David John “Danny” Evans
Signalman · #5781478 · T1 Patrol
| Rank | Signalman |
|---|---|
| Service number | #5781478 |
| Patrol | T1 Patrol |
| Known as | “Danny” |
What this roll records
THERE IS FILM OF A MAN WHO IS ALMOST CERTAINLY HIM, TALKING. The Second World War Experience Centre holds a recorded interview with SIGNALLER DAVID EVANS OF WATFORD, WHO VOLUNTEERED FOR THE LONG RANGE DESERT GROUP IN 1942, and has published a five-minute clip of it: his first sight of the Group in Cairo — “all this mob started showing up, beards, reading the paper, smoking, half-dressed and God knows what” — the rule “never give the officer a map”, and the soya sausages, of which he says “if the Germans had got hold of those, we’d have been finished in about a week”. WATCH THE CLIP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM_QfIJ41Pw (it is also listed on the Videos page of this site). WHY THIS ROLL THINKS IT IS THIS MAN, AND WHERE THE CASE IS WEAK. He is the ONLY David Evans on the roll. The trade agrees: signals in both. The date agrees: 1942. And the only other Signalman Evans here, Thomas Myrddin Evans #2356901, died a prisoner on 18 January 1943 and so cannot be a man interviewed half a century afterwards — he is excluded, not overlooked. AGAINST IT, AND SAID OUT LOUD: the service number. 5781478 falls in the ROYAL NORFOLK REGIMENT’s block, 5763001–5819000, where a Watford man might be expected to carry a Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire number, 5942001–5998000. Soldiers were often numbered outside their own county, and this is his pre-LRDG infantry number rather than a Royal Signals one — Royal Signals ran 2303001–2604000, which is precisely where Thomas Myrddin Evans’s number sits, so the blocks are being read correctly. IT IS A LOOSE END, NOT A REFUTATION, and it is left showing. A SERVICE NUMBER FROM THE SWWEC CATALOGUE WOULD SETTLE IT EITHER WAY. If anyone can supply one, or knows the family, please use the box below. Source: Second World War Experience Centre (SWWEC), interview clip “Long Range Desert Group — Rogue Heroes of WW2”, checked on the page itself 2 September 2026; service-number blocks per the Army Order 388 (1920) allocations.
See him in the full roll →Where this comes from
- Listed in the LRDG Preservation Society’s Troopers roll.
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Not By Strength But By Guile