GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY 105
A Great War M.M. awarded to Private H. Chapman, Royal Fusiliers MILITARY MEDAL, G.V.R. (281922 Pte. H. Chapman. 4/R. Fus.) light contact marks, very fine
M.M. London Gazette 30 January 1920: ‘In recognition of gallant conduct and determination displayed in escaping or attempting to escape from captivity.’
Harry (Henry) Chapman was born in Stratford, Essex on 26 November 1888 and attested for the Royal Fusiliers on 17 June 1915. Originally posted to the 4th Battalion, he served during the Great War on the Western Front with the 2nd/4th Battalion London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) from 24 January 1917 and was a member of ‘B’ Company. He was captured and made a prisoner of war at Fontaine-lès-Croisilles on 20 June 1917 and was taken to Douai where he travelled by truck and train to the German Prisoner of War Camp at Dulmen. In March 1918, he spent time working at Nordeney (an island off the coast near Hanover) and then Soltau before being employed at a farm in Mehringen, where he escaped with a French Sergeant on 17 September 1918. He managed to get all the way home before the end of the war as his P.O.W. report was dated 23 October 1918. He was discharged on 24 January 1919 (additionally entitled to a Silver War Badge).
Sold together with copy of detailed P.O.W. report. £300-400
106
A rare Malaya 1941 operations M.M. awarded to Lance-Naik Mohd Khan, 5th Battalion, 2nd Punjab Regiment, who drove straight through the the enemy’s line in an armoured car, thereby assisting his unit’s withdrawal in the face of overwhelming odds: his award was gazetted after the War, beyond doubt as a consequence of him having been taken P.O.W. at the fall of Singapore
MILITARY MEDAL,
G.VI.R. (11335 L. Naik Mohd Khan, Punjab. R.), officially impressed naming, number officially corrected, edge bruising, otherwise good very fine
£500-600 M.M. London Gazette 25 September 1947.
‘On the Grik Road in Malaya on 20 December 1941, the situation of 8 Platoon of ‘A’ Company, which was in an exposed position on the banks of Lake Chendoran, was desperate, surrounded on three sides by an overwhelming number of the enemy.
Lance-Naik Mohd Khan, the commander of one of the armoured cars, drove straight through the enemy lines and attacked the enemy in the rear, then circled, over very rough ground, a number of times round 8 Platoon’s position, scattering and demoralising the enemy to the extent that it was possible to withdraw the Platoon in the general plan of withdrawal being carried out at the time.
Not only did this action enable 8 Platoon to be withdrawn but also enabled the continuance of the withdrawal of a forward battalion which was being menaced by the enemy about to take the position held by 8 Platoon.’
Mohd Khan was from the village of Thirpal in Jhelum district. He was recommended for his M.M. by Lieutenant-Colonel Deakin, C.O. of the the 5/2nd Punjabis, after the war, following their return from captivity. In January 1942, as the Japanese continued their victorious sweep down the Malayan peninsula towards Singapore, Deakin wrote in his diary:
During the day of 5 January I found a most lethargic lot of men. They were thoroughly depressed. There were no vehicles on the road, nor any movement whatsoever and the deadly silence, doubly noticeable owing to the blanketing effect of the jungle, was undoubtedly getting on the men’s nerves. This silence was broken from time to time by the roar of enemy aircraft overhead. The Japanese airmen could not see our troops but they knew where they were and they carried out a blanket bombing of the whole area. The 5/2nd had suffered 200 casualties with a high percentage killed. The enemy, always in overwhelmingly superior numbers, pushed on relentlessly, regardless of casualties. Never for a moment was the Battalion left in peace from the air menace and, from start to finish, they did not see a single friendly aeroplane. This undoubtedly had the most demoralising effect on the troops. And the Japanese tanks were a constant menace ... ’
Immediately after the fall of Singapore the Indian prisoners of war were collected at Farrior’s Park, where they were kept apart from the British and Australians, who had been taken to Changi Gaol. They were told that an Indian, Captain Mohan Singh of the 1/14th Punjab Regiment, had been appointed G.O.C. the Indians and that they must obey his orders. Every kind of pressure, both moral and physical, was put upon these unfortunate Indian soldiers, and they were sent to concentration camps where they were beaten, tortured and even beheaded for refusing to join the renegade army. Many died of their ill-treatment. It is to their undying credit that so many of them resisted all the efforts of the Japanese to sway them for allegiance to their King-Emperor.
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