A NEW project will allow people to find out more about the soldiers who served in the Royal Artillery during the Second World War.

The Royal Artillery Museum has completed a year-long project in partnership with Ancestry.com to publish the military and social history resource online for the first time.

The online resource will go live in time to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day today (May 8).

During the conflict, up to three million people served in the British Army, with one million in the Royal Artillery across 960 regiments.

Tracer cards were created as a way of keeping track of the movements of serving soldiers.

The small cards were like old-style library index cards and answered the question ‘where is that soldier right now?’ without the need to search through service records.

The tracer cards were updated by clerks trying to keep track of millions of soldiers serving across the globe. They include abbreviations, crossings out and even bad handwriting.

When a clerk ran out of space on a card, it would be thrown away and a new one started.

Held in the museum’s archive in Larkhill, the Royal Artillery tracer cards have been photographed and indexed by Ancestry’s digitisation team and can be searched online at Ancestry.co.uk by name and service number.

Royal Artillery Museum archivist Sian Mogridge said: “When people first embark on family history or historical research, they are often surprised by how little archive material has been digitised and made available online.

“It can be quite time consuming and expensive to copy delicate records. We are delighted that through our partnership with Ancestry.com our Royal Artillery Tracer Cards are now publicly available online and very fitting to be able to announce this great news in the week leading up to the 75th Anniversary of VE Day.

“These rich historical documents will provide a wealth of information for people wanting to know more about individual Gunners and their roles during the Second World War.”

Not all the tracer cards have survived but there are more than 300,000 cards from non-commissioned officers and gunners providing details about the individual and the regiments they served in.

Tracer cards provide the name, date of enlistment and service number of an individual, and give the regiment or battery they were posted to.

Among the tracer cards in the Royal Artillery collection are some recognisable names - Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe famously became friends when they served in the Royal Artillery in the Second World War.

The Royal Artillery Museum manages the collection on behalf of the Royal Artillery Historical Trust.

Plans have been mooted to build a new home for The Royal Artillery Museum at Avon Camp West near Netheravon. A planning application has yet to be submitted.

For more information go to royalartillerymuseum.com