My father, newly qualified as a doctor, went to India as a Lt in 1942 with the 68 regt of F.A. I found a letter addressed to him as a captain at 71 Field Ambulance, India Command, in 1943. I know he was in Burma, but I can find nothing about this unit or its escapades. I remember vaguely stories about being cut off, having no supplies, dividing up available medications between all present, and marching then canoeing down a river. Still later he was In Kashmir. His service number has about 6 people with the same one, and not him. RAMC records are very hard to track down as if they didn't exist.
I've applied, but I don't know how long it will take. His service number is correct, but does not come up with his name. Thank you!
I looked him up. He went from Captain to acting Major in the TA in 1954. His number is given and it is what I have searched. Just the one mention as far as I know. He is Denis Walker Mayman 221908.
Possibly 71 (Indian) Field Ambulance? It is mentioned a few times (pages 157, 158, 481, 490, 493, 504, 518 and 520) in The Army Medical Services Campaigns: Volume 5 Burma by F. A. E. Crew, which can be browsed or downloaded in full from the Internet Archive: The Army Medical Services: Campaigns: Volume 5 Burma (History of the Second World War United Kingdom Medical Series) : F A E Crew : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Here's a quick excerpt from that volume (pages 157-158), which places the unit in the Arakan in early 1944: You ideally need his service records to confirm the unit (and the dates he served with it). You can then get the unit war diaries from the National Archives - I think it will be this one from the Indian Field Ambulances sub-series: 71 Fd. Amb. | The National Archives War diaries are your best chance of getting detailed information and possibly confirming the stories. As he was an officer there is a good chance that he will be mentioned in them by name. Martin
Thank you so much. I know he was in the Arakan. Sounds about right. My mother said she heard nothing from him but kept writing. He got her letters later. I have applied for his papers. His war diaries were talking to us kids. I wish he had written them. The more I look for things the more I remember, like the song he sang which was the marching song that kept them all going through the jungle. In Hindi?
Not his diaries, the unit war diaries. They record, events, location, lists of officers etcetc See the blue link PackRat posted.
Ask Gary Tankard or Drew5233 . They can do it cheaper than TNA. I would wait until you know the dates your Dad was with them.
Here is his Burma Star Association membership form. Doesn't tell you much I'm afraid, other than he was a member I suppose.
I happened to be up at Kew yesterday with a spare slot in my last order of the day. Remembered this thread and requested the unit war diary of 71 (Indian) Field Ambulance (WO 177/2154) to have a look for your father. Only had enough time to quickly skim it and snap a couple of photos (attached below), but found enough evidence to confirm that it was definitely his unit. 'Mayman D. W.' is on the nominal roll of officers with the rank of Captain. If you have a look at the last diary entry for June 1943, he is named as heading a party assigned to pick up a batch of new ambulances. He might well be named elsewhere in the diary too but I only managed the most cursory flick through before my time ran out. However... it looks like he permanently left the unit at the end of January 1944 (see image showing 'Officers QUITTED during week'). The diary didn't appear to give any indication of where he transferred to, so his full service records will be crucial in determining which unit or role he went to next. Gives you a starting point at least. You might want to ask one of the chaps that Owen mentioned above to make a full copy of the unit war diary for you - at a very rough guess the full file was about 200 pages long. Martin
Wow! That's him. Thank you so much for taking the time to look him up. He was transferred out to a hospital in Rawalpindi I believe, suffering from malaria and an enlarged spleen. As far as I know he did not go back into the jungle but once recovered he became an "assistant surgeon" in Rawalpindi, then in Srinagar. I'll get my sister-in-law to send me what remains in her cellar (if she hasn't thrown it out) and see what else I can glean. Thank you, I'll consider the chaps!
Courtesy of Force War Records......they had his rank down as L/Cpl so I added a correction. Regards, John
Thank you: I can see his famous doctor writing where Capt looks like L/cpl. I have never been able to get anything out of Force War Records. You are a marvel!
