The History of the Third Canadian Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment (3LAA)

Hi Michelle. In the group photo attached to the George Chow post, where you have indicated your Dad sitting front row left, my father Jack Beardmore is sitting 2 to the right of him!! I remember Georgie quite well and remember visiting him with my Dad when I was just a kid.
Cheers!
Sylvia

 

Nice collection of photos! I'm starting to pick out some familiar backdrops to some of the photos compared to what I have around here. Are the images they've collected in higher resolution on CD?

On the note of images, I'm curious about a pin that I got from my grandfather, and never really determined for certain what it is. Still have a few more months before I can get the complete service files from back east, so I'm wondering if anyone can identify this in here? (hopefully this works and isn't too large!)

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Any ideas anyone?

 

Wow! Once again, GREAT PHOTOS!

The image Batory_8 is of my grandfather Karl Lauritzen, and he appears in at least one other in your album as well! His brother Ed Lauritzen and he enlisted at the same time and were both in the AA, but I don't beleive they were in the same troop. I see there is at least one photo of him manning the gun too, although the image is doubled so I can't say for certain. They also appear together in one of the other images in your collection! Is there some way I can get in touch with Bob Sudbury about their stuff? I would really like to both contribute a few additional photos as well as get copies of some of the pictures we don't have a copy of ourselves.

Thanks again for posting this stuff!

 

Hi Sylvia and cc

It is good to hear from you. I am in the process of putting together some questions for Bob's Dad, Archie, and will be sending to Bob. In the spring, I will be on a D-Day to Liberation of Holland Tour which will take me through much of the countryside where our father's/grandfather's served.

CC, if you would like to send me a private message with your email, I can pass it on to Bob with your request. The photos were on a CD he gave me at the reunion. Since I had no problem uploading them, they were probably not at a high resolution and you may need to get better copies from Bob if he can send them. I would appreciate seeing any photos or information you or any of the other descendents of the 3LAA have to share.

Thanks!!

 

I believe in another post you didn't see my Dad listed for overseas with the rest of the 16th. Dad was with them based on his service records, but in looking at the records at the 16th reunion he appears to have been missed on some of the lists others kept. I suspect that at the end of the war it may have been related to his being SOS 3LAA and TOS to 21 Army Group from Sept 1944 to late spring 1945 when he was TOS back to 3LAA.

Since we are both in Sask, I do hope I have an opportunity to meet you and possibly have a chance to see some of the material you have collected and to learn more about your Dad.

 

Hi,

my name is Frank Speckmann from Germany and I hope you will forgive my bad english. But I have one question. I live about 5 miles south of Oldenburg, in the northwest of Germany. Here in the Wardenburg area WWII ended between 23rd April and 3rd of May 1945 with the entry of the 3 LAAR.
Has anybody photos, maps or documents of this time ?

Frank

 

I believe that Archie Sudbury has maps from around this time. His son, Bob, posted in this thread previously. The 3LAA reunion group has amassed a remarkable collection of photos in albums in the Vancouver area. Unfortunately, I don't have any myself - only the copies that were shared with me on the CD I used to post here.

Hopefully, someone else who has posted regarding the 3LAA will respond. Good Luck.

 

Hi Michelle,

I'm writing a book about the Canadian Servicemen in West Sussex during WW2 and have found the information contained in your postings very helpful. Do you by any chance have any information at all, as to where the men were billeted during their stay in this area, that is Littlehampton, Lancing, Bognor Regis etc? I would be most grateful for any further information regarding this matter. Do you by any chance have any further contacts that could ask. Thank you.

Pam

 

Hi Pam,

Sorry for the delay in responding. For some reason Bognor Regis sounds familiar, but I don't have data that would be sufficiently specific. If I get my Access to Information form in to National Archives I may get a set of his records earlier than the 20 years - hopefully, this spring. Bob Sudbury as mentioned above is the most likely person to know. Please send me a Private Message with your email address and questions and I will forward to Bob.

 

My Grandfather James Elmer Benjamin served with the 3LAA until.
Something happened to him either just before or after Dieppe. He was finally medevaced back to Canada just after D-Day.
We suspect it was a nervous break down.
I am looking for information on him to confirm our information.
if anyone reads this and knows of him I would be greatly appreciated in talking to you

Keep up the great work

 

Hi Maraduer,

I strongly recommend you check out the following: What to Search: Topics - Canadian Genealogy Centre - Library and Archives Canada regarding how to order your Grandfather's military file. If he has been deceased more than 20 years it shouldn't be a problem for your to ask for the full file which will probably include medical. If he has not been deceased 20 years, you request the genealogical version - which is fairly brief but has the where and when listed or you submit an ATIP (Access to Information Request) and see if you can get the full file although it would be vetted whereby other individual's names will be blacked out.

Unfortunately, I don't have information on individual members of the 3LAA.

Regarding your comment about something happening just before Dieppe, please do read the thread - particularly between March and August 1942, as it indicates that the 3LAA was having a lot of action against enemy planes on the south coast of England, as well as being involved in several exercises and training shoots. My father was badly injured by a parachute bomb when acting as a dispatch rider - probably for the 16th Battery of the 3LAA in the spring of 42 - so serious injuries etc did happen prior to them being on European soil.

 

Michelle thank you for posting this history. I have enjoyed learning about the group my father was part of He enlisted in June 1942 in Edmonton, Alberta and served with 3LAA until the wars end.

My father was Gnr Albert Charles Hadley.

Regards, Debra

 

I'm so glad to see that children and grandchildren of those who served in the 3LAA are still finding this thread! I still keep hoping to get more information on my Dad's service or to connect with those who might have some information about him such as their family having a letter or photo in which he is identified.

Debra - Interestingly, one of my Dad's maternal family names is Hadley!

 

http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/rep-rap/doc/cmhq/cmhq018.pdf Found this tonight which is a scan of a transcript by the Military History Directorate of a 1941 document describing the light anti-aircraft regiments, their history, and their concentration at Colchester.

 

203 Wilkinson A brief write-up on Frank Wilkinson and a summary history of the 3LAA

 

Results - Faces of War - Library and Archives Canadancludes images of members of the 3LAA

 

3 LAA Regt RCA

 

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/Canada/CA/OpSumm/OpSumm-3.html

"As the great "blitz" had ended by the time Canadian anti-aircraft artillery units were organized, trained and ready for battle, these units saw less action than they had hoped for. As soon as the batteries had attained a sufficient standard of training they were lent to Anti-Aircraft Command for temporary employment on gunsites in "A.D.G.B." (Air Defence of Great Britain). The first actual success credited to a Canadian artillery unit was achieved by a detachment of the 3rd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment (which actually had not yet graduated to A.D.G.B.) near Frinton on the East Coast on the night of 6-7 August 1941, when a JU 88 was shot down into the sea. German raids at this time were hit-and-run affairs, often by single machines, in which a small and difficult target was presented to the guns for perhaps a very few seconds; and even such a target might appear only after weeks or months of fruitless waiting on an isolated and uncomfortable gunsite."

 

This has been an amazing read, thanks to all who have contributed. My Great Uncle was in the 16th Battery at Dieppe, he was a member of the "second party" that is described in the history of. His name was Gnr Kenneth M Stuart, and sadly he was killed. I was wondering if anyone knows of anyone who is still alive in that same group who may have landed with him, or knew him, or knows anything about him, I would love to contact these people if I could, my father and I are doing some research and there is so much we would love to know.