6979011 LCpl John Wallace. 1st Bn Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. KIA Burma

Hi to all. I have details on LCpl John Wallace, know that he is buried in Rangoon Memorial Grave face No 11.
Casualty Details | CWGC

I am related to this soldier through my Mums side of the family.

I am also very proud to have his medals safe in my care.

Just wondering if anyone has photographs of Inniskillings in Burma, I know its very doubtful I will ever be capable to identify or see what John looked like. But theres always hope.

Also very interested in reading of the Inniskilling Fusiliers services in Burma if anyone has got information, web links ect.

All very much appreciated

Andrew.

 

Hi Andrew try the Burma star association ,lots of information on there ,

 

Hi Andy,

Welcome to the forum. Firstly, I'm pleased to hear that you have L/cpl. Wallace's medals in your possession, families should always treasure such things.

The Rangoon Memorial is located in Taukkyan War Cemetery and shows the names of over 26,000 casualties who, sadly, have no known grave. The Memorial was built to honour those who were buried where they fell and whose bodies could not be recovered after the war.

From his date of death and his presence with the 1st Battalion it is possible that John was killed at a place called Yenangyaung, whilst the battalion were defending the large oilfields in that location in April 1942.

There have been other 1st Inniskilling enquiries on this forum, here is a link to a few of those posts, just type in 1st Inniskillings burma:

http://ww2talk.com/forums/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=search&fromMainBar=1

You may pick up some information from the above. There are War diaries held at the National Archives in London, but these very rarely mention the names of lower ranked soldiers.

There is a book called 'All Hell on the Irrawaddy', by Major Tim Finnerty. This book recalls the battalion's time in Burma and to some degree before WW2 in places such as Hong Kong and Shanghai. Do you know if John Wallace was with the regiment before the war broke out?

Perhaps the first thing you might consider is sending off for his Army service records, with these to hand you may well be able to plot his service more accurately. Here is the website explaining how this can be achieved.

http://www.veterans-uk.info/service_records/army.html

Lastly, attached below is a photo of the Rangoon Memorial showing some of the panels inside the internal walkway.

I hope something here will eventually be of use to you.

Steve

 

Andrew, John's battalion was also in the first Arakan campaign, an unsuccessful attempt to capture the Mayu peninsula from the Japanese. I recommend further reading in Wikipedia, books in Amazon, British Pathe News clips on Youtube, War diaries online. Do you know what date John died? If so, you can possibly tell which action he was involved in. The MoD website will explain medal entitlement, so you'll know why he was awarded them. And of course, the excellent museum in Enniskillen, with an appointment-based library. Many of the casualties resulted from the hardships, disease and hunger of the retreat from Burma in 1942, a 900 mile march and I believe the Inniskillings fought rearguard actions. In the Arakan, the battalion was ordered to split into groups of 2's and 3's in order to escape through the jungle. I hope you are proud of John. My uncle was there.

 

There's some month missing from the 1942 war diary at the National Archives:

WO 172/863 1 Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers 1942 Feb. - May, July - Dec.