At a recent auction I saw a WW2 medal group with almost no description but could see loads of documents/ photos (with the medal - Burma Star) and caught the heading of a letter saying 2nd Battalion, Manchester Regiment (after zooming in). Not my field but a quick look up saw they were at Dunkirk and heavily involved in Burma (including Kohima). Won it for a bargain price (probably due to above) and eventual got around to picking up the item (they wanted £30 for postage!!) 3528279 Cpl John Dickinson 2nd Manchester Regt Very happy to see the letter I zoomed in on was actually a letter from O/C 2nd Battalion Manchesters (Maj ‘Rex King-Clark MC MBE) congratulating him on an immediate MID in his part in an ambush which ended with 60 KIA Japanese (one of which he dispatched hand to hand with the butt of his sten gun!!) Obviously due to the era official research is pretty scant but found on FMP several newspaper articles (don't have newspaper add on) to a John or J. Dickinson in the Manchester papers between 1944 - 49 and imagine a few would be reference John. Any chance of anyone looking them up for me please? Known so far... Born Salford -26 Aug 1915 Enlisted - 17 Dec 1935 May/ Jun 1940 - Dunkirk (not confirmed but assumed) Apr/ Jun 1944 - Kohima (Not confirmed but assumed) 03 Apr 1945 - Night Ambush at Plinze-Pindale Road, North Burma. John was in charge of the right hand gun of ‘B’ Section and was to trigger the ambush against a number of retreating enemy. The ambush was a total success ending with 60 killed for no losses. In the melee one confronted John whom he killed with the butt of his sten gun as he had expended his magazine already. Sgt Kenyon (Platoon Cdr) received the MM and John an (immediate mention’. Possibly last action of 2nd Battalion in WW2 as Battalion withdrawn to India during that month. This was the last action of the 2nd Manchesters in WW2 (I believe) 17 Dec 1947 - Transfered to Army Reserve 1969 - Died in Manchester Can any Manchester expert help with..... 1. Confirm this was indeed the last action? 2. Details of involvement of Battalion at Dunkirk.... Kohima? Any other info would be great Many Thanks Wayne
Hello Wayne, I have looked up the 2nd Manchesters in "Orders of Battle 2nd World War" by Joslen and the unit was the Divisional Machine Gun Battalion in the 2nd Infantry Division from 11th November 1941 to 31st August 1945. This post dates Dunkirk but the 2nd Division was in the battles for St Omer and La Bassee between 23rd May and 29th May 1940. The other battles listed for the Division are Kohima between 27th March and 22nd June 1944 and Mandalay 12/13 February to 21st March 1945 which the Manchesters would have been involved with. The Division was sent to India on 12th April 1945 until 31st August 1945. Kind regards, Will.
Here are the medal citations (worth noting that his name is repeatedly written as DICKENSON here - maybe that's the correct spelling?): I know nothing about the rest of 2nd Battalion, Manchester Regiment, but its 'D' Coy was attached as Divisional MG Company to 36 Division in 1944-45. It was still supporting 36 Div on the Kalaw Staircase in Central Burma in early May 1945, not flying back from Meiktila to Imphal until the 13th, so 'D' Coy might technically have carried out the last action of the 2nd Manchesters.
Here is a brief summary of the service of the 2nd Machine-Gun Battalion, The Manchester Regiment: 2nd Battalion, The Manchester Regiment M-G 2nd Infantry Division – Attached – 3 September 1939 to 10 November 1941 It was a machine-gun battalion of I Corps at Aldershot at the start of war attached to 2nd Infantry Division. Mobilisation had been ordered at about 5pm on September 1st and Lieutenant Colonel 'Barty' Moore, the commanding officer, called a conference of company commanders to discuss putting the mobilisation scheme into operation. Mobilisation was completed on September 5th and the 18th the battalion loaded and secured all its vehicles with their war equipment, ammunition and stores. Several days later the battalion embarked at Southampton on the SS Biaritz, landing at Cherbourg on September 23rd. It then moved to Rue du Bouteau by October 4th under the division. HQ and ‘B’ and ‘D’ Companies were located there while ‘A’ and ‘C’ Companies were at Ghein. ‘D’ Company was attached to the 4th Infantry Brigade, ‘B’ to the 5th and ‘C’ to the 6th. During the winter and spring the deployment was altered so that HQ Company was at Rue du Bouteau, ‘A’ Company in reserve, ‘B’ Company at Vieux Condé, ‘C’ Company at Le Quenne and ‘D’ Company at Bourbetin. It served with the division in the campaign in France and Belgium and was withdrawn at Dunkirk on May 31st, 1940 with the division. The battalion reported to Paignton along with the other machine-gun battalions after France. A nucleus of the battalion spent two days at Bridestone and three more at Willsworth. Finally it gathered eight officers and 372 men, which were sent to Lincoln. After ten days it moved to a camp at Dalton Hall as part of the 2nd Infantry Division. The companies were allocated to the 4th, 5th and 6th Infantry Brigades in early July 1940 and on July 1st, 1940 the battalion moved to Langton Hall, near Hull. It remained there during the Battle of Britain. It moved to Beverley on January 19th, 1941. 2nd Infantry Division – 11 November 1941 to 31 August 1945 It was ordered to embark on November 20th, 1941 and the battalion moved to Spring Hill, near Moreton-in-the-Marsh from December 10th, 1941 to April 10th, 1942. It embarked on different vessels, with the battalion less three companies leaving Birkenhead on April 11th, ‘B’ Company leaving Birkenhead on April 10th, ‘C’ Company leaving Glasgow on April 12th and ‘A’ Company leaving Glasgow on April 13th. During the first days of June 1942, it arrived in Bombay and moved to Poona with the division. It then moved to Ahmednagar in January 1943 and by the end of the war ‘A’ Company was part of the 4th Infantry Brigade, ‘B’ Company under the 5th Infantry Brigade and ‘C’ Company under the 6th Infantry Brigade. ‘D’ Company was detached to the 29th Infantry Brigade of the 36th Indian Infantry Division. The division at once commenced intensive training in combined operations on the west coast to the north of Bombay - with a view to offensive landings on the Japanese-held Arakan coast of Burma - though the skills learnt were never to be put to use. Instead, following a short period of jungle training in southern India in 1943, the Division including the Manchesters, its machine gun battalion, less ‘D’ Company, which had been placed under the command of the 36th British Division since 1943, was in March 1944 rushed 2,200 miles by land, sea and air to counter the Japanese offensive against the Allied bases at Imphal and Kohima in Assam. The battalion was called to move to Dimapur, Assam on March 18th, 1944 and entered Burma on April 1st, 1944. On April 11th ‘B’ Company was in action some ten miles from Kohima four days before the battalion's concentration could be completed. Just over a week later the garrison was relieved, but apart from Garrison Hill itself the Japanese held Kohima Ridge and the hills to the north to beyond Naga village; an area of formidable tree-covered mountains rising to over 7,000 feet, with precipitous slopes and dense sub-tropical forests. It was across these "hellish jungle mountains" that outflanking brigade columns set off. Machine-gun platoons of the Manchesters, "a tough magnificent body of men" as one officer records in his diary, marched with each column while the rest of the battalion, covered the gun line dug in on Lone Tree Hill within a hundred yards of the Japanese positions where snipers were particularly active and in some cases where the jungle was particularly thick. May brought heavy periodic pre-monsoon rain making movement of any sort through thick, sodden jungle a Herculean task, especially to the Manchester men burdened with Vickers guns and their heavy awkward tripods and equipment. Furthermore, mosquitoes and a myriad of other insects added to the discomfort of man and beast alike. ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ Companies were involved in every operation of the fighting around Kohima, from their first contact with the Japanese at Milestone 32 on the Dimapur approach to Kohima and in support and consolidation of all the attacks on the Japanese positions on Terrace Hill, Two Tree Hill, Jail Hill, DIS Ridge, FSD Ridge, Kuki Picquet and the Naga village until the 2nd Division’s meeting with the Imphal garrison at Milestone 109 on the Kohima - Imphal road on June 22nd, 1944. After the battle a memorial was erected on Garrison Hill, Kohima, to the 1,287 men of the British 2nd Division who had died holding the position. It was considered appropriate that the inscription on the memorial should be adopted from that on the memorial at Thermopylae raised by the army of Sparta in 480 BC. It sends a potent message of remembrance from those who fell, to their country, their families, their families and their comrades - and of encouragement to future generations. It reads: When you go home, tell them of us and say: For your tomorrow we gave our today. The 2nd Division spent July and August 1944 in rest and retraining in the Kohima / Imphal area. They then began their advance across the Chindwin into Burma with Slim's XIV Army. 2nd Division completed the crossing of the Irrawaddy on February 28th, 1945. Some weeks later, on March 17th, No. 7 Platoon of ‘C’ Company, supporting the 1st Cameron Highlanders, captured Ava Fort - the southern gateway to the city of Mandalay. The crossing of the river Myittinge was secured and they advanced to the southern end of the great railway bridge from Sagaing. It had been an exhausting advance with the Manchester 's carrying their Vickers machine guns and equipment for three days with virtually no breaks. During these last actions of the Mandalay campaign the battalion took part in two massed shoots. The whole of ‘A’ Company assisted the the 2nd Norfolks to clear Myotyingyi and ‘C’ Company carried out the last massed shoot of the campaign against 30 heavily armed Japanese established on an island in the River Myittinge above Paleik. The battle for Mandalay was over on March 23rd. On April 3rd No. 1 Platoon of ‘A’ Company took part in what was probably its final action. With two platoons of ‘D’ Company of the 1st Royal Scots they set up a night ambush that completely wiped out over 60 of the enemy. The 2nd Division then moved to Calcutta and it was there when Rangoon fell and the Japanese army surrendered. It left Burma on April 11th, 1945 for India with the division after serving in Burma for one year. With the end of the war in May 1945 the battalion moved to Secunderabad, where the battalion had last been stationed in 1932. ‘D’ Company, 2nd Battalion, The Manchester Regiment M-G 36th Indian Infantry Division – 17 October 1943 to 1 September 1944 ‘D’ Company was detached to the 29th Infantry Brigade in early 1943 and came under the division on October 17th, 1943. It moved under command of the 36th Indian Infantry Division from Poona to Calcutta then to Chittagong on February 18th, 1944. It served with the division in the Arakan and was withdrawn to Shillong, Assam on June 5th, 1944. The division then reequipped there until July 1944. ‘D’ Company was flown to Myitkyina with the division on August 1st, 1944 and served with it in Burma until the division was renamed 36th British Infantry Division on September 1st, 1944, being reorganized as a British division. It continued to serve with the division until May 15th, 1945.
Thats some great info - would love to see it a bit bigger....... can you email the citations please? Wayne
Thanks guys Dickinson - Dickensen? For some reason the citations and his release docs have it with a 'E' but others and most importantly his Pay book as it as Dickinson and crucially he signed his signature with an 'I'. To be honest it seems a bit unfair to have been downgraded to a MID from an MM Regards Wayne
Sure, I've just sent the full-size PDF to your forum inbox. From the looks of the citation, his Battalion, Division and Corps commanders all recommended an MM, and only when it reached Bill Slim was it downgraded to MiD. Kenyon was similarly downgraded from a DCM to MM it seems.
Always amazes me - Kenyon was in charge of a successful ambush and gets an MM which is fine but the guy who triggered it correctly and was involved hand to hand gets a MID. Surely from a 'Bravery' point of view should have been the other way round? But then if he had an MM I wouln't have the pleasure of researching his medals as they would be more than I could afford!! Wayne
Probable - this would allow you to apply for his service records England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 Name: John Dickinson Death Age: 54 Birth Date: 26 Aug 1915 Registration Date: Oct 1969 [Nov 1969] [Dec 1969] Registration Quarter: Oct-Nov-Dec Registration District: Manchester Inferred County: Lancashire Volume: 10e Page: 1078 The results show 4 x John Dickinson born Jul/Aug/Sep 1925 in the correct area John P Dickinson 1915 Jul-Aug-Sep Bolton Lancashire John Dickinson 1915 Jul-Aug-Sep Chorley Lancashire John Dickinson 1915 Jul-Aug-Sep Prestwich Lancashire John Dickinson 1915 Jul-Aug-Sep Ulverston Lancashire Perhaps Salford (as mentioned above) wasnt a registary district at the time and my knowledge of the area is not brilliant
Thanks Guys I see he has several (possible) mentions in the local Manchester paper from 1944 - 49. I have FMP but no newspaper access.... can any kind member check them out and send me a copy? The main hope of course is a photo? Regards Wayne
