Hi Mike, Not really to be honest. I would say that the date of 21/01/44 could be him moving into the final location the Kings held before being deployed into Burma. The glider flights into Broadway took place on March 5th and 6th. 11/05/44 is an interesting date as it falls in between the 1st Kings moving away from Broadway and heading for Blackpool on the 3rd May and the closure of 'Broadway' on 13th May. It is possible he was one of the last casualties flown out of the airfield? The 1 Kings suffered large losses in an engagement with the enemy on the outskirts of Broadway in very late March early April, when they were caught out by superior numbers. Otherwise the vast majority headed for Blackpool with Scott, with around 100 men becoming detached from the main group and teaming up eventually with Calvert.
thank you Steve, i know i'm going on speculation but that last post made the hair on the back of my neck stand up ,especially may have been one of the last casualty's flow out ,brings it home a bit what they went through ,well thanks to people like yourself i will keep going with this. a really big thank you mike
hello all sorry it been so long ! i have been looking but have had nothing new to add until today. when i was a lad father went to see a old mate from the army today i tracked down his family, i did not know if they met in hospital on a train ?but no ! bingo this man was Len love from zeals who also joined the Dorsets and transferred to the kings just like father . with no prompting his son said he was a chindit then walk away came back with a number of kings arm flashes plus one dorset one . this man made it all the way though the campaign. plus he was in a glider ! lens son said another man from the war used to visit his father who was syd holt ? from midsomer norton . so possibly 3 chindits from the second campaign. any information len love, syd holt and ken rose please
Hi Mike and welcome back. It sounds as though you had a worthwhile exercise in contacting the family of Len Love. I'm afraid I have not come across Len or Syd Holt on my research travels, but recently on the forum, a thread on the 1st King's has developed in the hope of tracing the entire battalion that entered Burma in March 1944. Here is the link: 1st Bn The King's (Liverpool) Regiment, Chindits. Len, Syd and your father should be of interest to the forum member compiling the roll of names. Men who survived the whole campaign and returned home to their loved ones are often the hardest of all to track down. Cheers Steve
hi Steve i was hoping you would pick this up ! yes a eventful day i was apprehensive about tracing lens family not every one wants to talk about this but i need not have worried in fact lens son remembered father going to see Len . he gave me the ok to post his name om here with the agreement if any thing turns up i will pass it on . as i say syd i know nothing about but it sounds like he was with them. ps Steve were the best section on here to post a photo ? thanks, mike
Hi Mike, There is a Gallery function which you can access and place a photograph via the top bar on all pages just below "Members'. However, if it is a photo of your Dad, then possibly the best place for it would be on the thread about the 1st King's as Chindits, which I posted in my reply yesterday. See post 24 in this thread. Cheers Steve
Hello, the only Holt that I have on my database is 14218995 Pte F Holt whose name appears in the A Coy defence Medal Roll. He is also in the A Coy, Dehra Dun photograph. There are no Love or Rose on the list either. This is not to say that they shouldn't be on it but indicates that I have not found any official documentation that shows they took part in the second Chindit campaign If you have any evidence that Len or Syd Holt took part in Operation Thursday I will be happy to add them to the confirmed list. Failing that I can add them as probables. Do you have service numbers for any of these men? Simon
I will add that I have the details of six servicemen who enlisted into the Dorsetshire Regiment before transferring to the 1st King's Regiment. Of these six, four were killed in action and one was wounded, the sixth appears on a medal roll. I know their names because they appear in the 77th Brigade signal traffic and or on the CWGC listings. It is perfectly possible to have taken part in Operation Thursday and to left no trace in any documentation.
hello high wood , please read the thread the answer is i dont know . this is facts i do know, Kenneth Douglas rose 5730257 was a chindit. it says on his service record arrived from BBRC deolali and jhansi t.o.s 1 ba kings on posting. posted on 2.8 43 and stayed as far as i know to 11/5 /44 then injured. i do know he was injured more than once and recall him saying that he did not go back with his mates, he was my dad . len love this is the only man i am sure father ever met up with after the war. this week i traced his family who with no prompting [careful about that ] they told me he was a chindit also showed me his dorset and kings shoulder patches. father joined up with the Dorsets to. lens family told me the only other man to come to see len after the war was syd holt . please ask away if you need more . if u would like to see fathers service record thats fine but i will have to get it scanned in fact i would value your input , mike
Possibly - age seems right England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916-2005 Name: Kenneth D Rose Mother's Maiden Surname: Hodges Date of Registration: Jan-Feb-Mar 1920 Registration district: Yeovil Inferred County: Somerset Volume Number: 5c Page Number: 711 England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 Name: Kenneth Douglas Rose Death Age: 56 Birth Date: 1 Jan 1920 Registration Date: Dec 1976 Registration district: Yeovil Inferred County: Somerset Volume: 23 Page: 1750 TD
Hi Mike, The young Indian lad is quite well dressed, which makes me believe he might have been your father's orderly/servant in barracks. Usually one orderly would take care of 3 or 4 soldiers, who would pay him to take care of their kit, do their laundry etc. This is just an educated guess though.
thanks td that is him ! born in somerset but close to the Dorset border moved early on in his life to Dorset. Steve that is it interesting never thought about that . just thought he may have been a local for the folks to see back home ,mike
I have found a birth registration entry for a Leonard G Love, dated 1925, Wareham, Dorset. He is of the right age to be a young Chindit, 19 in 1944.
Mike, I want to make it clear that I am not saying that your father wasn't a Chindit, I am saying that I have not found his name on any official document. This is quite common as a soldier only appeared in Casualty Lists if he was wounded or killed, likewise regarding official enquiries into the missing, if he gave evidence or was mentioned in evidence. Other soldiers are mentioned in signal traffic as being evacuated from Burma due to sickness but do not appear on casualty lists. I currently have 830 names of those members of the 1st Kings who might have, (and almost certainly did), take part in Operation Thursday, either flying in by glider on the night of the 5th/6th March 1944 or as subsequent reinforcements. Of these, 495 are confirmed as taking part due to being mentioned in official documentation that is in the public domain. Other documentation, such as the 1/King's war diary is missing for practically all of Operation Thursday, the manifests for the gliders that listed those aboard each glider have not survived except for those gliders that went missing. I cannot even be 100% sure which glider Mike Calvert flew into Broadway in. If WW2 soldiers service papers are ever released into the public domain we will have a more accurate picture of who took part. I have entered your father's name and service number onto my database and wonder if you could contact Len Love's family and see if they have a service number for him. I have also put his name on to my database. Simon.
Leonard George Love 1925–2002 BIRTH 3 NOV 1925 • Wareham, Dorset DEATH OCT 2002 • S and W Dorset, Dorset, England Married in 1948 TD edited to add: Simon - I have sent messages via Ancestry to 2 trees that include him to see if they have any info
hello Simon, i am sorry if i came over a bit strong it was not meant that way ! father was a casualty he was permanently disabled and had a army pension can we go any were with that ? len love , i will not get to see his son for a while,but do plan to i am not happy the man found by td is the right len . if he did join on around the time of father he would have been older i know his son told me he was 64 when he died.can i as another favor of you ? would you be kind to let me have the names of the other dorset lads that transferred to kings ? i have another picture of father with a unknown that i thing was taken at Bournemouth thanks ,mike
Mike, I have checked the WW2 casualty lists and cannot find your father's details on it. Here are the names of the other Dorsetshire Regiment soldiers who transferred to the 1st King's. When a man joined the Army after 1920 he was given a number from a batch allocated to the regiment that he joined and kept that number throughout his career, even if he changed regiments. Using those number blocks I have put a King's man's first regiment against his name in my spread sheet. 05/03/1944 5738897 Dorsetshire Regt Pte Maynard. Francis, James, Clement. KiA 06/03/1944 5730002 Dorsetshire Regt Pte Silvester. Joseph William Henry. KiA 22/03/1944 5730266 Dorsetshire Regt Pte Wilkins. Robert, John. KiA 21/05/1944 5730036 Dorsetshire Regt Pte Wise. Donald Muleteer. KiA Namsun, account by CQMS C Ashton 18/06/1944 5730218 Dorsetshire Regt Pte Collins. R T Wounded. 18/06/1944 Naungkaiktaw 5729835 Dorsetshire Regt HQ Pte Karney P. HQ Coy DMR 5730257 Dorsetshire Pte Rose. Kenneth Douglas. WW2 talk query Dorsetshire Love. Leonard Martin. WW2 talk query Dorsetshire Holt. Sydney. WW2 talk query The Leonard Love that TD has highlighted is the only man of that name born in Dorset at the appropriate. Of course you didn't have to have been born in Dorset to have joined the Dorsetshire Regiment. Simon
Surname Given Name Mother District Volume Page Births Sep 1914 Love. Leonard M. Love. Shaftesbury 5a 360 The district Shaftesbury is in the county of Dorset. Deaths Name: Leonard Martin Love Death Age: 64 Birth Date: 12 May 1914 Registration Date: Dec 1978 Registration district: Warminster Inferred County: Wiltshire Volume: 23 Page: 2311