Groups and Single Decorations for Gallantry

A Second War 1945 ‘Arakan operations’ M.M. group of five awarded to Gunner S. A. Roast, Royal Artillery, attached No. 1 Commando, for the bloody battle of Hill 170 near Kangaw after which ‘the bodies of 340 of the enemy lay in an area no more than 100 yards square’: his M.M. recommendation contains many similarities to that for the V.C. awarded for the same action to his mortally wounded Troop commander Lieutenant G. A. Knowland Military Medal, G.VI.R. (11268880 Gnr. S. A. Roast. R. A.); 1939-45 Star; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, very fine and better (5) £4,000-£5,000 --- M.M. London Gazette 19 April 1945. The original recommendation states: ‘On the 31 January 45 at Hill 170 near Kangaw, Gunner Roast was No. 1 on the Bren gun in the foremost weapon pit of his position which was constantly being rushed and grenaded. His No. 2 on the gun was wounded early in the action, and two other men who subsequently came in to act as No. 2 were either killed or wounded. Gunner Roast carried on firing on his own in spite of being on the forward slope by himself with a Japanese Medium Machine Gun facing him only 20 yards away. He only withdrew when the battle had finished and his position was taken over by relieving troops. He had fired over seventy magazines. It was largely due to his high sense of duty that the position was not over-run.’ Stanley Albert Roast, from Maryport, Cumberland, served in the Royal Artillery during the Second World War. He was attached to No. 1 Commando unit from 23 July 1943 and served with them as part of 3 Commando Brigade, 15 Corps, at the time of the above engagement at Kangaw. The Battle for Hill 170 at Kangaw, for which Roast was awarded the M.M. and Lieutenant Knowland was awarded the Victoria Cross, has been described as one of the bloodiest battles of the war. The Japanese in fact later admitted that it was their heaviest action of the Burmese Campaign. On the last day, 31 January 1945, the Japanese made a determined attempt to capture the Hill, starting their attacks at 6am and not ending until 6pm. Troops from other Commandos came and fought side by side with No. 1 Commando and the Brigade succeeded in holding the Hill at the heavy cost of 45 killed, and 90 wounded. A comparison of Roast’s M.M. recommendation and Knowland’s stirring V.C. citation - published in the London Gazette on 12 April 1945 just a few days before Roast’s M.M., - makes it clear that both men were fighting in close proximity in the foremost areas of the action that day. Further testimony to the ferocity and point blank nature of the engagement is to be found in The Green Beret by Hilary St. George Saunders: ‘So the battle raged all day, the Japanese alternating fits of frenzied digging with massed counter-attacks. Lieutenant G. A. Knowland (Royal Norfolk Regiment), an officer of No. 4 Troop of No. 1 Commando, was conspicuous in the defence. At the head of twenty four men he beat off the first attack delivered by, it was estimated, three hundred Japanese. He moved from trench to trench with ammunition for those who needed it, firing his rifle and throwing grenades. Discovering that the crew of one of his Bren guns had all been killed or wounded, he maintained the gun in action until a fresh crew could arrive, and in order to obtain a better field of fire, stood on top of the trench and fired it from the hip. The diversion thus created enabled stretcher-bearers to bring back the wounded, and these included the new Bren gun team who were all hit before they could reach the position. Lieutenant Knowland therefore continued to keep the gun in action alone. A new attack developed. To meet it he changed his weapon for a 2-inch mortar, and firing this, like the Bren gun, from the hip, killed six Japanese with his first bomb. Having used up all his ammunition he withdrew a short distance, laid hold of a rifle and continued to engage the enemy. The Japanese made a final desperate charge. Knowland flung away the rifle, picked up a Tommy gun and sprayed the attackers with it from a range of ten yards. A bullet struck him and he fell mortally wounded. His action saved the day. The Japanese made no further progress and were soon checked by counter-attacks and by fire from the guns of the landing craft at the beach. Knowland was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. Nevertheless they remained upon part of the hill, nor could No. 3 Troop of No. 1 Commando, and ‘X’ Troop of No. 42 (Royal Marine) Commando dislodge them. The Japanese maintained three machine guns in position and with these beat off another attack by No. 6 Troop of No. 1 Commando, which lost half its men. The Bren guns were manned unceasingly, casualties being replaced as they occurred. At one gun twelve men were shot down one after the other. ‘It came to a point,’ says Private L. J. Greenslade, who was there, ‘where a man who was climbing up the hill with ammunition or supplies was the next minute being brought down on a stretcher.’ The one Sherman tank left, one of its periscopes shot away, rumbled down the hill to replenish its ammunition and petrol. It returned and opened fire on the Japanese at the north end of the hill, where its shells, bursting about fifty yards ahead of the exhausted remnants of No. 4 Troop of No. 1 Commando, checked the enemy. So the battle raged until darkness fell upon white men and yellow, both alike utterly spent, each clinging to their part of the blood-soaked hill. In the short tropic twilight Thunderbolts attacked and inflicted heavy casualties. This was the end. The Japanese had shot their bolt. That night they withdrew and on the next day No. 5 Commando was able to clear the hill. The bodies of three hundred and forty of the enemy lay in an area no more than a hundred yards square. Among the Japanese corpses was one with a green beret on its head, and two mules, their hooves shod with rubber pads. Presumably they had been used for carrying heavy weapons over the chaung at night. The three Commandos had lost heavily; five officers and forty other ranks had been killed, and six officers and eighty-four other ranks wounded. Immediately after the battle Lieutenant-General Christison, commanding the 15th Indian Corps, of which the 3rd Commando Brigade formed part, issued a special order of the day. The reputation of the brigade, he said, ‘for indifference to personal danger, for ruthless pursuit in success, and for resourceful determination in adversity’ had been an inspiration to all their comrades in arms. ‘The battle of Kangaw,’ he finished, ‘has been the decisive battle of the whole Arakan campaign, and that it was won was due very largely to your magnificent courage on Hill 170.’