WW2 Netherlands Forces FPO 617 Card

[Peter Harvey]

Any thoughts on this one would be appreciated. Tried to research, but struggling to pin down any details:

Nov 1945 card to Holland OAS - FPO 617 which Proud locates in Northern Ireland this date, moving to German late in 46.

The sender gives his address as:

H.R. Van der Hoef
Col 3706 Team X1
RNIA NRC
Maidenhead

It is very interesting, do we have any Dutch members with a WW2 collecting interest?

[Michael Dobbs]

Peter

I don't know where Proud got his Northern Ireland and Nuremburg Germany locations from.

Unattributed FPO locations WW2 show the following:

4 Jun 1942 - 3 APDC Crewe
18 Sep 1943 - transferred to 1 APDC
5 Feb 1946 - with 1 APDC
21 Sep 1948 - S/P only returned HPC RE? ex 1 APDC (S/P = sealing press)

1 APDC (Army Postal Distribution Centre) was located in London.

I have a record of 22 FE 46 with handstamp DAPS (John Daynes records) which appears to tie in with the datestamp return of 5 Feb 1946 above (i.e. London).

I don't have access to Alistair Kennedy's WW2 record cards - who does?

Mike  :)

[Peter Harvey]

Hi Mike,

I would never have described as Ireland.... Around with his HPD dates and date in the UK is often incorrect (infuse Wiki has more accurate info).

So thank you. I was more interested in the Unit initials and any thoughts on these.

Peter

[Nick Colley]

Well, only the obvious thoughts, really, stated below more in the hope of keeping the thread going by provoking other thoughts than contributing anything useful.

I would imagine at least one, maybe both, of the Rs mean 'Royal'. Come to think of it, though, that might not be the case: the Dutch for 'Royal' is Koninklijk.

Likewise, one, or perhaps both, of the Ns presumably stand(s) for Netherlands.

The rest of the address uses unfamiliar terms: Col 3706 - maybe his rank & serial number? Odd to present it on a separate line, though? Team XI means nothing to me.  Have you tried looking for an OrBat of the Dutch Army on the interweb?

chrs
N

[Michael Dobbs]

I wonder if this might have something to do with the Dutch Royal family?  I have found the following reference to Maidenhead:

Soon Wilhelmina also searched for a house, where she would live with her son-in-law Prince Bernhard. Their first address was 82 Eaton Square in Belgravia, London. From the balcony of her living room she had a good view on Eaton Square with its trees. She wouldn't live there very long, and soon found herself a house in Roehampton, outside London. Especially during the Blitzkrieg in the Summer 1940 she prefered Eaton Square above Roehampton. [b]In October 1940 Prince Bernhard found them Stubbings House near Maidenhead[/b]. The London office moved to nearby 77 Chester Square, where a small memorial plaque on the wall still commemorates the past of the house. Wilhelmina moved from Stubbings House to The Grange near South Mimms, which was however too close to some airports and became too dangerous. She [b]in early 1944 moved back to Stubbings House [/b]and to Laneswood in Mortimer near Reading at Easter 1944, where she stayed until May 1945.

The only reference to RNIA I can find is to Royal Netherlands Indies Army

This link appears to provide a list of historic locations in the UK used by the Dutch - but does not help much in your search:
[url=https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj-0ZTPw8btAhVkzoUKHdeGDxAQFjALegQIBBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.netherlandsworldwide.nl%2Fbinaries%2Fen-nederlandwereldwijd%2Fdocuments%2Fpublications%2F2016%2F12%2F06%2Fen-8-nov.pdf%2Fen-8-nov.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0Hjzd1h00OczhDUy8mhOVS]https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj-0ZTPw8btAhVkzoUKHdeGDxAQFjALegQIBBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.netherlandsworldwide.nl%2Fbinaries%2Fen-nederlandwereldwijd%2Fdocuments%2Fpublications%2F2016%2F12%2F06%2Fen-8-nov.pdf%2Fen-8-nov.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0Hjzd1h00OczhDUy8mhOVS[/url]

A bit of a mystery - I hope someone can help!

Mike