Wingaba Buddha Rangoon location query.

Matt,

thank you again for your dedicated contributions to this thread. There are many different versions of the "Japs gone" photograph as several aircraft flew over Rangoon before it fell in May 1945. I have a photograph taken by a Flight Lieutenant Townsend, possibly of 99 Squadron, taken on 3rd May that clearly shows the, "Japs gone" and "Extract digit" messages and slit trenches in the exercise yard. The aircraft was making a supply drop as parachutes are visible. There are also groups of PoWs on the stair cases,

 

Fantastic detective work from you all...should have gipone for a look when we were there!

 

Here is my Rangoon Jail photograph which ideally needs to be scanned rather than photographed. There is a lot of detail in the photograph and the prisoners clearly have access to the prison compound.

 

I agree with zahonado, this thread has moved along nicely. And, when I read the new additions to it this morning, the subject of the Burma campaign was responsible for five of the most recent thread posts. Good to see.

 

Simon,

I'm familiar with this photo...but yours is by far the best resolution version I've seen...and the only one to include the marginalia. It's Liberator "M" of 99 Sqn, piloted by F/Lt Townsend. This was one of three Libs to drop supplies to the POWs below that day. 159 Sqn's EV981 "D", skippered by P/O R. Lee, and 356 Sqn's EW175 "A", skippered by W/O Roy Collier, were the other two. The full serial of "M" is a bit of a mystery; the 99 Sqn Operations Record Book does not clarify this at all.

Many thanks for your postings! Quite fascinating, isn't it, to see men on the ground, knowing that they could taste freedom once again.

Cheers,

Matt

 

Matt,

thank you for the information regarding the Townsend photograph. I also have a similar one from the Lee sequence.

I have just thumbed through my copy of the Rats of Rangoon and Lionel Hudson mentions the supply drop of the 3rd May thus, "Then out of the afternoon haze, a B 24 loomed up large on a bombing run heading straight for the gaol. The bomb-bay doors swung open with purpose and hearts stopped. 'Christ! He's going to bomb us.' The arm of the American alongside me froze half-way as he raised it to wave. Nobody dived for cover. We just stood and gaped, feeling sick in the stomach. So this was to be the end to the last four incredible days. Our desperate efforts to identify ourselves as allies had failed. Two days ago the Mosquito had blown a hole in the wall. This heavy bomber load would be different. It was..... 22 containers packed with "K" rations and one with medical supplies gently lowered into the gaol and adjoining streets by parachute. At last. The time: 2.30 p.m. on May 3".

 

I thought that I would add this photograph from the IWM collection to this thread rather than start another one. I have seen the photograph many times but the fact that the roof has part of the "Japs Gone" message visible has passed me by.

The photograph is numbered SE/3992 and has the caption, "Group photograph of liberated prisoners of war left behind by the retreating Japanese, 3rd May 1945".



This is an overview of main gate of the Rangoon Jail showing the location of the POW photograph.

 

Always good to see these photos. There are at least two Chindits in the group image from Rats of Rangoon and used again in other books.

This image has been offered on line recently, which is a new one for my records, but on the same theme:

 

I have not seen that particular photograph before and it is obviously the same building as in my photograph, do you know when it was taken? As it seems to have been taken from too low an angle to be part of the 3rd May 1945 aerial sequence, it was probably taken from a tall building on the other side of the road.

 

It is on our favourite auction site:

1945 MR Rangoon Burma Central Jail POW Camp Japanese Gone Sign 8x10 Photo | eBay