Orders, Decorations and Medals

A fine Second World War Burma operations M.M. group of seven awarded to Corporal A. H. Ford, West Yorkshire Regiment, who, as a member of his battalion’s “Guerilla Platoon”, regularly penetrated enemy lines in the Arakan

Military Medal, G.VI.R. (4390907 L. Cpl. A. H. Ford, W. York. R.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star, clasp 8th Army; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Efficiency Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue, Territorial (4390907 Cpl. A. H. Ford, M.M., W. Yorks), generally very fine (7) £1600-1800

M.M. London Gazette 8 February 1945. The original recommendation states:

‘On the night of 9-10 January 1944, Lance-Corporal Ford was Bren-gunner during the time when the Guerilla Platoon was ambushing the enemy as they withdrew across the Iron Bridge, Kanyindan, Arakan. The enemy opened fire with L.M.Gs from three sides, but Lance-Corporal Ford continued to fire his gun, inflicting casualties on them, and then covering the Platoon withdrawal. Not until the whole of his Platoon was clear of the bridge did he himself move back. On arrival at the leaguer, Lance-Corporal Ford volunteered to take a message to Kanyindan to ‘C’ Company, which involved passing through the enemy positions. This he did, and being unable to locate ‘C’ Company, who, as it happened, were not there, then returned to his platoon, again passing through the enemy. Throughout the whole operation he showed a complete disregard for his personal safety.

Recently Lance-Corporal Ford has led a number of small reconnaissance patrols, and has always succeeded in obtaining accurate information without loss to his own men. On 1 May 1944, in the Wakan area, Manipur, he was ordered to patrol the “Buttertubs” feature with a view to locating enemy positions, and sniping any movement seen there - this feature was known to be strongly held by the enemy. Lance-Corporal Ford led his patrol with great skill into the middle of the enemy locality in daylight and discovered the layout of their positions - he then found that a number of the enemy were asleep in their trenches and dugouts, and succeeded in killing three of these with T.S.M.G. and grenades before the alarm was given. He then withdrew his patrol without loss in spite of heavy enemy L.M.G. fire. The forgoing is typical of the way he has discharged his duties throughout the campaign.’

Alex Havelock Ford, a native of Skelton-in-Cleveland, was serving in the 2nd Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment at the time of the above cited deeds, which unit had already lent valuable service in East and North Africa. But in June 1943, the Battalion arrived on the Burma front, to face a very different type enemy, not least in the Arakan operations in early 1944, when the Japanese launched a furious counter-offensive against Slim’s 14th Army - and right in the centre of that determined thrust lay the West Yorkshires, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel G. H. Cree, who was shortly to be awarded the D.S.O. for his courage and leadership in what became known as the “Battle of the Admin Box”.

The “Admin Box” battle proper raged throughout most of February, shortly after Ford’s exploits with a Bren-gun in the Guerilla Platoon at Kanyindan, the defenders comprising just two battalions of regular infantry, the West Yorkshires and the Gurkhas, together with artillery and two squadrons of tanks - and a mass of administrative troops, pioneers, sappers, signallers, ordnance and medical units, mule companies and native road builders, most of whom, by the month’s end, had taken up arms, often in hand-to-hand fighting:

‘Down in the bowl of the Admin Box, under the guns of the enemy on the surrounding hills, soldiers fought on, conscious only of the fact that the hour called for every ounce of courage and endurance that British and Indian could pull forth. All day long clouds of smoke rose from the target area and the sound of explosions echoed round the hills as another ammunition or petrol dump blew up. Four times stocks of ammunition were reduced to dangerously low level. Luckily, the Japanese did not realise it, and the airmen quickly replaced each loss. But the enemy continued also to pour in a torrent of mortar bombs, grenades and shells of every calibre up to 150 millimetre. Every part of the Box was vulnerable to fire, and a glimmer of light attracted an instant hail of bullets. Wounded men were operated on within 100 yards of the spot where they had fallen ... Green-uniformed snipers roped to trees and even “built” into tree-trunks took regular toll. A veteran of Dunkirk, who had spent two days on the beaches, said he would have been ready to spend two weeks there if he could be let off with two days in the Box ... ’ (The Campaign in Burma, H.M.S.O., 1946 refers).

An understandable wish given Japanese atrocities: ‘There was no spot in the Box which was free from direct or indirect Japanese fire, and casualties were heavy, many being taken to a dressing station in the shadow of one of the smaller hillocks within the perimeter, known as MDS Hill, where life-saving surgery was carried out around the clock under incessant fire ... A week into the battle, MDS Hill became the scene of an infamous act. It was overrun by screaming Japanese soldiery who slaughtered the wounded on their stretchers, and then set about the medical staff, doctors and nursing orderlies alike. As the West Yorkshires mounted a counter-attack the surviving staff and patients were lined up by their attackers and used as human shields by laughing Japanese, who then shot most of them in cold blood. Finally, six doctors were put to death after tending the Japanese wounded. A few days later the West Yorkshires avenged this terrible deed when they ambushed a party of the enemy in a nearby river bed. On inspection of the bodies, many items identified as coming from the MDS were found ... ’ (The Unforgettable Army, Slim’s XIVth Army in Burma, by Colonel Michael Hickey, refers).

In fact the West Yorkshires accounted for around 50 of the enemy in this river bed ambush, a feat they were to repeat on further occasions, as a result of which the river bed became known as “Blood Alley”; the Battalion also twice evicted the enemy from “Ammunition Hill”, costly work of a head-on nature that won the admiration and praise of Lieutenant-General Philip Christison, 15 Corps Commander - ‘Never has any regiment counter-attacked so successfully and so often as in that battle. It is rare in history that one regiment can be said to have turned the scale of the whole campaign.’ But turned it was, the Japanese offensive in the Arakan ending in huge loss, the likes of Corporal Ford adding to those losses over the coming weeks and months, initially in the operations that led to the relief of Kohima, and then in the advance along the Tiddim Road, when the Battalion fought an action about every three miles of its 200-mile length.