Hi, I'm wondering if anyone knows anything about which units were in Bishenpur in march '44? I'm trying to track my Grandads RE Section as their war diary for March was lost during the Lion Box battles in early April '44. I'm working on information from the memoirs of a member of his section to try to piece together their movements between the end of February (when they were at MS118 Tiddim road) and 6/4/44 when their section entered the Lion Box in Kanglatongbi. From the memoirs there are two entries during this time, which have information that I'm hoping I can possibly use to pinpoint a date and thus, know the sections location around that time - one of them is linked to Operation Thursday (please see my other post) and this one is to do with Bishenpur - I know 17th Division obviously fought many times in and around Bishenpur, but that was in April onwards, whereas this must have been in March as the RE Section where in front of 17 Div as they all worked their way back down the Tiddim Road towards Imphal. Would the village have been under IV Corps in general, during March? Or does anyone have any idea of specific Divisions/Brigades/Companies that were in control of it? The soldiers memoirs state that on their way back from the Tiddim Road, they stopped in Bishenpur and had to carry out guard duty overnight due to JIF activity in the area. They had a close shave with a light being seen at night which turned out to be a Gurkha position (so one of the Gurkha units was also in the vicinity, which might help pinpoint a date, albeit it's quite a challenge with so many companies in the area). They spent time in the village the following day and then moved out to Imphal after. Upon arriving in Imphal, they found out Bishenpur had been bombed due to JIF infiltration (another thread I can pull is to try to find out any RAF Squadron info on bombing Bishenpur in march 44...) On the very day that they left. So I'm hoping people may be able to point me in the direction of any divisions/brigades/companies that may have been in Bishenpur in march 44, or any information on RAF Squadrons who may have carried out attacks in that month too? I would hazard a guess and say that it's probably more likely to be mid-end of march time purely because of the distance involved in moving along the Tiddim road from where they were in and around ms118 to Bishenpur at ms16, plus there's not really anything in the memoirs about after Bishenpur before it directly goes into information about entering Lion box. It seems odd that the village was bombed too, weeks before 17 Div moved into the area, as you'd possibly think there wouldn't have been enemy activity in the village so close to Imphal at that time, although I obviously don't know the size of of the JIF parties that led to the bombing, it may have only been scouting patrols etc Any help or possible leads that I can then look into, would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
I’m not as familiar with British Brigade or Division War Dairies…….but I DO KNOW, Canadian Brigade and Division War dairies…… Whenever I’m trying to piece together locations of units I find Brigade and Division War Diaries an excellent source (in fact sometimes better than unit war diaries)……as they normally recorded the locations of their units daily (by map reference normally). Also I try to find CRE information in the Division War Diairies, which also gives me exact locations of the RCE/RE units. The Operations Logs in Canadian Brigade and Division war diaries can also piece together specific locations and actions taken by the units under their command and are a excellent source. Just a suggestion, Good Luck
