War Diary - CRA - November 1941

1 November 1941

Clocks put back one hour. Local time now two hours behind British Summer Time.

3/4 November 1941

G.O.C’s. Model Exercise in Mountain Warfare. All Commanding Officers attended.

5 November 1941

G.O.C’s. Conference attended by Commander, Royal Artillery. Subject – Training of 49 Mountain Division.

6 November 1941

G.O.C. held T.E.W.T. on Mountain Warfare in area GEITHALS – HELDAFELL. All Commanding Officers attended.

13 November 1941

2/Lt J G B Halden Royal Artillery attached HQ, Royal Artillery, as Intelligence Officer Royal Artillery.

10/15 November 1941

Senior Officers’ Course at Force Tactical School. All Royal Artillery Regimental Commanders attended except Lt-Colonel F W B Maufe, Royal Artillery commanding 69 Field Regiment Royal Artillery. Major T L Chalton, Royal Artillery, attended in his place.

17 November 1941

13:00 hours. Firing practice by 85 Light Anti-aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery 40mm Bofors Light Anti-aircraft sites at EFFERSEY and CORBETT CAMP with RAF co-operation. Report attached to file as Appendix A. (No copy retained in the file at The National Archives).

18 November 1941

11:00 hours. Firing practice by 4/12 (Heavy) Anti-aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery from site R 1 with RAF co-operation. Report attached to the file as Appendix B. (No copy retained in the file at The National Archives).

17/22 November 1941

Royal Artillery Refresher Course at Force Tactical School. Mainly administrative. The following Officers attended:- Major B Armitage, Major C T Hackett, Major T L Chalton, Major H C Catcheside, Major J F Mathews, Captain H S Calvert, Captain R N S Phillips, Captain J A H Simmonds, Captain L A Mount, Captain W L Johnson, Lieut C W Fisher, Lieut J R Kitchen, Lieut R O Adamson, Lieut W L Prestwich, Lieut P M P Coghlan, Lieut W S Brown, 2/Lieut H G Walton.

The syllabus for the Course was attached to the War Diary as Appendix C. (No copy retained on file at The National Archives).

19/20 November 1941

Force Signals Exercise No. 14 to practice R.O.F.T. system. Weather extremely wet and conditions bad. Composite HQ Royal Artillery provided by 143 Field Regiment as HQ Royal Artillery engaged in Royal Artillery Refresher Course.

22 November 1941

17:00 hours. Final Conference on Force Exercise No.14 at Force Tactical School.

28/29 November 1941

Force Exercise No. 15 to test P.A.D. and A.R.P. arrangements both military and civilian. In conjunction with this exercise was staged Anti-aircraft Signals Exercise No. 4. A Report on the Exercise was attached to the War Diary as Appendix D. (For details see below).

Appendices attached to the November 1941 War Diary file for Iceland Force Commander Royal Artillery.

A.A.D.C’s Report on Exercise 15 of 1941.

This report on the signals Exercise ran to three pages and provided a comprehensive account of the operational difficulties encountered in the running of the Operations Room and maintaining contact with gun sites etc. Delays and missed messages were frequent and many suggestions were made for tightening up the process, ensuring a degree of silence and the need for message traffic to be constantly monitored.

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