1st Bn The King's Regiment, (Liverpool), Chindits.

Discussion in 'Burma & India' started by High Wood, Mar 28, 2016.

  1. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    I was looking again at this photograph, first uploaded on this thread by Jungle Jackie, some years back. It is of his father Cpl Leslie Fred Horton and Cpl Joe Milner. I had a nagging feeling that I had seen the man on the left in other photographs but couldn't remember where.

    2 Cpls Leslie Fred Horton & Joe Milner 1944-aug-20 ex Burma (2).jpg

    I have a copy of a photograph taken at Lalaghat of members of the 1/King's Regiment waiting to board their gliders on the 5th March 1944, and I am convinced that the Corporal on the left is the same man or his twin brother.

    Various 009.JPG
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2020
  2. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    Here he is again, quenching his thirst before boarding his allocated glider.

    Various 012.JPG
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2020
  3. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Well, I never thought for one minute that I would place a photograph of Ken Dodd up on my website, but it happened today, thanks to Simon.

    Harry Rowson, please scroll down alphabetically:

    Roll Call P-T
     
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  4. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    Well done B43, a fitting tribute to a man who died much too young. I wonder if there is any footage of him performing out there.

    I have added a photograph of him in uniform to the Highest Gun site section (post 557) of this thread. There is another photograph of him and his glamorous wife, Edwina.

    Harry & Edwina 007.JPG

    Harold G Rowson married Valentine E Aspinall. June Qtr. 1947. N. Liverpool.

    Valentine Edwina Rowson. Died 1995. Birkenhead, Cheshire.
     
    Last edited: Nov 30, 2020
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  5. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Thanks Simon. I think there will be footage or audio somewhere on line, just a matter of finding it really. Nice how a little story can evolve from such a relatively small amount of info.
     
  6. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    You are welcome; I am really enjoying finding all these loose ends as they add so much more to the story than just facts and figures. It is amazing how many individual photographs appeared in the local newspapers with little snippets of the soldier's life before the war changed everything.
     
  7. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    I carried out a similar investigation of the FMP newspaper archive about two years ago in relation to the 13th Battalion. I bought about 3 months credit and came out with over 50 images of men from Chindit 1 after searching each casualty by name.
     
  8. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    Pte Charles Patrick Arslanian, aged 22, whose parents live at 10 D Myrtle House, Liverpool 8, died from typhus in India. He had seen considerable service in Burma. His brother is serving in the R.A.S.C. in Northern France.

    The Liverpool Echo. 1st September 1944.

    Arslanian. Died of Typhus, aged 22 years, beloved eldest son of Mr & Mrs Arslanian, 10 D Myrtle House, Myrtle Street, Liverpool 8, (Late of 29 Athol Street. (Will always remember you smiling.

    Sadly missed by brothers George, Jacob (overseas), John, Sidney, and sisters, Vera, Eileen, Mary, Kathleen, also grandad, grandma and relatives. (Loved and respected by all).

    The Liverpool Echo. 25th August 1944.

    More Kings 004.JPG


    4698053 Pte Charles Patrick Arslanian. Died of Typhus 7th August, 1944. Buried, Gauhati War Cemetery, India.
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2020
  9. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    Missing in Burma. Pte W.H. Sperring of Shoscombe.

    The sad news has been received by Mrs W.H. Sperring, 5 Hamilton Terrace, Shoscombe, that her husband, Private W.H. Sperring, has been reported Missing (Believed Killed) in Burma, since March this year.
    Pte Sperring, who is the only son of Mr and Mrs Sperring, 5 Chapel Row, Clandown, was a keen footballer before the war.

    More Kings 001.JPG

    5670373 Pte William Herbert Sperring. Killed in action 28th March 1944.
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2020
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  10. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    Horstead Keynes.

    War Casualty.

    We regret to report the death, as the result of wounds, of Private Charles Avis, only son of Mr and the late Mrs Frederick Avis, of Salisbury Cottages. Private Avis was born in 1919 at Horstead Keynes and attended the village Church of England School. For several years he was a member of the Parish Church Choir.

    At the outbreak of war, he was employed as a gardener at Cheely's. In April 1940, he joined the Army, and later went to the Eastern Front.

    He was well liked by all who knew him. Deep sympathy is felt for his father and family.

    Mid Sussex Times. 2nd August 1944.

    5625741. Pte. Charles Avis. Died of Wounds 10th June 1944.
     
  11. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    Lance Corporal E.H. Hill, King's Regiment, reported missing in Burma in March 1944, has now been officially reported Killed in Action. He formed part of a glider crew which crashed, there being only one survivor.

    Hill, who joined the regular army in 1936, was aged 26, and unmarried. His sister, Mrs Daly, lives at 45 Allington Street. Aigburth, Liverpool.

    The Liverpool Echo. 25th October 1945.

    3771467 L/Cpl Edmund Henry Hill. Glider 20B. Killed in action between 5th-6th March, 1944.
     
  12. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    Home again.

    Private Samuel Bennett, aged 21, of the King's Regiment, whose home is at 74, Ward Street, Coseley, is one of the first Japanese prisoners to be repatriated. He was captured at Indaw, Burma, in March 1944, after a glider crash.

    Birmingham Daily Gazette. 30th June 1945.

    14313275. Pte. Samuel Bennett. Glider 21P. Reported Missing 6th March 1944. Captured 13th March 1944. Prisoner of War, Rangoon Gaol.
     
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  13. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    C.F. in Glider Crash.
    The Rev. David Alexander Patterson. C.F., whose death in Burma as a result of a glider crash is reported, was for a time an assistant curate of St. Mary's Portsea, and served at St. Boniface Mission. He was regarded with much affection throughout the Parish, and his departure for Rangoon was much regretted. He was ordained in 1936 and was devoted to church and educational work in Burma.

    Portsmouth Evening News. 8th May 1944.

    Chaplain. Rev. David Alexander Patterson. Indian Ecclesiastical Establishment. Glider 19B. Killed in Action between 5th-6th March 1944. Son of James Bruce Patterson and Alice Maude Patterson, of Kew Gardens, Surrey. M.A. (Cantab.): Exhibitioner of St. Catherine's College; Vice-Principal of St. John's College, Rangoon.

    "On re-entering the glider we found that Captain Patterson had been killed. He hadn't worn his seat belt and had been thrown against the control panel."
     
    Last edited: Nov 30, 2020
  14. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    Glider Men destroyed Jap Rail Bridge.

    The Military Cross has been awarded for services in Burma to Captain Arthur Binnie, of the King’s Liverpool Regiment, who before the war lived with his brother, Dr. J. Binnie, at 51, Preston Road, Longridge. The citation says:

    “On March 19th, 1944, a special detachment was landed by glider in central Burma with orders to blow up the railway bridge on the Mandalay-Myitkina line, south of Kawlin.

    The officer in charge of the party was injured in a glider crash, during the initial landing, and was evacuated by air. Captain, (then Lieut.), Binnie then took over command of the patrol and by his initiative and determination, led them to a successful conclusion. With 40 men under his command, he not only wrecked the railway bridge, but also blew up the pumping statin nearby. In order to contact our forces after the action he led his force through waterless country for three days on very short rations.

    During this trek, his force was ambushed by the enemy, and Lieut. Binnie successfully extricated his exhausted troops from the trap with only three casualties (wounded). The fact that these were the only casualties sustained throughout the whole patrol, which lasted for one month, was largely due to Lieut. Binnie’s unfailing cheerfulness and example, and above all, his excellent powers of leadership”.

    Captain Binnie, who is 24 years old, was educated at Baines’s Grammar School, Poulton-le-Flyde. He enlisted at the outbreak of war, and has been in Burma for three years. He was recently wounded while serving with the Chindits and lost the sight of one eye.

    Lancashire Evening Post. 30th May 1945.

    156229. Captain Arthur Stewart Binnie. M.C., commissioned 2nd Lieut. 2nd November 1940.

    It would appear that although Captain Binnie was both an officer of the King's Regiment (Liverpool) and a Chindit, he did not serve with the 1/Kings but was a 5th battalion officer attached to the 2nd battalion, Duke of Wellington's Regiment.

    Binnie wounded.png
     
    Last edited: Nov 30, 2020
  15. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    Lost in the Jungle.

    Liverpool Captain in Burma Glider Crash.

    By a Military Correspondent.

    For seventeen days a Liverpool officer was lost in the jungle after the glider in which he was flying into Burma crash landed near the Irrawaddy.

    After exciting adventures and many privations, he led a party of men with rations for only four and a half days right through the Japanese lines to safety.

    The story of those seventeen days is contained in a report which the officer has just written for regimental records. The officer is Captain Frank Freeman of Beechville, Grassendale Park, Liverpool. He is associated with the retail drapery business in Wavertree Road, which bears his name.

    Captain Freeman’s battalion took part in the famous glider landings 200 miles behind the Japanese lines, and was part of the force which defended the stronghold of the Special Force (The Chindits) known as “Blackpool”.

    “It was certainly an exciting seventeen days”, Captain Freeman told me.

    Collision in the air.

    “The trouble started when we were approaching the Irrawaddy. I was asleep in the glider when a sudden jolt woke me up. We all thought at first that the glider had been hit by anti-aircraft fire, but after we learned that we had collided with another glider.

    “We came adrift from the towing plane, and our tow rope wrapped itself around one of the wings, making a cut about a foot long. We lost height very rapidly, and after circling over a large town for some time the pilot decided to make a crash landing on an island in a large river, which we took to be the Irrawaddy.

    “It was a good landing, and although the undercarriage was smashed, no one was hurt. I knew that certain features of the glider were still on the secret list, so we burned the glider, while I searched for an easy way to get to the main bank of the river.

    Night blaze.

    “In the morning I let the men eat a whole breakfast ration, but instructed them to go on half rations from that moment. I shared all the rations out equally, and found that each man had four and a half days’ food.

    “That night we had just got to sleep when the sentry reported that fires were breaking out all around us. The elephant grass was alight, and I was afraid that the wind would blow the flames towards us, as we had already passed through large areas completely burned out. However, our luck held, and the flames did not come uncomfortably near.

    “We were on the wrong side of the river, and my problem was to get across it. I managed to persuade some natives to take the party across the river in four very rickety boats. At first the headman of the village appeared unwilling to assist us, but his wife, who also made the crossing, appeared to insist upon him giving us his help.

    “That was the main obstacle over. There remained a main road and a railway, and we continually came across signs of the enemy. One night we heard the sound of men marching about 150 yards, but fortunately we were not seen.

    Villagers’ Fear

    “We had a bit of a scare when one morning the sentry heard rustling in the thick jungle. It turned out to be a wild elephant, which made off in panic when we shouted at it.

    “Most of the villagers were very nervous about us, and were glad to see us go, because they were in great fear of the Japanese. The most helpful co-operation we got was from a guide who insisted that he should give us some food from his meagre stock. He said the Japanese had killed his son and thrown the body in the river.

    “Then one day, we contacted two light planes, and they dropped us a message to say that they would be back in a quarter of an hour. We made elaborate arrangements to ensure that they could not miss us, but we did not see them again.

    “Next morning, I was just moving out of the bivouac area when I was contacted by a patrol from a Special Force Column. They had entered a village from which we had recently got food, and had come out to find us.

    “After two days with this Column we moved on to contact our own. There were no further adventures, and we eventually found our way to our unit, 17 days late”.

    The Liverpool Echo. 29th December, 1944.

    Various Kings & Karslake 003.JPG

    180079. Captain Frederick Clement Freeman. 1/King’s Regiment (Liverpool). Glider crash landed on an Irrawaddy sandbank. Glider not yet identified.
     
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  16. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Here is what Binnie had to say about his role with Bladet Force on Operation Thursday, from in the book, March or Die:

    The glider landing was a successful shambles. The gliders were piloted by Americans of Cochran's commandos. The first glider with Blaine and myself in it overshot the strip and tore into the jungle, shedding its wings and splitting open through the length of the fuselage. The troops within were able to step out of the wreckage, alarmed but relatively unharmed. The remaining gliders performed with equal acrobatic flair and the one carrying the mules actually looped the loop very near the ground, pancake-landed and the mules walked daintily out over the wreckage and calmly started to graze.

    The unit bivouacked for the night in nearby jungle, the bivouac including the American pilots who were to be flown out by light plane at first light. They were very unused to jungle and I don't think they slept much, seeing lions, tigers and Japs everywhere. During the night, Blaine realised that he had been injured in the glider crash and was incapable of undertaking a long march in enemy territory. lie was therefore to go back with the American pilots and I, by chance the senior Lieutenant, took over command. This was, initially, quite a shock, as apart from CSM Chivers and a couple of engineers, the remainder of the detachment were new to action and it had been anticipated that Blaine's experience would be essential to the success of the operation. I was fortunate in having CSM Chivers to lean on throughout the patrol, as he had been with Blaine in the first expedition and was an excellent Wingate-type soldier.

    Anyway, the troops were of good quality and my fellow officers were keen and enthusiastic. We set about our objective to reach a bridge over the railway near Kawlin on the Mandalay—Myitkyina line, blow it up, make a mess of the railway line and throughout the patrol give the impression to native Burmese — knowing that the information would be passed to the Japs — that there was a biggish Chindit force this far south.

    The operation took about six weeks and was a success. We blew the bridge and a nearby pumping station and cut the railway line in several places. During the patrol the mule carrying the wireless set went over a cliff, falling about 200 feet, and we were incommunicado for most of the patrol. Eventually the wireless was resuscitated enough to permit contact with India and we arranged one supply drop without which we would probably have perished. We were congratulated by Wingate just before his untimely death and told to move on to Aberdeen. This was quite a hike and we became very exhausted and hungry. A period of marching through a dry belt very nearly caused madness due to thirst and one got to the stage of planning the murder of one's best friend for the sake of the small residue he might have in his water bottle.

    At one stage we got lost and hunger and thirst were so affecting us that it was proposed by CSM Chivers that we should take a free vote as to whether we should go on looking for Aberdeen or allow small groups to go it alone and head back over the Chindwin for India. I think that Chivers felt that having done it himself before, he could do it again. Fortunately the problem was solved by the sudden appearance of two Gurkha soldiers at the fringe of the jungle. Our saviours were in bivouac about a quarter of a mile away — Tim Brennan's Cameronians, the King's Own and a couple of columns of Gurkhas. We were made very welcome, fed with bully beef and peaches and cream until we were sick, and allowed to sleep the sleep of the just.

    Tim Brennan got a message that we were to move on, when ready, to Aberdeen and be flown out as we were too exhausted to participate in any further action. A day's rest and we were on our way. We were ambushed by some excitable Japs a short distance away from the bivouac, but they were as anxious as we were and we escaped with one engineer shot through the kneecap and John Urquhart, my second-in-command, with a bullet burn right across his left breast, lucky fellow, shaken but intact. Two days of tough marching saw us in Aberdeen, happy but very, very exhausted.

    We eventually arrived in Shillong, in Assam, where we were to recuperate. Within twenty-four hours every single member of the unit was in hospital, after an enormous celebratory binge, suffering from malaria or dysentery. I was unconscious for three days with malignant tertian malaria. I thought the initial symptoms were merely those of a gigantic hangover. This extraordinary medical situation was of great interest to me after the war when I trained to become a general practitioner, and it wasn't understood until the discovery of cortisone how, in desperate states, our adrenal glands produce masses of it in an endeavour to keep infection at bay and maintain necessary bodily functions.

    Bladet was disbanded at this stage and individuals returned to their parent units when their health was restored. I then had the dubious pleasure of being trained to command a small detachment of twelve man-pack flame throwers and soon took them into Mogaung to be used by Brigadier Calvert. We were used, I believe rather unskilfully, in a night attack on a village near Mogaung. However, although the tactics were discredited, their use was such a shock to the Japs that the village fell into Calvert's hands with minimal casualties to our attacking force. In this action I lost the sight of my right eye to shrapnel from a Jap grenade, one soldier was killed and the remaining ten soldiers were all wounded to some degree.
     
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  17. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    Mrs Hodgson, 37 Grovehurst Avenue, Dovecot, Liverpool, has been informed that her son, Private Charles Hodgson, aged 29, King's Liverpool Regiment met his death in an aeroplane accident on March 5th last year. Any information gratefully received by his mother.

    Hodgson 002.JPG

    The Liverpool Echo. 3rd November 1945.

    3771010 Pte. Charles Hodgson. Glider 20B. Killed in action between 5th-6th March 1944.
     
  18. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    One of those awkward 1/King's Regiment Chindits who has left no trace in any official records that are currently in the public domain.


    Vacant Chairs No Longer.


    Mr and Mrs R. Seavor, of 64 Creswell Street, Everton, Liverpool, with their three serving sons. Left to right. Ronald, Kenneth and Leslie, who were united this week for the first time since January 1940.

    Sergeant Seavor, the father, aged 59, joined the old Volunteers in 1905 and transferred to the 9th King’s Territorial Regiment on the formation of the Territorials in 1908. He served throughout the last war and was demobilised in 1919 and rejoined the Territorials in 1920, being called up on the outbreak of war in 1939. He served with the R.E.’s and A.A. until 1942 when he was discharged, making a total of 37 years’ service.

    The sons are all on leave together. Leslie, who is 29, has served with the Durham Light Infantry since June 1940, and is now a sergeant in the Royal Tank Regiment in the B.L.A.

    Ronald, aged 26, who joined up in September, 1930, with the 1st Battalion King’s Regiment (Liverpool) has been with the airborne troops in “Wingate’s Follies,” serving in India and Burma. He was in the famous airborne landing of March 1944, when they were dropped 200 miles behind Japanese lines.

    Kenneth, aged 23 has been with the R.A.S.C. since April 1942, in four campaigns – North Africa, Sicily, Italy and B.L.A.

    The Liverpool Echo 29th June 1945.

    seavor 005.JPG


    Ronald Douglas Seavor. Sgt. 1/Kings Regiment and 15th (King’s) Battalion, Parachute Regiment.

    Kenneth G Seavor. Sgt. R.A.S.C.

    Robert Leslie Seavor. Sgt. Royal Tank Regiment
     
  19. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    Here is another example of the difficulties in determining exactly who took part in Operation Thursday as a 1/King's Regiment Chindit.

    The name Devanney. J. and the location of St Helens, appears in the In Memoriam section of Dekho! No 117, published in 1994. It gives his regiment as 1/King's Regiment, however, his B.S.A. membership application gives further details such as his service number, 3773850, which does indeed fall into the number block issued to the King's Regiment (Liverpool). However John Devanney put his regiment down as Lancashire Fusiliers and Leicestershire Regiment. He was indeed a Chindit but was he a 1/King's Chindit?

    Chindit surprise for parents. St Helens man’s Return Home.

    “He gave us a wonderful surprise”, said the father of Private John Devanney, of the Chindits, who returned home unexpectedly to his home at Hamer Street, St Helens, after being reported missing twice and after surviving nearly half a dozen attacks of malaria during 5 years’ service abroad with the forces.

    Private Devanney, who was with “Wingate’s Follies” was dropped repeatedly in the jungle on special work. “We found our way home with maps printed on silk, helped on one occasion by a cheetah, which chased us for all it was worth,” said Private Devanney. “I never moved so fast before, and I doubt if my brother Bill ever did either”.

    Brother Bill is the young St Helens Rugby League player at present in hospital in Italy, who has been credited with doing even time.

    “Whilst I was out there, I saw Sergeant Halton, the St Helens man who helped keep a party of Wingate’s “Follies” alive by skinning a buffalo with a safety razor blade to provide emergency rations. “He was due home soon, too, and must be here or thereabouts by now”, said Devanney.

    Liverpool Daily Post. 18th December 1944.


    devanney.png
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2020
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  20. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    I wonder if he was one of the 1 King's that joined up with the Lancashire Fusiliers at Mogaung and were amalgamated into the LF columns? Devanney is mentioned in one of my little stories on my website, as does Halton:

    The Liverpool Ghosts
     
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