11407315 Sergeant

Levi Gray

The Royal Norfolk Regiment (2nd batn)

26th August 1963 Age 43

 

Remembered By Anne, Brenda, Phillis,

Sydney and Heather

 

More information and images relating to Levi Gray below

 

 

 

 

11407315   Sgt Levi Gray 1920 – 1963.  Broken rock S Australia.

 

 

Believed Burma 194?

 

It looks like a course photo possibly at an Indian run jungle warfare school, NCO's and Officers were sent to these schools to learn the art of jungle fighting and then they would return to their units

 

 

 

Sgt Levi Gray born 1920 so was 19 when war broke out.

 

Joined the Royal Norfolk Regiment date unknown.

 

Was somewhere hot as in pics, so must have been with 2 battalion.

 

The 2nd RNR were sent to India (east of Bombay (Mumbi) stationed mostly at Ahmednagar) in 1942 as part of the British 2nd Infantry Division whilst in India they trained extensively in assault landing operations as well as jungle warfare. In 1944 they were rushed to DIMAPUR in response to the Japanese advance towards KOHIMA.

 

After clearing the road up to KOHIMA the 2nd RNR with the 1st Royal Scots, together they formed 4th Brigade, went on a flanking mission through thick jungle and across deep ravines and ridges to attack a feature known as GPT RIDGE. This attack was surprisingly successful though the battalion took quite heavy casualties. Once they'd captured GPT RIDGE they had to try and capture a defensive position that became known as NORFOLK BUNKER. During actions to capture this position Captain Jack Randle earned a Victoria Cross. However the position was not captured, and continued to cause problems for the battalion.

Eventually the battalion was relieved by elements of the Indian Army’s 33 Brigade and were moved back for a period of rest, before operations against a feature called ARADURA SPUR.

 

After this the battalion was heavily involved in the clearing of the road to IMPHAL fighting a sharp and bloody action at VISWEMA.

 

This covers up to the end of 1944.

 

In 1945 they were involved in the Chindwin and Irrawady crossings and the battles for MEIKTILA and MANDALAY.

 

Soon after, he attended an advanced infantry training course for NCOs and junior officers at the ‘Battle School’, near Weliveriya. Subsequently, he was sent to India to attend the Jungle Warfare School, at Shimoga, in January, 1945, for one month, before rejoining the CLI in February, 1945. In mid 1945, he led a group of 10 soldiers from his battalion on a special mission, escorting 26 interned Japanese POWs to India. As he recalled, “They were just poor harmless bastards who were captured probably from the merchant navy.” The escort party travelled by train from Colombo to Talaimannar, and the group was ferried to Dhanushkodi. Once in India, they travelled by train all the way to the Red Fort, Delhi, where the POWs were transferred. Brian affirms that by the end of the war the CLI furnished guards as POW escorts for at least 6-8 missions, between Ceylon and India.

 

While on the course our officer class went by train to Shimoga Jungle Training School, about 170 miles North West of Bangalore, living in deep rainforest jungle, for two or three days. Here we learned how to survive on the products of the rain forest. 'Jungle' in India simply means any kind of wilderness.

The main part of the course, at QVO HQ Bangalore, was on every aspect of running a Field Company of the Sappers and Miners including issue of a field service pocket book newly written for the purpose.

This stressed the importance of Officers Commanding writing a job specification for every officer and other rank in the Company and ensuring that each individual at every level had to learn not only his own but that of the rank immediately above. This was to ensure that in event of casualties the Company would continue to operate down to the last man.

 

In 1963 when I was thirteen I was informed that my uncle Levi had died in Australia. As he had emigrated there in 1950 (Think the government was encouraging people to emigrate then) the year I was born and this was the first and last I had heard of him until a few years ago, when his family in Australia contacted our family in the UK.

Having met his widow Anne and son Sydney and daughter Heather, they gave me a pic of Levi’s grave.

 

I don’t know what it is but something about that picture of his grave has been nagging at me to find out more.

 

 

Useful reference book: At The Sharp End: from La Pardais to Kohima, by Peter Hart. Its a collection of oral history recordings transcribed and placed into a narrative all about the 2nd RNR