My grandad in Burma India help please!

I have been tracking my grandads war record I recently got information from the mod and here is what I got sent back.

Gormley enlisted in jan 1941 as a gunner and in June sailed with the 8th ind HAA Btn for India. The unit went to Rangoon in dec and took part in the retreat across river chindwin. Reformed in Bombay, returned to Chittagong. He was later in Arakan in 1944 and was posted in July to 1st Cameron's. He was with this Btn throughout To Mandalay. He returned to the uk on Python in May 1945 and in dec was posted to 5th Cameron's in Germany.

He was also reported missing in Malaya on 15 February 42. And then reappeared on June 30th 42. A gentlemen who knew my grandad said that he was a pow I don't know if this is true or not.

If anyone has any knowledge of any of these dates and events then I would appreciate it

 

Bamboo and Hebridean Chindit will be able to help I am sure. Can you give us any more info re name. If he was attached to a unit there may be a little more info from that units files.

 

Hi,

Your granddad certainly had a busy time, is there any chance you could post the service records on the forum.

Steve

 

8th Indian HAA Battery arrived in Rangoon on 31st December 1941, and also British 8th HAA Battery, Royal Artillery (so there were two 8th HAA Bateries in Burma, one Indian and one British) arrived in Rangoon about that time. This make unlikely that he was in Malaya during 1942 if he was with any of these two units. Also possibility that he was a pow in Malaya in February 1942 and later took part in retreat from Burma sounds quite improbable.

 

I must say, I have to agree with sol, although anything is possible in the Far Eastern theatre during WW2.

 

It's not my direct sphere of research for this one, but with Enes having direct access to Kew, seemingly by magic, and Steve living there half the time, are there any MIA files for them...?

Now if it had been 1st Cameronians...

 

Yes there are :

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/s/res?_q=wo361%2F664&_sd=&_ed=

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/s/res?_q=wo361%2F665

 

They would be worth getting on the off-chance of additional info, FTT... the road gets ever steeper and more slippery from here on in... :biggrin:

When I got the 1st Cameronians MIA's to track my dad's comments on where he had been "reported missing twice" during his time in Burma... sure enough, there he was... admittedly, they'd found him by then...

 

I have put my grandads war records in the war diaries section in The diary database under Queens own Cameron Highlanders.

Any information or insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

Link to records

Will have to see what Farndale has to say about the units mentioned...

 

Also added it to my profile page under gallery. Thanks

 

Thanks for adding the records. It does say Malaya, but on another page it says re-entered India from Burma. I've attached this page below. I wonder if during the retreat he became separated from his unit and eventually made his own way back?

This would have been a great achievement indeed. POW wise John does not feature on the Cofepow database, but this does not mean he could not have been a POW at some stage.

As idler says, we need to someone with knowledge about the units, especially the movements of the 8th Indian HAA and before.

Fascinating reading though.

 

The records linked by Idler show three Xii notations between '42 and '44 post going missing in Malaya and then being located - Xii is a reference for being evacuated on medical grounds - seriously unfit for action...

edit... just noted what Steve reposted and there's a few more Xii's than on the one I noted...

 

I think that the mention of missing in Malaya may be a simple clerical error.
The line below "Posted to 8th HAA Bty RA 15/01/42" says
"1st Ind LAA 3rd LAA Bty 26/01/42"
This unit arrived at the same time and served throughout the retreat.
The next line says "3/1 Ind HAA Missing in Malaya 15/02/42".
This unit was indeed surrendered at the fall of Singapore, but I think the clerk has simply conflated 1/3 Ind LAA with 3/1 Ind HAA. The error was then spotted and corrected.
However, he is listed as still with 8 HAA Bty RA when he re-entered India on 30/05/42.
There are other problems too.
He is listed as transferring from 8 HAA Bty RA to 1 Camerons in 03/45, but this is clearly incorrect; this had happened in 08/44, and 8 HAA Bty had been disbanded.
I am not even sure that 8 Ind HAA Bty took part in the retreat; I think this too may be a conflation of the two similarly titled units. 8 HAA Bty had at least a dozen fatalities during this period, but 8 Ind HAA Bty had just one - a sweeper. I suspect he was a sweeper attached to the RA bty, not the Indian bty.

 

Although the date range is not quite right, I wonder if Gunner Gormley might be mentioned in this file at Kew?

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=C11430122

 

According to Farndale, 8 Ind HAA Bty and 3 Ind LAA Bty arrived in Rangoon on 31 Dec 1941, with 8 Br HAA Bty arriving shortly afterwards.

All batteries are still present in his artillery orbat of around the end of Feb 1942 and were involved throughout the campaign.

8 Ind HAA Bty got its last 3" guns back as far as Yeu before destroying them; 8 Br HAA Bty spiked their guns at Kaduma. The last three of 3 Ind LAA Bty's Bofors acted as the rearguard at Shwegyin and prevented the Japanese following up the final withdrawal.

 

It would have been so much easier if they had just sent 7 Ind HAA Bty instead!

 

To make things more confusing seems that there were also two 3rd LAA Batteries, one Indian and one of the Burma Auxilary Forces.

 

Looks like I've got some more research to do. Appreciate your knowledge and other hints and tips would be appreciated.

 

It won't be immediately, but I will search for him in some of the Missing in action files at the National Archives, starting with the 'Return of Missing personnel'. At least then we will be eliminating potential red-herrings.