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5776740
Corporal
Cyril Giles Ashmead
1919/04/30 - Born Nottingham
Occupation Clerk
1939/10/19 - Enlisted
Royal Norfolk Regiment
5th Battalion
53rd Infantry Brigade
18th Division
Cashier’s Clerk
Service
Late 1939 the 5th Battalion HQ was at Dereham with Lt.-Col. G.N.Scot-Chad in command with other units at Aylsham, North Walsham and Holt. For the first few months individual training was at Holt and Weyborne and the men were given the task of building and manning the North Norfolk Coastal Defences. The battalion colours were in Sheringham Church, as Lt.-Col. Scot-Chad carried the Kings Colours and Maj.B.Savory the Regiment Colours.
In March 1940 section training begun and Lt-Col. E.C.Prattley, who had served with the 2nd Battalion in France, took over command of the battalion and Maj. H.T.Crane took over as second in command. In May company training begun only to be interrupted during the early summer months, after Dunkirk and with the threat of invasion, the battalion was given the job of manning the Coastal Defences at Weyborne. Whilst building the defences they carried on with their training and were achieving a high degree of skill as a unit.
With the threat of an invasion past the battalion was issued with transport vehicles and advanced training was then carried out. The battalion was moved to Gresham School at Holt in September and they now had an assault course in the woods. Being now brigaded with the 6th Royal Norfolks and the 2nd Cambridgeshires to be part of the 53 Brigade of the 18 Division, brigade training was applied.
On April 7th the brigade was moved to Northwich, near Liverpool, this move had two reasons. The city had very heavy bombing raids and needed the troops for fire watching duties plus full scale brigade attacks were to be carried out in the Birmingham and Carlisle districts. The battalion took alternate roles in attack and defence in these exercises. They were now a fighting team ready for action. One final move on October 5th was back to Glasgow where on the 22nd a detachment of one officer and 55 other ranks were inspected by the King before going overseas.
1941/10/30 - 5th Royal Norfolk Regiment were transported from Liverpool in Duchess of Atholl Convoy CT.5
1941/11/08 - Transferred to USS Mount Vernon at Halifax, Nova Scotia
Contained the 53 Infantry Brigade
18th Division sailed from Halifax in Convoy William Sail 12X
After a brief visit to Trinidad to refuel, Cape Town was reached on December 9th. Shore leave was granted before sailing on the 13th December for Bombay only to be then ordered on the 23rd to sail for Mombassa and then finally Singapore. She was escorted by the H.M.S. Emerald in convoy DM.1 and reached Singapore Harbour on January 13th 1942, the battalion disembarked in heavy rain and moved to Tyersall Park Camp by truck.
1942/02/15 - Singapore surrendered to the Japanese
Japanese PoW
1942/02/15 - PoW No. 10517
Japanese Index Card - Side One
Japanese Index Card - Side Two
1943/03/19 - Transported overland to Thailand with ‘D’ Force, Train 5
New Pow No. 2144
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Date
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Camp
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Commander
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1943/06
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Tamakan (Tha Makhan)
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Col. Toosey, RA
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1943/11
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Chungkai
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Col. Outram, RA
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1944/10
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Takanan (Tha Kilan)
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Maj. Howard
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1945/01
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Nakom Paton
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Lt-Col. Coates
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1945/09/06 - Liberated Thailand
Information
Royal Norfolk Regiments in the Far East
Convoy William Sail 12X
Thailand-Burma Railway
KEW:- WO 361/2172, WO 345/2, WO 361/1954, WO 361/2196, WO 392/23, WO 361/2167, WO 361/2167, WO 361/2070, WO 361/2176
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