association made up of former men of the 70th B and that he assumed it was produced in a fairly limited number so wouldn't be on sale anywhere.
The book is a mix of anecdotes, photos and reproduced order sheets. David stressed that because it was produced by an old soldier and not as a reference work it often does not give dates for the moves of the unit. However it’s the best reference piece available and even notes members of the 70th eventually ending up in Italy.
During a follow up conversation we agreed these two documents should allow us to piece together a basic timeline of events and a reasonably accurate list of locations Edward likely visited. David provided me with scanned copies to explore myself and agreed to provide his own summary soon. I will go into each in more detail in the following posts.
The third document David found provides a nice ending to this post before the more detailed analysis which will follow. A simple certificate showing a tree was planted at the National Arboretum dedicated to the 70th Battalion which can be seen below.
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