Middle eastern commandoes, 142 Com Coy & Chindit question!

Ok, bit long winded this, but here goes....

Am helping a friend collate a definitive list of British troops taking part in the first Chindit Operation, Longcloth.

This has also expanded to include a list of British prisoners at Rangoon Jail.

Included in the personnel will be the training staff from 142 Commando Company (see seperate threads) - both Bernard Ferguson in 'Beyond the Chindwin' and Louis Allen in 'Burma - The Longest War', mention that the commandoes and engineers from this unit were absorbed into the Columns (Mike Calvert was the units last commander).

A letter from 142's commander at initial formation (Major English), mentions it was formed with Commandos from the middle east.

So, my question is......

Who are these Commandoes, or what unit would they be from?

They would have been posted late 1941 / early 1942?

Once I have an idea of the unit, I can use geoffs search engine to search for casualties in the right place/right time (or wrong place/wrong time really..).

Appreciate any help.

Pete.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 04/01/2010 00:52:41

Hi Pete

The Book Middle East Commandos by Charles Messenger has a paragraph based on Mission 204. Volunteers were called from the remnants of Layforce ( a mixure of 50, 51, 52ME Cdos...and others special forces units) and Mission 101 ( Wingate and others from Abyssinia) to go to the Far East. They arrived at Mission 204 and received Bush Warfare Training at Maymyo. The two groups combined numbered 10 officers and 125 other ranks. They were later formed into 2 Special Service Detachments (SSD1 led by John Milman and SSD2 led by Courtenay Brocklehurst).

Might be worth a read

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 04/01/2010 10:20:20

Pete,

Thats excellent, thank you.

Will keep an eye out for a copy.

Once the Chindit column was committed, the instructors from Maymyo were attached, whilst Mission 204 went off to China. I need to differentiate between the Maymyo staff and Mission 204 personnel, but I have a feeling the passage of time may defeat me in looking for such detail !

Regards

Pete.

Well, some success.

We now have 31 personnel from 142 Commando Company identified - primarily from Longcloth records.

As to which of these were Commandos, and which were Royal Engineers or other units, its a bit difficult to say, as none are identified by a Commando unit, only by original Regts if at all.

Logically, the next step would be to work on 204 Mission personnel, but I think I might do something easier for a while....

The chap doing the real work has sent me a database of names, I will try and post it up here for reference.

Regards

Pete

Pete Keane wrote:Well, some success.

We now have 31 personnel from 142 Commando Company identified - primarily from Longcloth records.

As to which of these were Commandos, and which were Royal Engineers or other units, its a bit difficult to say, as none are identified by a Commando unit, only by original Regts if at all.

Logically, the next step would be to work on 204 Mission personnel, but I think I might do something easier for a while....

The chap doing the real work has sent me a database of names, I will try and post it up here for reference.

Regards

Pete

Hi Pete, Just come across this old posting of yours. I am researching Courtney Brocklehurst as he was a local lad. I have quite a lot of info on him but lots of gaps too, and info on how he got on Mission 204 and SSD2 is vague. I have read several books but most only mention him briefly.

Just wondered whether you managed to put together a list of the personnel and who was in SSD2?

Thanks.

Alan