23 March 1944 - No.5 Commando

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23 March 1944.
No.5 Commando had been at Maungdaw, resting, for just one day when it was called upon to meet a totally unexpected emergency. Although nothing to do with Operation Screwdriver, this stirring exploit cannot go unrecorded.

News had arrived that a forward battery of mountain artillery on the edge of the foothills three miles away had been pinned down by infiltrating Japanese and was in grave danger of being overwhelmed.
The Commando was suddenly called upon to go to their assistance and Lt Col David Shaw at once sent his second-in-command, Major Robin Stuart (himself a gunner), with 4 and 5 Troops under Capts Richard Sheddon and Bill Kerr, to rescue them.
Shaw told his men that this was a good opportunity to have a real crack at the Japanese and all ranks responded to the occasion with a relish that would have excited the admiration of an Alexander or a Caesar.
The morale was sky high and the troops sang all the way on the approach march until their officers had to stop them and order silence.
Stuart ordered Kerr's 5 Troop to make the attack, with 4 Troop in reserve in a defensive position close to the battery of 3.7inch mountain howitzers. The terrain ahead was rough and broken jungle with a group of three steep hills predominating, very difficult for manoeuvre, fire control and observation, but ideal for ambush, with here and there a flat paddy-field in the valleys.
The exact enemy positions were not known. The day had already well advanced into afternoon and there was no time for a carefully planned strategem of text-book nicety.

Stuart, after a quick appreciation, gave the simplest orders and Kerr's 5 Troop went straight over the rough ground with tremendous gusto and in exemplary order.
The Japanese, concealed in the trees, let them approach closely then let fly with automatics, heavy machine-guns, mortars and rifles.

The Troop immediately took sharp casualties, but the remainder ignored the shock and pressed on in a high fighting spirit, the junior leaders inspired with
initiative, every man responding instinctively to the call of the moment.
A furious and confused fire-fight at close quarters went on until nearly dusk, but one by one the enemy posts were overcome or driven back half a mile or so.
Two machine-guns were captured. Heavy casualties were inflicted.
Meanwhile, back at the battery position, 4 Troop listened with impatient expectancy to the shooting ahead and stood ready to go forward to support their comrades. The wireless sets failed to overcome the obstacles of the hills and no news came through of the fortunes of 5 Troop.
Stuart sent out two officer patrols under Lts Gordon Dashwood and Ken Waggett but they made no contact. The sun declined and 4 Troop waited...
Late in the afternoon, with only one hour of daylight left, TSM Foster of 5 Troop appeared out of the bush and asked for help in rescuing the wounded.
Sheddon sent out Lt Ray Noble with one sub-section and a medical orderly, L/Cpl Walker.
Guided by Foster, who had taken a circuitous route to avoid observation, Noble hurried forward as best he could through the hilly jungle. After about a mile the jungle ended suddenly and beyond it lay a large stretch of open paddy.
In the centre of this lay a cluster of 5 Troop's dead and wounded.
As soon as Noble's party emerged from the bush they were met by a hail of heavy machine-gun and mortar fire. It was difficult to pinpoint the enemy and Noble knew that time was against him. It was already 17.30hrs.
He put his men under cover, except for Pte Martin and another who manned the 2-inch mortar.
Inevitably the two were dangerously exposed but very soon their mortar bombs, of which there were too few, were whispering down into the enemy's location.
Under this covering fire, Noble himself went out alone, carrying his only stretcher. He safely reached the area where the casualties lay and the first of the wounded that he saw was Kerr, severely wounded, but still issuing orders. His orderly, Fusilier Glennister, was with him and had patched him and the others as best he could with field dressings. A Bren-gunner was there too, still manning his weapon and all set to fight to the last round. Noble and Glennister together got Kerr on to the stretcher, crawled away among the dead and wounded and carried him across the open paddy to safety, miraculously escaping the bursts of fire that the enemy put down.
Four more times Noble went out, alone, to the wounded, carrying them out on his back.
All the time he was under fire from automatics and mortars bombs, which paused only when Martin's own mortar could effectively reply.
Dusk had nearly fallen after Noble's fifth trip, when he brought back the defiant Bren-gunner too.
Simulated bird-calls and animal noises warned him that the Japanese were at their usual tricks of working round to trap him.
At that moment he was un-expectantly joined in the gloaming by a few men of 5 Troop, who included some walking wounded and a stretcher case who had become separated from the main force.
By this time Sgt Fred Slack had improvised some additional stretchers from bamboo and from rifles of the dead. Together they set off in the dark on an agonizing march back, up and down the steep, wooded, trackless hills, the wounded on their makeshift stretchers crying at every jolt and stumble, the stretcher-bearers themselves exhausted and barely able to see their way.
But the stars shone out in all their tropic splendour when at last the little band, after more than one check, rejoined their Troop and began the journey back to Maungdaw. Pain and weariness were swallowed up in the pride of an exploit bravely conducted and in the warm commendations that followed. In this exploit Kerr's 5 Troop had lost twenty-two killed and fourteen wounded.

A high price - more than half the Troop.
But the guns were saved...

Kerr himself lost an arm but was awarded the Military Cross.
Not surprisingly Ray Noble was initially recommended for the VC by Shaw, but instead he too was awarded an Immediate MC.

Rfn Mick Collins, 5 Troop, No5 Cdo described the events:

''... 3 and 4 Sub-Sections were surrounded and caught in the open by withering machine-gun fire. Capt Kerr was badly wounded having his arm practically severed by machine-gun fire.
Everywhere lay dead and wounded Commandos. Those who could move tried to reach the cover of the jungle but were shot down immediately.
Capt Kerr was again shot in both legs and lost consciousness.
4 Troop coming to the rescue bought 2 inch mortars into play and, after a while, they seemed to be having some effect.
Just before dusk, Lt Noble brought a stretcher party out into the open and, at great personal risk, took Capt Kerr to cover. Lt Noble returned to rescue me (Rfn Collins) and then 3 other Commandos...''

Truly we may say of Them, When Shall Their Glory Fade...