A fine Second World War battle of Kohima M.M. awarded to Private K. G. Williams, Royal Army Medical Corps



Military Medal, G.VI.R. (7517259 Pte. K. G. Williams, R.A.M.C.), in its named card box of issue and forwarding box, with related Buckingham Palace forwarding letter, extremely fine £1600-1800

M.M. London Gazette 22 March 1945. The original recommendation for an immediate award states:

‘Whilst at Kohima on 5 May 1944, Private Williams went forward with Staff Sergeant Davies on F.S.D. [Field Supply Depot] Ridge under heavy automatic weapon and mortar fire and succeeded in getting back a wounded N.C.O., Lance-Corporal Harris of the 1st Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers.

On the same day, when it was impossible to evacuate casualties from the Advanced Dressing Station (A.D.S.), owing to small arms fire, on his own initiative he went alone down Hospital Hill and contacted a tank, which he brought back to the A.D.S. to give cover to the stretcher bearers while carrying down the hill.

Note: Private Williams was recommended for a Mention in Despatches for services in the Arakan Campaign on 20 May 1943; this recommendation, however, was not approved by higher authority.’

Kenneth George Williams, who was born in December 1917, enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Nursing Orderly in September 1939. And by the time of the above cited deeds at Kohima in May 1944, he was serving in 6 (British) Field Ambulance, R.A.M.C., a component of 6th Brigade, 2nd Division, 33 (Indian) Corps.

The Second Battle of Kohima, May-June 1944

With the lifting of the siege of Kohima in mid-April 1944, another major battle for that famous ridge commenced, only on this occasion the British and Indian forces found themselves on the offensive against an enemy who excelled in defensive warfare. Defending every bunker with extraordinary determination, the surviving elements of Sato's 31st Division reaped heavy casualties on the men of 4th, 5th and 6th Brigades who had been allotted the unenvious task of taking the Allied advance forward.

In scenes reminiscent of the famous siege, fierce hand-to-hand fighting, sniping, grenade and phosphorous bomb attacks, and bayonet charges were all part of everyday life, the Williams’ 6th Brigade being given the task of clearing the area of the District Commissioner's bungalow, the scene of so much bloody fighting in the original siege. Unsurprisingly the men of the R.A.M.C. found themselves working round the clock, often in great danger and always in atrocious conditions. Of earlier exploits by the Medics on this very ridge, one historian described such courageous deeds being carried out amidst ‘horrible scenes of carnage ... in a welter of severed limbs, blood, excrement and scattered entrails’, facts no doubt well known to Private Williams.

The 5th May found 6th Brigade embroiled in fierce fighting on the Field Supply Depot ridge, its component Infantry in the form of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, Royal Berkshires and Durham Light Infantry taking terrible casualties - it was on this day that Williams rescued a Lance-Corporal of the former Regiment, in addition to laying on protection for the gradual evacuation of the Advanced Dressing Station. But, as summed up in Kohima, by A. Swinson, worse was to come:

'7 May and the three days that followed were probably the bitterest time in the whole battle of Kohima. After thirty-four days and nights of close and bloody fighting, after hunger, thirst, discomfort, after appalling casualties, the enemy still held the main bastions of their position. No bombs, shells, mortars, flame-throwers, or grenades could seem to shift them. The 3.7 howitzers which could have reached many of their positions were silent through lack of ammunition; no amount of railing, correspondence, argument or anything else, could produce any. The Japs had lost thousands upon thousands of men, and reports kept saying they were weak and diseased and running short of ammunition. But all the British, Gurkhas and Indians knew was that as soon as they got near a bunker, the fire poured out of it as mercilessly as ever. The British Battalions were now reduced to three or four hundred men; some had less ... It would be untrue to say that the Division had faltered; but in these days, Officers and men would sometimes look at the great ring of mountains encircling them, and wonder how on earth it could be taken, how flesh and blood could possibly stand much more'.

It would not be until early June that General Sato and his 31st Division were finally put to flight.

Williams was discharged at Hereford in February 1946.

Sold with the recipient’s original Soldier’s Release Book, Class ‘A’, together with a letter of reference from Major R. E. Johnson, R.A.M.C., dated 1 September 1944, in which he refers to Williams’ gallantry in the Imphal and Kohima actions.