Newbie researching 25th dragoons in India/Burma
 

Hi,
I'm the youngest son of a tank driver Ken White No 7944928, now deceased.
He served with A squadron, 25th dragoons in India and Burma from 1940 to 1946.
I have a small collections of his badges, both metal and cloth which I will post photos of in the next week or so. I also have one photo of him and his crew on a tank (type unknown) which I will post. Like many x soldiers he never discussed his days so I'm trying to find out anthing I can about his unit and action.

I have a few 25 dragoon items ,I believe they used M3 Lee tanks and in 1944 they were in Grants.RMR

Robin
Recommended reading 'Tell Them of Us, The Forgotten Army Burma' by John Leyin.

Description from Amazon:
This is a book that deserves to be made into a film. John Leyin was a gunner/loader in one of the Lee/Grant tanks that defended the perimeter in one of the greatest and least known defensive actions of WW2. Surrounded by 15,000 Japanese,cut off from any prospect of relief, the young soldiers defended the "Admin Box" for three weeks

For a potted history of war raised cavalry units including the 25th Dragoons with a plethora of photographs of badges and the servicemen wearing them, then 'For Hostilities Only' by Peter Seaman is an excellent book. Peter is a member of the forum.

Your Dad may have also served with another unit before the 25th Dragoons as they were raised in Sailkot in Feb 1941.

Mark

Robin, welcome to the forum. Have you read John Leyin's book, "Tell Them of Us. The Forgotten Army - Burma"? (Leijins Publishing, Stanford-le Hope, 2000. ISBN 0 9528789 3 3 hbk; 0 9528789 3 1 pbk.) It talks about his service in the 25th Dragoons, which might give you some insight into what it was all about. There have been quite a few books come out in recent years about the Burma campaign - at long last! My grandfather was in the 7th Indian Divn with the Royal Artillery. "For Hostilities Only", previously mentioned on the forum, discusses the history of armoured units formed during WW2, including the 25th Dragoons. I can put together a list of other books about Burma if you wish. Regards, David.

25 D took part in any number of actions, but what sticks in my mind is their action at the Battle of the Tunnels - reasonably close to the site of the Admin Box. The Tunnels (originally for a railway, took road tpt and was occupied by Jap. Both 6 SWB and 9 R Sussex claim to have taken them - but I know the son of the coy comd of R Sussex (and gained an MC there), who climbed to the top of the western tunnel as 25 D tanks blasted the entrance. Having been there twice and walked them both, it was a tremendous action.

Hi Robin
a warm welcome to the forum
looking forward to seeing your photos
regards julian

Dennis Gates, Denwar1.
 

[COLOR="Navy"]Hi Robin White, sorry rirst time i have used this site, to reply to, so bear with me.
Dad was transfered into the 25th but as he never ftalked about Burma, i am pieceing it bit by bit my self.
I have a bit of the regiments history, but need to know more.
Can we e mail each other.
By the way my dad was a Green Howard , a regular soldiewr of about 26 years, before the second war till after.
do hope you will get this,

Dennis Gates ddgates@hotmail.co.uk

/COLOR]

It's really frustrating when these old boys did not put pen to paper and describe what was actually going on, as seen by them, but, it is understandable, given the nature of events, in particular, those in the Arakan Campaign, I had an old friend in the 25th, who is sadly no longer with us and he very seldom spoke of it.
Certainly, from a badge point of view, they had some very fine ones actually made out in India, I've often regarded the typical British made examples as disappointing.

I recall reading somewhere that the 25th Dragoons wore a REME cap badge at one time when they were being relocated to disguise who they actually were.

I certainly prefer the 25th Dragoons as a cap badge as opposed to that of the REME.:)

Robin,
This is probably a silly comment (it's my first post) but, have you got your dad's service record from MOD?
It may help you in working out which questions to ask.

Each to his own I suppose. :-)

Indeed, but, certainly from my point of view, a much nicer, more interesting and of course, a far scarcer badge in comparison to a mere REME.

Battle of The Admin Box
 

I realise this is an old thread but I stumbled across it whilst looking for information on this battle. My grandfather served in Burma with the 25th Dragoons and wrote a memoir of his time there. I noticed that contributors above have commented that many of that generation did not talk too much of their service and there is little documented on a personal level.
I have been considering converting his writing into electronic format and wondered if this would be on interest to you.

The memoir is about 40 pages long and includes a number of my grandfather's paintings of the events described in the book.

Hi All,

It looks like my Dad has begun a thread and then lost it, maybe mislaid the link or something, I was doing some digging on my grandfather myself so I might try and pick this up and give him the info as a bit of a gift in 2017 sometime.

GaryB - your offer looks very appealing, is this something you have progressed with?