Units

[David Cochrane]

Sorry to take so long to get back to the forum as I've been away for a while - thank you very much for the corrections. I'm fixing the file up.

[anthony]

David

Please let me know if you do not accept any of my suggestions and I will examine them again. My last two queries.

Premindra Singh Bhagat was with the 21st Field Company, R Bombay Sapper and Miners, 5th Indian Division.

John Robert Osborn, 1st Bn Winnipeg Grenadiers. The two Canadian Battalions were originally with the Island Brigade but after the Mainland Brigade withdrew to Hong Kong Island the forces were reorganised. In the defence of Hong Kong the RRC and the 5/7th Rajputs formed the East Brigade and the Winnipeg Grenadiers, 2nd Bn R Scots and the 2/14th Punjab formed the West Brigade. (Col C P Stacey. Six years of war, Vol 1 of the Canadian official history)

Anthony

[anthony]

David

Any feedback on my suggestions.

Anthony

[David Cochrane]

Again, I apologize for not coming back for so long. However, I have now made the suggested changes to the file.

[anthony]

David

Thank you. Look forward to reading them.

Are you going to do World War 1?

Anthony

[David Cochrane]

I may do it, but it's nearly 600 names - it will take some time.

[Les]

David,

The update has been received - ta. It's now uploaded and accessible via the link on page 1 of the thread.

Les

[anthony]

Thanks to the work of David Cochrane it is possible to do some interesting analysis on the divisions awarded the Victoria Cross in World War 2. Of the 182 World War 2 Victoria Cross awards 53 were air force and navy while 129 were army and marine awards. No less than 112 of the 129 awards were to men of airborne, armoured and infantry divisions. Of the 15 airborne and armoured awards twelve were to the British Army and three to Canada.

There were 97 awards to infantry divisions with 37 to 12 Indian Army divisions (30 Indian Army and 7 British Army), 31 to 15 British Army infantry divisions (29 British Army, one Canada and one South Africa), 15 to five Australian divisions, six to three Canadian infantry divisions, six to the 2nd New Zealand Division and one each to the 1st South African and 11th African Divisions. Of 17 awards to non divisional units, 12 were British Army and one was to the Royal Marines. Of there 13 awards, seven were to Army or Royal Marine Commandos with one to the Special Boat Service and one to D Force in Burma. Of the other four British Army awards, one was to an unattached armoured regiment and two were to unattached infantry regiments with the final award to a British officer attached to the Somaliland Camel Corps.

The four other non divisional awards were to a Canadian at Hong Kong, a Fijian of the Fijian Battalion operating with a US division on Bougainville, and two to Australian units attached to independent brigades. One of the independent brigades was originally the 23rd Brigade of the 8th Australian Division that surrendered at Singapore. The 23rd Brigade was sent to Darwin in 1941. It was reconstituted with militia battalions remaining in Darwin until 1945 when it joined the II Australian Corps on Bougainville. The Victoria Cross to Private Frank Partridge was the last Army Victoria Cross of World War 2

[Deleted]

I have just seen your posts on Jdr Parkash Singh of 14/13 FFR, 100Bde, 20 Ind Div.

This was my father's unit and I was wondering if anyone had a copy of the citation for Parkash Singh's VC showing the author??

Very grateful for anything you may have.

Mark