Burma village locations/spelling sought

Discussion in 'Burma & India' started by mikky, Jun 2, 2019.

  1. mikky

    mikky Member

    Any experts on the Burma . I'm trying to track the movements of Flight Lieutenant Kenneth MacVicar "B"Flight, 28 Squadron, as he tried to evade his Japanese pursuers, after having been forced to crash-land. In his book "The Wings of the Morning" temp MacVicar SQ7545.PNG he says [22/12/1944 while on a reconnaissance Pyingyiang-Ye-U road marked yellow on screenshots] he crash-landed at 10.35 a.m., near village of KINBIN. The 28th Squadron diary says "at approximately SQ7545"


    Proceeded north one hour - then - Natives took him about two miles along a track which led to the Pyingyiang - Ye-U Road [marked yellow on screenshots]. They led the way to the village of TAUNGYAUNG arriving there at approximately 4.00 p.m. HAD TO FLEE JAPANESE - the natives took him through cultivated areas to a village on the Sipadon Chaung. Again ran into Japanese who searched for him for about an hour - hid until darkness fell. Crossed Sipadon Chaung to its northern bank slept there for a few hours.


    23/12/1944 Set off on a north-west course and after about two hours, again ran into Japanese and ran. Proceeded on his north-west course all day.


    24/12/1944 Passed without incident and he continued his north-west course all night long during the moon period.


    25/12/1944 Decided to alter course and proceed in a westerly direction until midday.


    26/12/1944 Early hours of the morning he came upon a village [had food] continued on his course util midday. The going became so bad that he had to take up a south-westerly course along a Chaung bed. At 4.00 p.m. that day he heard our own guns firing and had just reached the main Sipadon Chaung just south of "Watyyoa" [I think probably Wainggyo?] -necessary to hide in the jungle at the side of the river.


    27/12/1944 Wednesday All through the next day had to lie low while our own artillery shelled the position he was in. At midday British tanks came round the bend in the Sipadon Chaung, unable to contact them owing to the presence of Japanese About 5.00 p.m. jeeps and infantry advanced up the chaung. He waved his white scarf at one of the jeeps, the occupants of which came up to him. They were members of an R.A. unit- then to headquarters, 2nd Division at Pyingyiang.


    Does anyone know exactly where location SQ7545 is?


    Correct spelling and location of TAUNGYAUNG


    Correct spelling and location of WATYYOA


    Cheers Mike
     

    Attached Files:

  2. mikky

    mikky Member

    Attached an image of the area from google earth, and a Kmz file of the area centred on Kinbin.

    Mike
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Jun 3, 2019
  3. PackRat

    PackRat Well-Known Member

    Possibly Taunggyaung (with a double G). Seen at the top of this map, north-east of Kinbin:

    Shwebo.jpg

    This comes from a US army map, available in hi-res from here:

    Burma AMS Topographic Maps - Perry-CastaƱeda Map Collection - UT Library Online
    http://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/burma/burma_key_map.jpg

    Relevant maps are NF 46-4 Wuntho & NF 46-8 Shwebo - his journey appears to straddle the two. Taunggyaung is at the very centre top of the Shwebo map, and the Sipadon Chaung is at the very bottom of the Wuntho map.

    I'm not much good at reading maps, but these US Army maps appear to be using the same grid refs (certainly the quadrant of interest is marked 'SQ' so seems to fit). It may be possible to work out exactly where SQ7545 is from these.
     
    Rothy, timuk and bamboo43 like this.
  4. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Well done PackRat. I spent a few minutes last night trying to pin these places down, but although I got on to the Wuntho map, sleep got the better of me. :)
     
    PackRat likes this.
  5. PackRat

    PackRat Well-Known Member

    Cracking maps these - I'm not sure who originally posted a link to the collection here on the forum but they've proved invaluable time and again when following a war diary or personal account.

    Thinking about it logically (not my strong point...) SQ7545 appears to be the centre point of the grid sitting between Taunggyaung and Kinbin. If the pilot says he went down somewhere near the village of Kinbin, that map ref matches up well as an approximate location for the war diary entry.
     
  6. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    I've been using them for a long time now. Crops appear all over my website to illustrate many stories. I contacted the University a while ago and they agreed usage, as long as I gave them a definitive credit, which I have done.
     
    PackRat likes this.
  7. mikky

    mikky Member

    Many thanks indeed PackRat and bamboo43 . That is a very useful map and will try pinpoint the villages on google earth.

    Excellent.

    Mike
     
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2019
  8. mikky

    mikky Member

    Could you give me a link to these maps pleease, they're grrrrrrreat.

    Mike

    Edit. Sorry, I see the link now
     
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2019
  9. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

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  10. mikky

    mikky Member

    With your help and the help of the other (satellite image) site, I have identified the villages I need. The site allows you to input village names and will find most of them, it's then a matter of matching them up to google earth and marking them with pins. Thank you all very much indeed for your help.



    Mike
     

    Attached Files:

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