Old Git Posted August 24, 2018 Share Posted August 24, 2018 Has anyone got a copy of "Royal Engineers Vocabulary of Stores, Group 4, Section 5, Sub-Section 4" which covers bridging and was published in early 1950's? Not necessarily looking to buy it, just want information from it and maybe a couple of digital photographs of relevant pages? It's not to be found in NAM: RE Museum / Library; IWM, or Kew. Have a query in with TICRE but thought I'd try here also, just on the off-chance. Anyone at all? Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fv1609 Posted August 24, 2018 Share Posted August 24, 2018 Do you know the WO Code No and/or the WO Registry Code? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Git Posted August 24, 2018 Author Share Posted August 24, 2018 I'm afraid not, can try hunting for it though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fv1609 Posted August 24, 2018 Share Posted August 24, 2018 It is as well to have it & defines the document precisely. A museum library ought to make use of those identifiers, that's how I catalogue my collection as nature intended. I'm away from home but I did buy direct the Catalogue of RE Stores in the 1990s, mind you it took over a year for them to process the order as my UIN at the time put me at I think Priority 8 which is as low as it can be! Would these things of interest still have been in service then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Git Posted August 25, 2018 Author Share Posted August 25, 2018 I doubt they'd still be in use by the 90's. REVoS replaced VAOS and was in turn replaced, eventually, by CREM and then we went all Ladidah-NATO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woa2 Posted August 25, 2018 Share Posted August 25, 2018 Try the REME Museum. They do have some of these stores books as I saw some while I was there, but I can't remember a bridging one. I strongly suggest you request a visit and search yourself and not just ask for help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Git Posted August 25, 2018 Author Share Posted August 25, 2018 Thanks for that, will certainly give it a try. I guess this is the voice of experience talking... Ever tried getting information out of NAM...like getting blood from a stone. Don't answer the phone and never, ever reply to emails! 2 hours ago, woa2 said: I strongly suggest you request a visit and search yourself and not just ask for help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Git Posted August 28, 2018 Author Share Posted August 28, 2018 On 8/24/2018 at 11:56 PM, fv1609 said: It is as well to have it & defines the document precisely. A museum library ought to make use of those identifiers, that's how I catalogue my collection as nature intended. I'm away from home but I did buy direct the Catalogue of RE Stores in the 1990s, mind you it took over a year for them to process the order as my UIN at the time put me at I think Priority 8 which is as low as it can be! Would these things of interest still have been in service then? Just received a note from the Australian National Archives, who do not have a copy either, but they've been able to give me the WO Number for it, WO 6386. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAFMT Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 On 8/24/2018 at 11:56 PM, fv1609 said: It is as well to have it & defines the document precisely. A museum library ought to make use of those identifiers, that's how I catalogue my collection as nature intended. Indeed. As a little bit of inside information/insight, the large percentage of the RAF Museum's AP collection came direct from the MoD reference library. It all arrived in (pretty much) AP number order and took a long time for the whole lot to be listed on a spreadsheet. This is the only reason we are able to find one with just a title or subject. If NAM haven't been able to completely list their lot then WO number is probably a good bet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Git Posted August 29, 2018 Author Share Posted August 29, 2018 (edited) Quote he large percentage of the RAF Museum's AP collection came direct from the MoD reference library Interesting comment this, in as much as I actually rang the MOD main switchboard number this morning and asked if they could put me through to the MOD's Librarian/Archivist. I was asked which Base, to which I replied Whitehall. Only to be told , we have no listing for that. Common Sense tells that the MOD, at Whitehall, should have a reference Library/ Archivist but as there's no mention of this on their website and the receptionist didn't seem to know of one either then how is one supposed to get through to them. I suppose the opacity of 'Open Government' is neither as contradictory, nor surprising, as it sounds! Just off now to put "MOD Reference Library" into Google to see what happens...! Failing that does anyone have any contact details for the reference library! EDIT: As suspected it turns up next to nothing, in fact Google returns only one, truncated, page of hits. .....and whilst the last entry on this page looks intriguing I think I shall have to give it a miss as it sounds too much like the typical Russian Hacker Honey-trap. Edited August 29, 2018 by Old Git Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAFMT Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 Considering the amount of AM/RAF material that made it's way to the RAFM, I wouldn't be surprised to find that budget cuts have taken their toll 🙄 Does the army have a historical branch in the vein of the Air Historical Branch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MatchFuzee Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 (edited) From 2013 but still interesting reading:- https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/06/ministry-of-defence-files-archive Edited August 29, 2018 by MatchFuzee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Git Posted August 29, 2018 Author Share Posted August 29, 2018 Can't believe, that in a society of red meat eaters, someone actually posted a link direct to the bleating heart of the Guardian 😖 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Git Posted August 29, 2018 Author Share Posted August 29, 2018 (edited) Just turned up an email address for the Army Historical Branch, thanks for that RAFMT, sometimes it just needs a different set of eyes! I've now fired off an email to thm asking if there is a complete repository of old WO publications and where I can access them. Let's see what happens! Edited August 29, 2018 by Old Git spolling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAFMT Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 I'll be honest, i didn't get far with the Gurniad article, but all I can do is speak from experience, and it took myself and two colleagues the better part of two years to go through a backlog of around 100 files. And we didn't need to examine each one page by page in case there was sensitive material in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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