Greek Sacred Band Medals and Paperwork to DA Read Greek Sacred Band Royal Corps Signals

Medals and Paperwork to DA Read Greek Sacred Band Royal Corps Signals 

A rare and interesting group of medals and numerous paperwork to Douglas Arnold Read 6087238 enlisted Royal Corps of Signals and so action with the Greek Sacred band. 

Medals: 1939-45 Star, Africa Star and 8th Army Bar, Italy Star, France and Germany Star, Defence Medal, 1939-45 War Medal and Greek sacred medal. 

Soldiers Pay Book with entries regarding completion of Parachute Course 1944, Appointed Lance Corporal 1945. Entitled to wear the badge of the Greek Sacred Regiment. Awarded Operational wings left breast. Awarded Mention in dispatches etc.

Saw service at Home 5-10-37 to 19-9-39. BEF 20-9-39 to 4-6-40 then Home 5-6-40 to 16-6-42. Middle East 17-6-42 to 7-3-46 (This is the time during the Greek Squadron) and Home 8-3-46 to 26-6-46.

20 pieces of paperwork including: Soldiers Service and pay book, Certificate of Service National insurance card and army related letters and personal

An album of personal sketches/drawings.

An original Sacred Squadron Cap Badge inc other items seen in the images

An excellent group with all the documents to back up.

A brief history of war service:

Douglas Arnold Read was born in Alverstoke, Hampshire in April 1920 and enlisted in the Royal Corps of Signals at Newport, Isle of Wight, in October 1937, direct from brief service as a Private in the Queen's Royal Regiment. As verified by accompanying documentation, he served in the B.E.F. from September 1939 until being evacuated in June 1940, and went out to the Middle East in June 1942, in which theatre of war he appears to have been actively employed until the end of hostilities.
Indeed it is clear from his original Soldier's Service and Pay Book that he was a qualified parachutist and a member of "Raiding Forces", most probably as a Wireless Operator - he completed No. 114 Parachute Course in April 1944, was awarded his 'operational wings, left breast' in February 1945, and was further entitled to wear the 'Badge of the Greek Sacred Regiment. The same source confirms he won a mention.

Most probably, therefore, he joined the Raiding Support.Regiment (R.S.R.) soon after it was established at the end of 1943, a call for parachute volunteers for 'duties of a hazardous nature' gaining around 3,000 applicants from 60 different regiments and corps. Over the coming months, its members assisted a number of clandestine units in operations in Albania, Greece, Italy and Yugoslavia - in Greece alone its men destroyed 17 bridges, blew up six roads, wrecked hundred of metres of railway line on 18 different occasions, shot up or derailed five trains, blew up five petrol / ammunition dumps, knocked out 150 vehicles, destroyed a dam and killed around 300 of the enemy. Read 's entitlement to wear the Badge of the Greek Sacred Regiment, a sister unit, is not without interest, for the R.S.R's "Foxforce" became embroiled in the Greek Civil War 1944-45, the British losing 250 troops in five weeks of bitter fighting against E.L.A.S. Discharged to the Army Reserve in the rank of Corporal in June 1946, he was serving as an Acting Warrant Officer in the 5th (Cadet) Battalion, Suffolk Regiment in the mid-1950s.