Undertakings of a Manchester Regiment Soldier during WW2

[Peter_McIver]

Good evening all.

I'm interested in tracing a little history of the exploits a uncle undertook during WW2 serving with the Manchester Regiment. I say uncle however he wasn't a blood relative, but a close family friend with no family (other than his wife) who we considered a uncle. As such i dont have a certificate of death (yet) or his service number to get his war records.

However I do know he served in Burma and have what seems to be a Platoon photograph taken before deploying into theatre (attached) along with his medals. He is pictured on the second row, far left.



Do any of you have information on his likely exploits, what Pl, Coy, Bn etc he belonged to, their travel to Burma, training en route and likely actions once there. Also some further reading sources into the Regiments activities would be appreciated (I plan a visit to the Regimental museum soon).

Regards,

Capt Pete McIver REME

[Robert Bonner]

Pete.
Welcome to the forum. It would be helpful to know the name of your uncle.

Assuming that he served in Burma with the Manchesters then he will have been with the 2nd Battalion which served in India and then Burma.

Thee are two books writen about the battalion.  The first is 'The Battle for Kohima' by Rex King-Clark - sadly now out of print. The other is Forward from Kohima which covers the period November 1944 to May 1945.  This is available from the regimental museum (see website).

[Wendi]

Hi Pete and a Warm Welcome to our Forum.

Always get a kick when a serving officer joins us 

You won't actually need his number to obtain his record, it would just take a little less time with. But don't let that put you off applying. 

Wendi 

[Peter_McIver]

Hi all, thanks for your warm welcome.

His name was George Ralph, evidently a LCpl at this point however I dont know if he remained as such.

I'll order Forward from Kohima to begin with and hopefully the Prince Consorts Library in Aldershot can source me a copy of Rex King-Clarks book to read.

Again, other information you may have is welcome.

Regards,

Pete