3rd battalion 9th Gurkha Rifles 3/9 GR

I've spent the past several years researching the history of the 3rd battalion 9th Gurkha Rifles 3/9 GR

I've been fortunate to gather a good deal of material, working with veterans of 3/9 GR including the families of Mike Bates, Geoffrey Jackson, Scott Leathart and Bill Towill,, as well as consulting with the 9th Gurkha Rifles Regimental Association GRRA, Gurkha Museum in Winchester and military historians. However, I'd like to find out more about the battalion's deployment to Java Netherlands East Indies NEI from October 1945 through April 1946. Most published sources cover this period only briefly, and I'm keen to fill in the detail.

What I'm looking for:
Letters, diaries, photographs, sketches, or personal accounts from anyone who served with the 3/9 GR in Java during this period. Any first-hand material, however small, helps build a fuller picture.

Individuals of particular interest:
Lt. Colonel Alec Harper ·
Tim Hatton ·
Major Michael Drinkall ·
Bertie Lane ·
Major Butch Passmore ·
Captain Jim Vicary ·
Major Reggie Twelvetrees

I also noticed that Steven Smele’s son (from the 3/9th) responded in a forum. If anyone has any more information regarding them, please let me know.

If any of those names are familiar, through a family connection, a regimental association, or another thread here, I'd be grateful to hear from you.

Any contribution will be credited and treated with respect. I'm also happy to share what I've gathered so far with anyone who's interested.

 

Mironic has posted elsewhere (edited):

There is a thread on 3/9th in Burma. See: 3/9th Gurkhas in Burma 1945

If you search here using the simple, one word search option (top right) with Surabaya, approx. x50 threads are id'd and you should be able to see from the summary for those on the British-Indian role in the DEI.

A similar search with Indies will identify a number of threads (most refer to the DEI) and this could be helpful, especially TijgerB (a Dane IIRC). See: British Indian Army in Dutch East Indies

An online search with: "3/9 Gurkha Rifles" site:ww2talk.com id'd a few threads here. Tried "3rd/9th Gurkha" site:ww2talk.com didn't like it, so too many replies, so you'd have to skim the results.

Have you seen the book: 9 Gurkha Rifles - A Regimental History 1817-1947. Gets a mention in: Post 17 Brigadier James Ronald (Jumbo) MORRIS, DSO*, Gurkha Rifles

Book fully id'd by our Indian Army expert in Post 1, as: 26th Indian Infantry Division - Monsoon Operations - May-Oct 1943 26th Indian Infantry Division - Monsoon Operations - May-Oct 1943

Back to your list of officers I checked those with unusual surnames only:

Individuals of particular interest:
Lt. Colonel Alexander Harper aka Alec ·NT CWGC Obituary in: Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Harper
Tim Hatton ·NT CWGC
Major Michael Drinkall ·NT here & CWGC
Bertie Lane ·NT CWGC
Major Butch Passmore ·NT here & CWGC
Captain Jim Vicary ·NT here & CWGC
Major Reggie Twelvetrees See Post 303 in: Long Range Penetration Group - From the Indian Archives NT & CWGC

There are a few members whose focus is on the Chindits, so they may be along.

Try this site for the listed officers: Officers of the Indian Army 1939-1945 -- A

This thread may help: Japanese forces under British command in Java, late '45 (novel)

It also id'd the 3/9th were part of 23rd Indian Infantry Brigade, though only for July to August 1945. See: 23rd Indian Infantry Brigade - Wikipedia and 5th Infantry Division (India) - Wikipedia I have not researched the units here or online.

Yes, Wiki has it's faults.

Have you tried the Oral History Collection at the IWM? The indexing is a little awkward.

Steven Smele’s son posted here once in Post 6 on 3/12/2024, no additional info was posted. See: 3/9th Gurkhas in Burma 1945

Slightly puzzled 3/9th were still in Java in November.

I will send a PM alerting him to your post, asking them to return and help. A reply depends on the email address given when registering is still valid and they are motivated to help.

PM explanation

If you hover over the name of the member in their avatar it will show a new text box and within is the date of their last logged visit. Some members "flag" their interest in a thread, which means they get a system alert. Once you have posted five times - a measure to stop spam - you can send a private message (PM) to members using 'Start a private conversation' accessed via your avatar. Such messages depend on their email given at registration is still valid. You can receive and reply to a PM already.

 

Hi, welcome to the forum.

Alec Harper wrote a book, "Horse and Foot - the story of a cavalry subaltern", about his military service. Probably not very easy to find but if you need some specific info from it, I can take photos of pages and send it to you. Also have Scott Leathart's book "With the Gurkhas", who also served in the 3/9th Gurkha Rifles, if I am not wrong. Some war diaries of battalions are available online on abhilekh-patal website, like those from May - Dec 1945. You will need to create account to access it, but if you have issues I can help you with it.

Good luck with your research.

 

Thank you very much for your extensive post and for all this info David! Great to get all these tips! I have indeed checked the IWM and have a few interviews of the 3/9. I also have 9 Gurkha Rifles - A Regimental History 1817-1947.
I will go over all the links to see if I didnt miss anything.

Cheers!

 

Thank you, Sol!

I indeed have the book from Leathart and Harper. I did try to find Harpers second book: More Horse and Foot (2002). But have never seen it. Did you?

I didn't know about abhilekh-patal website! I'll have a look, very curios what they have.

Cheers!

 

I wasn't even aware of it, I guess it is about his life after ww2. I guess it is published in very limited edition as I could'n find any mention of it on internet apart from his obituary and wikipedia page.

 

I am probably the one in this forum who has done most on Java in the mentioned period

Unfortunately I have no personal papers but I do have the wardiary if that is of any help

According to my database they lost 13 men while on Java.

 

Thank you for your response. Yes makes sense.

 

Thank you! Are these from National Archives from the UK? I should have these. But it would be interesting to compare!

 

Hi, have you tried the Indian National Archives? They've uploaded tens of thousands of documents over the past 12 months.

If you want to use their documents, you'll need to contact them. From a very quick look at my Chindit nominal roll, I have entries for Twelvetrees and Passmore:

bamboo43 cjd_101 may be able to help further. cjd_101 has plenty of experience navigating around the Indian National Archives.

Best of luck.
John.

 

Hi Mironic,
As Sol and John have said, the War Diaries for 3/9 GR have been digitized and uploaded onto the Indian Archives site - they have the diaries that cover May-Dec 1945, Jan-Jul 1946 and Aug 1946 - Jun 1947.
Happy Reading!
Col

 

I can offer the battalion war diaries (all from TNA) for 1944, 1945 and 1946, but it looks like you have these already.

 

I feel confidend I have both. Often the Indian file have the attachments. I have attached my Excel on known files in the British archives.

 

Thanks. Quite a lot there. Including the official spelling for the port city where the worst fighting took place: Sourabaya

This file refers to the DSO for Lt. Col. Harper: WO 373/92/5

That is the only member of 3/9th who gets a mention.

 

Wow, thank you so much again that everyone is so helpful, what a wonderful community!

Hopefully in the weekend I have more time to explore the Indian Archives, that is a great discovery. Thank JohnG505, cjd_101

TijgerB - wow that's an extraordinary list! Thank you so much for sharing! It will probably take me a while to go through this lol.

bamboo43, Thanks for the offering! There's always a chance to miss folders. Thanks to the file of TijgerB I get a better overview. Do you perhaps have a list like this as well?

davidbfpo, thanks, yes I have WO 373/92/5. Regarding the name Sourabaya, there are about 5 different ways to spell it lol

 

Yeah I miss 40 files then I have them all in my collection

Another gold mine is the Dutch archives "Gurkha" give 174 hits. And much of it is online free to download

2.22.21 Inventaris van de digitale collectie 'Afscheid van Indië' 1940-1962 | Nationaal Archief

 

Hi Mironic,

I have an Excel with all the war diaries listed for the South East Asia theatre held at the National Archives in London. This was complied by another member on the forum Drew5233

 

Thank you! I'll take a look!

 

Thank you very much!

 

I am the researcher of Miron’s documentary: You mentioned WO 203/2255: NEI Situation Report 1945 Oct-Dec. Based on Richard McMillan's book, The British Occupation of Indonesia 1945–1946, research was conducted into the SitReps of all military units within the 123rd Brigade, involved which were the spearpoint the Battle of Surabaya starting on 10 November 1945.

It is noted that a Gurkha involved in a rescue operation at Kalisosok Prison was deadly wounded. However, upon examining the SitRep for the 3/9 Gurkha Rifles (GR) in WO 203/2255, no mention of this casualty was found. Moreover the rescue operation was even mentioned.

My question is: where can I find any specific operation reports or after-action reports regarding such kind of special missions that might contain details about this specific casualty ?