89th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery - War Diary January 1944.

As mentioned earlier, no text has survived in the January 1944 War Diary file, nor, as far as the author is aware, did the remainder of the pages for 1944.

The only documents held for this month are the Field Returns for 1 January 1944 as follows:-

Field Return of Other Ranks.

The summary showed a strength of 823 against the establishment of 815, with a surplus of 23 – mostly Gunners, and a deficiency of 13 – 1 BQMS, 4 Sergeants, 2 Bombardiers and 6 Gunners. Various specialist personnel, including a Signalman and an Electrician were also held surplus to War Establishment and 20 Gunners had only just been posted to the Regiment on the day the return was made up. 17 members of the Army Catering Corps were also included.

There were also three Other Ranks in hospital at the time of the return who were specifically requested for return to the Regiment – Sergeant P Champion, Gunner (Despatch Rider) A C Rogers and Gunner S G Harvey. They have all been added to the personnel list.

Field Return of Officers

The summary – Part A - shows 47 Officers in post against the establishment of 42 – a surplus of 5 – all Lieutenants.

Part D – Nominal Roll – lists all the Officers in post – all of whom have already been included on the personnel list. As far as possible, allowing for the blurred copy, Service Numbers have been added to the personnel list entries.

Part D shows 8 Royal Artillery Lieutenants and one RAMC Doctor counting against the War Establishment, less first reinforcements.

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