Royal Artillery Rank & Insignia

[jeff]

I hope some WWII specialists can help me.
I have attached a photo of my wife's grandfather. He served during WWII in
the Royal Artillery (HAA) from 23/1/41 until his release on 31/1/46. What
does the HAA stand for?
On some of his papers his rank is listed as W/BDR. What does the W stand
for? I believe the BDR is for Bombardier.
Can anyone identify the cap badge in the photo? This is purported to be

when

he was serving with/training Gurkas in SE Asia.

I'm no expert but I think I recall HAA is Heavy Anti Aircraft. Sorry can't
help n other questions.

[Forrest Anderson]

I have attached a photo of my wife's grandfather. He served during WWII in
the Royal Artillery (HAA) from 23/1/41 until his release on 31/1/46. What
does the HAA stand for?
On some of his papers his rank is listed as W/BDR. What does the W stand
for? I believe the BDR is for Bombardier.
Can anyone identify the cap badge in the photo? This is purported to be
when he was serving with/training Gurkas in SE Asia.

I think your attachment caused promulgation problems with your
message, as I haven't seen the original post.

HAA is Heavy Anti-Aircraft, as Jeff suggested.

W/BDR is War Substantive Bombardier. Before Oct 1940, at least in the
Royal Artillery, soldiers were first appointed to unpaid acting rank
for 21 days, then to paid acting rank, then to war substantive rank
after three consecutive months from the date of the unpaid
appointment. Army Council Instruction 988 of 1940 extended the three
month period on a sliding scale according to rank for Sergeants and
above, and later ACIs may have altered the regulations further.

Forrest

[Patrick Wallace]

Heavy anti-aircraft (my father was in the same line in another part of
the world).

PJW

On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 15:00:48 -0400, "Duncan Wilson"

I hope some WWII specialists can help me.
I have attached a photo of my wife's grandfather. He served during WWII in
the Royal Artillery (HAA) from 23/1/41 until his release on 31/1/46. What
does the HAA stand for?

[Eric Hartup]

They were also known as "the nine mile snipers". My father was a Regimental
Sergeant Major with 28 years service. I have many photographs taken by him
in Ceylon circa 1925 and Gibraltar 1930. He served in both world wars!
Eric H

Post by Patrick Wallace
Heavy anti-aircraft (my father was in the same line in another part of
the world).
PJW
On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 15:00:48 -0400, "Duncan Wilson"

I hope some WWII specialists can help me.
I have attached a photo of my wife's grandfather. He served during WWII in
the Royal Artillery (HAA) from 23/1/41 until his release on 31/1/46. What
does the HAA stand for?

[Duncan Wilson]

The other day my wife and I were digging through war photos of her Grand
Father and found some more info.

On a scap of paper it said that he was in West Africa from 41-43 and then in
the SEAC (South East Asia Command) from 43-45. His unit was:

5 (WA) HAA Bty. WAA (i.e. 5th West African Heavy Anti-Aircraft
Battery)

Does anyone know what regiment or Division this Battery would have been in?

Thanks,

Duncan

The angle from which the picture is taken makes identifying the symbol on
the side of the slouch very difficult, but it is **possibly** the

Divisional

insignia of the 26th Indian Division, (known as the Tiger Head Division)
part of Bill Slim's "Forgotten" 14th Army in Burma in 1944. That insignia
consisted of a yellow tiger inside a blue triangle. If he was part of the
26th, there were 13 battalions of Gurkhas with the 14th Army so he would
most certainly have had the honour of serving with them.
HAA stands for Heavy Anti-Aircraft, but the W/Bdr rank is new to me.
Bombardier is the RA equivalent of Corporal, and the next senior rank is
Sergeant - and the photograph does show him wearing the three chevrons of

a

Sergeant.