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8 Engineering Stores Base Depot
This unit will probably appeal more to the National Service sappers or those who are slightly more senior (I didn't say senile! Get your hearing checked, will you?) so if you can tell me anything about it to put here so that it helps others understand what the unit did, I'd be very grateful. Terry Dapp sent me this info-
8ESBD (Engineering Stores Base Depot) Fanara, Egypt. Seemed to be in existence in 1944, believed to be a WW2 ex prisoner of war camp, certainly had double fencing and mine warnings around the perimeter still in 1952. The tented camp was situated between the Treaty Road and the main railway line Port Said to Suez, the Depot was adjacent but between the railway and the Sweetwater Canal( a misnomer as everyone knows), with its own marshalling yard. Every type of RE equipment was stored here. The perimeter was shared on the south side with the RAF , which from memoy was 109 MU. According to the handover details to the Egyptian Government in 1955 it consisted of 91 acres of covered and 284 acres of open storage accommodation.
The C.O in 1952 was Lt Col 'Kim' Hargreaves.
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History of 8 Engineering Stores Base Depot
Hi though I am not a sapper (a medic) I had been doing some research on my grandfather on my mother's side who served as RE Driver in WW2 in Sicily and Italy. My grandfather got called up to serve with 175th Workshop and Park Company, RE as an RE Driver. He was wounded in action 22nd July 1943 in Sicily but recovered and back to his unit 175th Workshop and Park Company to serve in Italy. On 11th/ 12th August 1944 175th Workshop and Park Company became 8th Engineers Stores Base Depot based in Italy but uncertain which location (East or West Coast Italy). My grandfather was demobilized in August 1945.