Dear All I am looking for references to a Mortar Bomb accident which took place on the 5th June 1944 in Burma, when a 3” mortar bomb exploded amongst a group of 2nd Border Regiment men killing eight and wounding 11 including a chap on my local war memorial 53490947 Pte Ron G H Read who later died of his wounds on the 6th June 1944,and is buried at Maynamati War Cemetery. Note the CWGC gives his date of death as 6th July 1944 which is incorrect as I have his service record, plus his entry in the casualty lists on FindMyPast both of which say 6th June. All 8 of the men killed in the accident are all buried at Kohima War Cemetery. Probably a reference to the incident is in war diary at Kew however am looking for any other references to it. Many thanks Trevor
This link does not help with details of the incident you mention, but is about John Richardson & Gilbert Pearson of 2nd Borders who died in an accident in Burma on 5th June 1944, so could be the same one. BBC - WW2 People's War - Two Border Regiment ‘Pals’ who died in Burma
Many thanks for the link to the story in WW2 Peoples War. Yes thats the incident. The proceedings of a Court of Inquiry that took place on the 5th and 9th June 1944 has been included with Pte R G H Read’s service record though the names of the 11 men who were wounded have been redacted. I am trying to get any memories or stories of the incident different to the official record. Also to possibly identify any of the wounded who included Pte Read. Essentially what happened was this. At about 16:00 hours on the 5th June 1944, a mortar was ranging in the vicinity of “B” Company 2nd Borders position in Burma. Sgt J Carr (the observer) had completed ranging on the north and south slopes near to 2nd Border’s position, and asked the platoon commander (Sgt Cassel) if he wished him to range on the east slope. The reply was that he should and subsequently Sgt Carr ordered a working party on top of the hill to move back down the west slope. A smoke bomb was fired which fell 250 yards down the slope. Sgt Carr then asked Sgt Cassel if he would like the fire brought nearer and he replied yes and Sgt Carr gave the order. This bomb fell 200 yards short on the west slope amongst the working party and other soldiers there causing the casualties. The Inquiry was very thorough, interviewing all those involved including the mortar team, Captain Morley (the officer in charge) and the medical officer. The verdict of the court was that the accident was not due to negligence or misjudgement on the part of the mortar team or the observer but was caused by a faulty 3” mortar bomb which fell short, so nobody was responsible for the accident. The men killed were: 3607262 Sgt J Richardson 3604157 L/Cpl F Sales 3607258 L/Cpl Pearson 14325513 L/Cpl J Cooper 14418605 Pte R Cooper 3604748 L/Cpl M O’Hara 14577862 Pte J Thompson 3782768 Pte W Morgan 11 were wounded – names have been redacted on the copy of the report I have apart from Pte R G H Read who died of wounds the following day 6th June 1944. Lest we forget Trevor
The wounded will be on the casualty lists somewhere. You'll need to scour through all mentions of 2Border for the given date and theatre. Some may be from different regiments but attached to 2B as an amendment. The casualty lists will be lengthy as the dates coincide with the D Day landings. Lionboxer
Thank you. Yes that is my thought as well. Also there maybe an unredacted copy of a report of the Court of Inquiry in a war diary at Kew. Will have a look over the Summer on one of my visits to the NA
I have 2 Borders War Diary for 1944 and there is no copy of the Court of Inquiry and the mention of the incident is only a few lines long. I can't see a mention of a Court Of Enquiry. Generally the War Diary entries are fuller than many/some but there are few supporting documents such as Operational Plans etc. The relevant page is attached.
I have looked at the Casualty Lists to try to find the wounded men without any luck. First I checked the CWGC and all eight men killed on 5 June 1944 are buried at Imphal (not Kohima) and they were buried there directly (so no concentration Record) and are buried together. Then I checked the Casualty Lists on FMP. I took all the known dead from the incident and looked through the Casualty Lists they are recorded on to see if there are any 'Wounded' shown that could be from the incident on 5 June 1944. I couldn't find any. It is possible they are on another Casualty List but as is said above there are hundreds of pages to go through. The Casualty Lists that the eight dead are named on start at that lodged on 29 June 1944 for four men who are on the 2 Borders strength (Richardson, Morgan, O'Hara and Pearson) then Styles on 6 July 1944. The CL Entries for the two Coopers and Thompson first appear in July 1944 but as Royal Warwickshire Regiment and this is subsequently amended to 2 Borders. This is likely because they were recent reinforcements from the Royal Warwickshires to the Borders and the paperwork at the Second Echelon hadn't been amended to reflect this before they died. I have come across this before and the Royal Warwickshires, who were in India, provided reinforcements to a number of infantry units in the Imphal battle (eg 1 Northamptons). Interestingly for Pte Read who DOW, the CWGC says his date of death was 7 July 1944 and the Casualty List says it was 6 June 1944. It is interesting that he only has one entry on the CL. In other cases where they DOW after a few weeks there has been an entry to say they were wounded and a subsequent one to say they subsequently DOW. He was buried at Maynamati Cemetery which served the military hospitals in Comilla so if he died there on 6th June he would have had to have been evacuated back to Imphal from the location of the incident which the War Diary said happened at noon on 5th June, and then flown immediately from Imphal to Comilla. I think the July date of death is more likely, especially given the fact that his death appeared in the Casualty List produced on 22 August 1944 which is about ten weeks after the 6 June 1944 date.
Dear Skoyen89 Many thanks for your messages, the attached page from the war diary, and for correcting my inadvertant mistake in saying the casualties from the accident were buried at Kohima when in fact they are at Imphal. I was most interested in your analysis of the casualties and the reason behind why Pte Read has the date of death of 7th July 1944 rather than 6th June 1944. See relevant extracts from his service record attached. Army Form B103 as you can see clearly states Private Read ‘died of wounds whilst being evacuated, 6 Jun 44’ also the field service form gives the same date! What are your thoughts on seeing these please? Do you by any chance have the 2/Borders war diary entry for 5th May 1944 please. As you can see this is the date Ron Read joined the battalion. I know he won’t be mentioned but was wondering if its the same day as a draft of men joined possibly the ones from the Royal Warwickshires you mentioned. Many thanks again for your help. Trevor
Hi Trevor I haven't ever seen versions of the forms you attached which are really interesting. They are very clear and conclusive on the date of 6 June 1944 being when he died. They also explain the delay in him appearing on the Casualty List because it was a couple of weeks before the Hospital staff reported his death to the Second Echelon and there may have been further delay given his recent transfer to the Borders. The CWGC normally follow the date given on the Casualty List so not sure what has happened here. 2 Borders received 172 reinforcements in the period from 2-5 May 1944, including 49 BORs (British Other Ranks) on 5 May. Given they would have had a strength of say 700 that is a large chunk of reinforcements in a short period. There is an interesting comment on their suitability in the War Diary. I have attached the two pages covering this for you. One thought: it is possible that the wounded would not appear on the Casualty List because it was an accident rather than enemy action? For instance, those hospitalised by sickness were not shown on the Casualty List unless they died. Let me know if you need anything else.
Trevor, looking at the dates on his service record document it seems to me he was attached to 20 Reinforcement Camp on the 24/2/44. This was my father's unit that held, trained and despatched reinforcements for 20 Indian Division that 2 Borders were in. At this time 20 Rft Camp were located at milestone 110 on the main Imphal Dimapur road at a place called Keithelmanbi twenty miles north of Imphal. At the beginning of April 20 Rft Camp moved to Lion Box Kanglatongbi milestone 118 and were heavily engaged in the battle there. Coincidentally we have just commemorated the 80th anniversary of this on Sunday 7th April at the NMA with a large Remembrance Service. I can't quite make out the date of the entry of his X list posting when he went to the Borders but if it was after 7/4/44 then he was in the fighting at Lion Box and was lucky to get out. My father quite possibly knew your man as he was the CSM of No1 Section of 20 Rft Camp which contained all the Border reinforcements, and in fact was commanded by Capt Ewing of the Border Regt. One member of the Border Regt reinforcements was killed in the fighting. Lionboxer
Dear Lionboxer Many thanks for your detailed and most interesting post above. I googled the battle and came across the story of the Lion Box battle from the Eastern Daily Press 30th June 2019: The Norfolk man who is tracing his dad’s war history in India | Eastern Daily Press An epic battle. Looking at Pte Ron Rose's service record again, I believe the X list posting date is 23rd April 1944 - St George's Day. Cheers Trevor
Trevor if you search on here you will find other snippets about Lion Box too and if you're patient you can read the revised edition of my book hopefully published this year. Lionboxer
Lionboxer, Many thanks for the tip to searching on here. What is the title etc of your book please so I can keep an eye out for it please. Trevor
