The one in the picture is the 'War Medal' for WWII.
The War Medal was awarded to all fulltime personnel of the armed forces wherever they were serving, provided they had served for at least 28 days between 3 September 1939 and 2 September 1945.
The Defence Medal was awarded for non-operational service. This type of service in the UK included those service personnel working in headquarters, on training bases and airfields and members of the Home Guard. The Medal was also awarded for non-operational service overseas, for example in India or South Africa.
The 1939–45 Star was awarded for any period of operational service overseas between 3 Sep 1939 and 8 May 1945 (2 Sep 1945 in the Far East). The criteria are 180 days’ service between these dates, although some special criteria apply when just 1 days’ service is required, such as being killed....
I emailed the RWF museum at Caernarfon Castle yesterday on behalf of my mum to enquire how much it would cost for a copy of the war diaries to be sent.
I know they charge £15 for first hour then £5 for every 15mins after that.If its too dear i dont think she will bother though but would be great if she did then i could post them on here!!
Shes also managed to source The Red Dragon book so shes also waiting for that to arrive.I might be able to get abit further on the map plotting once iv sat & read it and once iv found a map with all the places on,lol!
If you go onto the Burma Star website they have battle maps from Burma etc. They also have 1940's mapping for the Kohima area, and this shows many of the villages South of Kohima that Reginald would have fought and passed through on route to Imphal.
Red Dragon is excellent, and paints a vivid picture of their experiences. I won't quote anymore from that book, as you will discover much yourselves.
I had another look through Reginalds war records,(a portion attached). It appears in 1945 he was posted to Headquarters 45 Beach group. Its possible that is where the picture was taken, equally it could have been at a convelesence unit, although there are no nurses shown. The picture is a mixed group of individuals from different units with a couple of officers, so perhaps a Headquarters!
The final entry on his record shows the detail "LIAP", I beleive this refers to Leave granted to him whilst in India.
He may have also spent sometime in Singapore Military Hospital in 1945, but that is partially guess work, and again that may be the picture location.
Iv been on the burma star website before and got the main map of india/burma.Im going to have a look in a mo at the other maps (didnt realise there was more,thanx for the tip off Al).
Id hoped the RWF museum would of replied by now :( .Bet theyd want a fair bit for copies of the war diaries as would take quite a while to copy them all,so not sure if mum will get them.Really hope she does tho!!!
My brother found The Red Dragon on Amazon,costs £35 inc postage so not as dear as i expected (mind you,they had 1 for £52 which was in better condition).Cant wait to get my grubby paws on it,lol.
Will let you know when i get a reply from the museum (hopefully soon),and thanks for all your help so far!!!
:)
Originally Posted by flumpit2
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