Person:Cyril Turner (1)

Active service in WW2 14th Army / 2nd Division / 150th Royal Armoured Corps. Part of the 254th Independent Tank Brigade / 19th Indian (Dagger) Division Wireless operator. Sailed to India at end of August 1941 Crossing the Irrawaddy river at night Action in Imphal 1st Tanks to enter Mandalay

Awarded the following medals ref: D/Medals/2/1/502275 39/45 Star Burma Star Defence Medal War Medal 39/45

The Battles of Imphal and Kohima, March-July 1944

In March 1944 the Japanese 15th Army began an advance against Indias north-east frontier to forestall a planned British invasion of Burma. The Japanese intended to capture the British supply bases on the Imphal Plain and cut the road linking Dimapur and Imphal at Kohima. A Japanese diversionary attack in the Arakan was defeated at the battle of the Admin Box but in early April the troops at Kohima and Imphal were cut off. Supplied by air, the garrisons threw back the Japanese attacks in bitter close quarter fighting until relief forces reached them. At Kohima, the garrison commander, Colonel Hugh Richards, hastily organised a scratch force built around 4th Battalion, The Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment and the Assam Regiment. His 1500 troops held a tight defensive perimeter centred on Garrison Hill. Facing them were 15,000 men of the Japanese 31st Infantry Division commanded by Lieutenant-General Kotoku Sato. Between 5 and 18 April Kohima saw some of the bitterest close-quarter fighting of the War and in one sector only the width of the towns tennis court separated the two sides. When on 18 April the relief forces of the British 2nd Division arrived, Richardss defensive perimeter was reduced to a shell-shattered area only 350 metres square. Despite the arrival of British and Commonwealth reinforcements and supplies, the battle continued to range around Kohima until 22 June when the starving Japanese began their desperate withdrawal. The opening of the road at Kohima ensured the relief of Imphal. In this, their greatest defeat yet on land, the Japanese lost over 60,000 men and the momentum gained here allowed General Slims 14th Army to begin the reconquest of Burma.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Ancestry.com. England Wales, Death Index: 1984-2004. (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005.Original data - General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England: General Register Office. © Crown copyright. Published by permission of the Cont).

   Name: Cyril Turner
   Birth Date: 14 Jul 1913
   Birth Place:
   Death Date: Feb 1988
   Death Place: Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire _APID: 1,7579::7635951

2. ↑ Ancestry.com. WWII United News Newsreels, 1942-1946. (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007.Original data - Motion Picture Films from “United News” Newsreels, 1942-1945; Office for Emergency Management. Office of War Information. Overseas Operations Branch. New York Office.).

   _APID: 1,1142::210

3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 England. FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1983. (Free UK Genealogy).

   Birth date: Jul 1913
   Birth place: Yorkshire - West Riding, United Kingdom
   _APID: 1,8912::56372471

4. ↑ General Register Office. England Wales, Marriage Index: 1984-2004. (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006.Original data - General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England: General Register Office. CD-ROM of the England and Wales, Civil Registration In).

   Marriage date: Oct-Nov-Dec 1946
   Marriage place: Sheffield, Yorkshire - West Riding
   _APID: 1,8753::57663587

5.   Ancestry.com. Public Member Trees: (Note: not considered a reliable primary source)
   Ancestry Family Trees.

   http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=1497586&pid=10