Well i still havent read The Red Dragon yet :( .
On a brighter note i have been in touch for the past few weeks with Bob Cook who is the curator of the Kohima Museum at Imphal Barracks,York.The museum is specificaly for the battle of Kohima & Imphal.
What a lovely and very helpful man!!!
He told me some info about the battle etc and then photocopied the 1 RWF war diary for this battle plus a map with all the places on and posted it to me (received it today).All for the cost of the postage (i will ofcourse be sending a donation along with the postage).I got his name & email addy off the burma star ass site.
So if anyone needs any info to do with this battle then this is definatly the man to speak to.
Gona sit and start reading them later when the kids are in bed.Yayyyy,i will finaly be able to start plotting the map soon. :)
Hey Shaz, any chance of a copy of the war diary stuff please. It would be a useful addition to our site and allow all of our members to read about 1RWF's actions in the Kohima battle. Im sure we could find a location for it.
Hey Al,long time no chat!
My dads skanked the war diary at the mo (typical!) but i should hopefully be getting them back Friday at the latest.
Was gona ask when i got them back if i could email you a copy so they could be put in the vault or somewhere as future reference for anyone else thats interested.
I skimmed through them briefly and they really made me realise what such a hard time they had out there.Cant wait to read it all properly but got a feeling it will bring a tear to my eye.
Will let you know when i get them back.
Shaz :)
Al,have sent the first half of war diarys to you.Just attaching 2nd lot to email now then will send it.
Ive only read part of the diaries so far but they have really made me realise what those brave fellows (my grandad included) went through.Life was sooo hard for them,i can now understand why people say that it was one of the worst battles in WW2!!
When Al puts the diaries on the forum they are def worth a read even if you dont know anyone that was in the battle of Kohima.
Iv got a question,does anyone know how i can find out what coy my grandad was in?The diaries mention different coys and i couldnt see anything on my grandads service record.
Shaz :)
Hello All,
I mentioned the interest in the Burma campaign to Windsor- Robinson on our last meeting. He states it is difficult after so many years to place men who served in Burma by their names alone. he is firmly of the opinion that as much detail as possible is required.Such as name and last three and a nickname if possible plus as much detail of platoons and company info.Sorry but I did try as did Windsor.
Regards Don aka RBD
Hi Don,thanks for taking the time to mention it to Windsor- Robinson,its much apprechiated.
I only wish i would of listened better when my Grandad use to tell us stories of the war (which were few & far between).But being a girl i was more interested in playing with my Sindy dolls.lol.
The war diaries for the battle of Kohima are going to be a big help in understanding where he went and what he went through.
Bob Cook the curator of the Kohima Museum in York (who sent me the war diaries)has informed me that there is an annual rememberance service at York Minister for survivors of the Kohima Battle and their families,so i might go & see if anyone remembers my Grandad.
:)
Thanks for the Kohima Diaries Shaz, they will be a great asset. Although I havn't looked at them yet, they are quite large in file size. So Bob will make the decision as to the best way of displaying them.
I was based up at York In the early 90's, and attended the service at the Minster with many of the old veterans, and what a tale they could tell. Its unlikely that any RWF guys will attend, as they are very few in number, but I might be wrong. There are or was a couple of ex RWF living in the York area. One guy an officer called Demetriadi(later a Colonel) lived in York, and passed away a couple of years ago. His family may well still be living in the vicinity. He was heavily involved in the Burma Star Association, indeed his account of either Donbaik or Kohima was on the Burma Star website a few years ago.
Attend the service, you just never know what will transpire.
I sat and read through the start of the diaries earlier and had to stop as they made me feel so sad & depressed.Reading them has really started to bring home what they all went through.
Hope Bob finds somewhere to put them so that others can read them because there really interesting and a great piece of history even if you didnt know anyone who was in that battle.
Thanks for the info about the memorial service,i think that if i dont go then my parents might.I know the chance of meeting an ex RWF is pretty slim as there arn't many veterans left at all now adays.Which is such a shame!
On a different note can anyone tell me the name of the officer that this says and also what the writing outlined in red says as im trying to find out what coy my grandad was in and wondered if this had any relevance as it mentions A.Plus if we could read the officers name it might help us abit.
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