No 75 O.T.U. North Africa.

[ukpobrien31]

Afternoon All,

I'm new to this forum, so a big hello to everyone.

Folks, I'm going out on a limb here when I say that I need your help. Mind you people have been telling me that for years but that's another story!

Since I announced to friends and colleagues that I was working on my own World War 2 themed website, a lot of people have been very forthcoming with information regarding their own family or friends who served during that period.

As you can imagine, each story that has been told to me is as diverse as each person that served, be it in whatever capacity and wherever he or she served. As much as I want to collate every bit of information, as I'm sure you will agree, it is just impossible to do so on my own. It also means that my subject field widens and grows into something more than I can cope with, so rather than going off at a tangent, I'm trying to keep myself grounded with 2 or 3 subjects to start with. (I guess it's a man thing, the in inability to multitask!)

However, once in a while something comes along that truly blows your socks off, so to speak. A couple of months ago one of my colleagues was telling me about his father. Again he had heard about my project and in a passing conversation one afternoon he mentioned that his father served in Africa around 1942. He said he had an album of photographs and that he would bring them in to show me.

As I say, that was a couple of months ago. Anyway, several weeks ago as I arrived at work, he came into the office and handed me a carrier bag. 'Here are those photos' he said. As you can imagine, I had no idea what to expect or what I was going to find out - very little as it turns out hence me writing this in the hope that some of you guys can help.

Obviously, the first thing I did was to start asking questions. I did ask if he was ok answering them, you know how it can be some times, I didn't want to dig into his past in case it was too overwhelming. However, he was more than happy so he told me what he could.

As I mentioned earlier, it turned out to be not that much, but I will share what he did tell me. My colleague's name is David Brearley; he was born in 1952. His father's name is Thomas Brearley and was born in Halifax, Yorkshire. Unfortunately, Dave never knew his father as he passed away when Dave was a mere 1 years old. He was in his early fifties when he passed. Dave also has no idea about who is father served with or in what capacity. His mother gave the album of photographs to Dave when he was 20 years old. The only connection Dave has to his father is through this truly amazing collection of some 30+ photographs.

It must be said that other than his own family and close friends, I am the first 'outsider' to see these photographs since they were taken, some 63 years ago. Dave has kindly given me permission to borrow the photographs and to scan them. This has now been completed and published on my website.

Fortunately, a lot of the photographs have an inscription either on the page below where the photographs are stuck or, in some cases, there is an inscription on the back. In this instance I have scanned both front and back of the photo.

This is what I am able to collate so far. They all appear to have been taken in North Africa around 1942. Several names keep popping up, Palestine, Kebritt, El Adem (airfield), Gianaclis, Tokra Pass, Tobruk, the Western desert, the Lybian border, Cairo, Tel Aviv, Kasfareet, Alexandria, Sweet Water Canal, Port Said, Heliopolis, Neusa Gardens. It must be noted that I am not sure of the correct spelling as yet, I am merely writing them as they are currently written in the album!

There are clues to be had. A couple of the photos show a group of men huddled in a typical football line up. The inscription below them reads '75 OTU'. There are several photos taken in a British Military Cemetery which appears to be called Mersa Matruh. There are group photos of men, single photos of men, location photos, vehicle convoy photos, photos of destroyed vehicles and planes, photos of captured and intact tanks and artillery, etc.

As I say it is an amazing collection of photographs that both Dave and myself are desperate to know more about. If anyone is interested, then I will post the photographs on my website as soon as possible.

In the meantime, if anyone is able to help in whatever capacity or at least point me in the right direction, then any and all help is gratefully appreciated.

If anyone is interested to view the results of my research efforts so far, you can do so by clicking on the following link:
http://www.pobrien.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/campaigns.html

Regards,

Patrick.

[Sprey]

ukpobrien31

You may find this site interesting.

http://britishsoldierww2.bravehost.com/index.html

Cheers.

[ukpobrien31]

Hi Sprey,

Funny you mention this website. Andy Bystram is a good friend. We are both members of the Wild Bill Guarnere Forum - you ought to check it out, it's a fantastic website. Several veterans sharing their stories, many of them mentioned on Andy's website also.

Regards,

Patrick.

[harry hackedoff]

Welcome aboard Mr O`Brien
Good effort with the phots mate, trully amazing. I would point you at the Imperial War Museum who are always interested and, really, they should be your first port of call.
Bro-in-law of mine had a similar experience with the old carrier bag of phots. He didn`t realise what they were, just some phots of various coastal towns taken from the water he thought. As soon as I saw them I knew straight away what they were. RAF photo-recce of all the invasion beaches and particularly Gold Juno and Sword taken from wave top height and about half a mile off shore. In some phots you can see lines of splash in the water from mgs and flakvierlings . At my suggestion, they now reside in the D-Day Museum.