In World War II I would guess soldiers or units had maps, but I am sure soldiers would get genuinely lost.
Were they expected to join another unit until they made contact with their unit or could go to headquarters or something else? Would you be expected to just search until they found their unit? Or were they expected to do something else?
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So I don’t have a specific example in mind, typically in the documents I’ve seen, rejoining a unit is a minor footnote. Having said that, I haven’t read a detailed account of the rejoining of a unit. What follows is informed conjecture based on a general understanding of British Army administration.
In the British army, the fighting troops were supported administratively by units of the Deputy Adjutant General (DAG). DAG handled things like nominal rolls, grave registration, dead and wounded papers, POWs, personnel replacements, etc — basically all the paperwork. DAG was part of the second line support that, along with the quartermaster general, supported the fighting forces.
What would likely happen is that you would bump into a unit, presuming that the unit that finds you isn’t directly adjacent to your unit (if they were, an informal ‘go that way’ would likely suffice), you would have to convince them you were friendly, etc. You might get arrested if you were suspected of deserting, or you might just be believed. The CO of the unit that found you would then likely contact DAG with your name, regimental number, and unit for instructions.
Meanwhile, at your unit, they’ll likely have discovered your absence. When this happens, they’ll advise DAG and DAG will start a paper trail — any time anyone goes missing, a board of inquiry was supposed to be convened to determine the cause.
When DAG gets word, they’ll likely make arrangements for you to rejoin your unit. As DAG is responsible for arranging personnel replacements, it would be quite simple for them to simply send you back to your unit with the next draft of replacements. Alternately, it would be easy to co-ordinate with the QMG to have you sent to your unit with the next round of supplies. Because your unit would be in regular communication with DAG, it’s also entirely possible for them to wait for someone from your unit to walk over and collect you. The choice would be based on the operational realities of the time.
Regarding your question of fighting with the unit that found you: it’s possible for short periods of time (a few hours or a day) but it likely would not last too long. The combat arms are generally in direct communication with their support services and, whilst It shouldn’t be too hard to scrounge food to feed one or two additional mouths, it’s still less than ideal. I’ve read of numerous cases where US airborne units were badly scattered during overlord leading to men from different units banding together however, these men typically rejoined their units as soon as possible.
You probably wouldn’t just roam around until you found your unit as it’s not very efficient. Moreover, so long as you’re not with your unit, the Army cannot use you. Finding a unit isn’t actually that difficult, there are officers whose job is to literally keep track of units. Once you find the army, moving you back to your unit is really just a matter of paperwork.
There’s a famous book called “The Clay Pigeons of St Lo” by Glover S Johns, which mentions (paraphrasing from memory, since I don’t have the book in front of me) that it was fairly common for a soldier to stumble into headquarters saying “My unit was overrun and I’m the only survivor!”
This almost always meant that the soldier had simply gotten lost and couldn’t find the rest of his unit. They would let him get a good night’s sleep and then send him back to where he was supposed to be.