Hi all Trying to help a friend whose father served in the India Division of the above Regt. It is believed there troop ship was sunk off the coast of Africa possibly on the outbound journey though this is not certain. Can anyone help with this or another info regarding this division of the RWF. Many thanks
David Have you tried the Regimental Museum to see if they have any information on this incident. Also he needs to get his fathers service records from Glasgow that will tell him were and when his service happened, I believe they cost £30.00 and take about a year to appear. Post as much detail including name and rank so the members have information to work on.
It would not be a Division, it would be a Battalion. A regiment has several Battalions, a Division is a non-Regimental structure which consists of Battalions. It could well be 1st Battalion, do you have any more information? Equally, if the info is off it could be 6 (RW) Battalion Parachute Regiment.
Hello David, Off the net: there were two Battalions, deployed as follows: 1st Battalion The Royal Welch Fusiliers ??? 1939: Blackdown 6 Bde Sep 1939: France & Belgium 2 Inf Div, BEF Jun 1940: UK Mar 1942: India/Burma ??? 1945: India 2nd Battalion The Royal Welch Fusiliers Nov 1938: India: Lucknow Nov 1940: UK 29 Independent Bde Mar 1942: at sea 29 Bde, Force 121 (21st) Apr 1942: South Africa 29 Bde, Force 121 (22nd) Apr 1942: at sea 29 Bde, Force 121 (28th) May 1942: Madagascar 29 Bde, Force 121 (5th) Aug 1942: at sea (20th) Aug 1942: East Africa 29 Bde, Force 121 (26th) Sep 1942: at sea (5th) Sep 1942: Madagascar 29 Bde, Force 121 (10th) Oct 1942: at sea 29 Bde (16th) Oct 1942: South Africa 29 Bde (24th) Jan 1943: at sea (8th) Jan 1943: India 36 Inf Div (26th) ??? 1945: India So he could have been in either Battalion, but the 2nd looks more likley at present. I hope this assists... Best, Steve.
Hi Guys Many thanks for the response. Yes while the sinking of the troopship was indeed recalled from memory the rest of the meagre details are indeed from his Record of Service obtained from Glasgow, unfortuneately not to hand at this. moment. From what I have seen I agree completely with you Steve, its looking very much like the Second Division as there are a lot of references to Africa. I will try and post more info from the record this evening. Many thanks
I am 90% sure its First Battalion now, going off the following in pp42, 'Red Dragon' by John Graves and PK Kemp. "At Bombay a rumour that the ship carrying the Battalion transport had been lost at sea was confirmed. Sergeant Deane, one of the survivors, earned warm priase for the Regiment from the Chief Officer of the sunken ship for his great courage during forty hours sepent in a life boat. Not only was he of help in controlling the native crew, but was also able to sail the boat for several hours while the Chief Officer took some rest."
Hi and my father served briefly with 1 RWF and this is what he said in a tape done in 1997 which I have just listened to (and typed out for posterity). I have one or two questions afterwards if anyone can help me please: "shocking lines of communications improved a lot by the time I started down to join the 1st RWF who were on their way back from the front! Lucky again, you see. Because they were part of a all British 2nd Division[1], Crossfees (not sure what he says on the tape??) Division which had been trained in joint operations and part of which had taken Madagascar from the French and now, four of their battalions were in the Arakan and they’d been held up at a place called Donbiak and, in fact, my lot, and the Royal Scots in particular, suffered badly in a place slightly north called Indin and actually their Brigade headquarters had been overrun. The Brigadier, Brigadier Cavendish and his staff, all killed. So, four of us new officers reinforcements, joined the orderly retreat and eventually all the way back to India. We soon got back to Chittagong, which is just in India and boarded a lovely Dutch ferryboat. Conditions were perfect on board especially as you might imagine having been down at the front. They had good food, plenty of beer, and that beer was served in lovely glass tankards. Tankards have handles to them you know. Ah marvellous! But as we were all lined up to go ashore at Calcutta, the CO over the tannoy announced that there were three hundred tankards missing from the bar and nobody, no-one was going to get on shore until they were returned." My questions are: Can anyone tell me who replaced the 1RWF in the Arakan? Where were they based in India How many men did they loose at Indin? [1] There were three brigades in the division – 4th, 5th and 6th who had amongst there battalions: 1 Royal Scots, 1 Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders and 1 Royal Welch Fusiliers
Hi Murdo, this article may be of interest to you: http://www.robertgraves.org/issues/47/4968_article_6.pdf David Graves was with 1RWF in the Arakan - in the title photo you can see the crossed keys insignia described by Owen on his shoulder. From what you have typed up, it sounds like your father joined 1RWF at the point that 14th Indian Division was retreating back up the Mayu Penisula before (eventually) pulling out of Burma altogether, so 1RWF weren't really replaced by another unit (certainly not on the front line they had been holding at Donbaik). The battalion had suffered heavy casualties in an attempt to take the Japanese bunker line north of Donbaik on 18th March 1943 (where David Graves was killed). Shortly afterwards the Japanese 112th Infantry Regiment under Col Tanahashi cut in behind the troops on the Donbaik front, placing a roadblock north of Indin and encircling most of 6th Brigade Group. The Brigade narrowly managed to fight its way out in the 'Battle of Indin' (5th/6th April 1943), covered by smokescreens and concentrations from the supporting artillery. Had the Japanese been able to bring up their own mountain guns in time, or had the British artillery been incapable of covering the breakout so effectively, 6 Brigade would likely have been destroyed on the beach at Indin. 1 RWF casualties on March 18th alone were in excess of 150 all ranks. I don't have the numbers of casualties at Indin, but your father was certainly lucky to have been joining them on the way out rather than the way in.
HI and he said several times during the two 90 minutes tapes that he was very, very lucky all of the time! You are also right in assuming he joined them as they were on their way back to India in an "orderly retreat" but where to in India? He mentioned marvellous barracks whilst they were re-equipped. Many thanks for those figures and pretty horrific. I think he said the Royal Scots losses were even greater at Indin.
