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The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.
Announcements
- The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 24 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web.
- 22nd April 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 263973 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible.
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- The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web.
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Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our
Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. |
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Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home. If you have any unwanted
photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them.
The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted.
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Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a
Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.
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Want to know more about 178th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery ? There are:525 items tagged 178th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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Pte. James Cledwyn Jones 178th Field Regiment, Signal Sec. Royal Artillery Cled Jones was transferred to the 36th Division as part of the 178th Assault Field Regiment on 24th of October 1943. The Division took part in the Arakan offensive in 1944 where there was tough jungle fighting to try to extricate the Japanese from the hill country around Ngayadauk and Mayu which was difficult given the tenacity of the Japs to fight to the last man. In June 1944 his unit entered the concessional area in north west Burma where they came under the Command of Vinegar Joe Stilwell and his American Chinese forces. He spoke of being flown in by glider and taking over from the remains of the Chindits.
His qualification was as an electrician signaler where the training he had previously had in Doncaster, Bury and Huddersfield was used to help supply power, telephone cables and send and receive messages by Morse Code. He recalled tough fighting around Myitkyina and Mogaung. He spoke of the reliance on American planes which supplied everything and occasions when members of his unit ran out of food for several days when a drop missed its targets. He spoke of the Japanese calling out in English to get responses to locate where the British troops were. During this period they were the British troops furthest away from home. They needed machetes to cut through the jungle which was full of snakes many of which were poisonous. They were trained to stay put and not to attempt to flee or surrender when they were encircled by the Japanese . From time to time he went down with Malaria and was in hospital.
In January 1944 the division crossed the mighty Irrawaddy River by raft over to its western bank and came under command of General Slim's Fourteenth Army and took part in the tough fighting as that Army moved south as part of the final assault that broke the final Japanese resistance in Burma. He spoke of the Banzai charges by the Japanese and the hand to hand fighting that ensued. He spoke highly of a visit to the unit by Bill Slim of whom he was a great supporter.
He recalled receiving the news that the enemy had surrendered after the dropping of the Atomic Bombs which removed the need to be part of an assault invasion force in Indonesia. However his unit was transferred to Jakarta then called Batavia in November 1944. On 18 November his Commanding Officer signed off his form for notification of impending release. His comments "conduct was assessed as exemplary and described as having performed his military duties with the greatest efficiency and can be trusted to do so without supervision. In his capacity as electrician signals he is painstaking and thorough proving himself cooperative and willing to give of his best at all times".
He finally arrived home on 31 March 1946. He arrived with a bush hat and a Jap cap. He had been away with the Army for almost six years and found that those who had skived off military duties had been promoted above him. Although by nature a great raconteur be spoke rarely about the war and never wore his medals. He put it all behind him and got on with making up for lost time going out dancing with Megan.
In 1954 they were given a home fit for heroes, a council house in the Clase in Swansea and he worked hard in the Post Office eventually becoming a Head Postmaster in Ludlow and finally in Neath. Megan died of breast cancer in 1977 and fortunately after early retirement during his wife's illness Cled went back to work handling the insurances taken out by Alun Griffiths Contractors in Abergavenny until well into his seventies. Occasionally when it was hot in the summer he had some Malaria type fevers which went away when it got cooler.
He was and is still much loved. When he died in 1992 he had three funeral services and a large bench was given in his name to the bowls club in Pandy near the England Wales Border north of Abergavenny where he was remembered well. It is kept overnight in a shed and brought out for the matches.
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Gnr. Percy "Sam" Twigg 178th Field Regiment Percy Twigg enlisted in August 1941 under the National Service Act 1939. He was 34 at the time. He was posted to 25th Medium and Heavy Training Regiment and then to the 178th Field Regiment when it was formed in January 1942. He embarked in March 1943 for India, travelling via Cape Town, arriving in Bombay in June 1943. He was hospitalised in September 1943 for 2 months suffering from Malaria and again in July and October 1944. His regiment was part of the 36th Infantry Division, that for a time was in the Northern Area Combat Command under American General Joe Stilwell. In December 1945 he was formally discharged and embarked for return to the UK from Batavia as part of Group 25 A release, arriving home in February 1946. He received an exemplary record of conduct. He was employed mainly as a driver of all types of vehicles. In May 1946 he was transferred to 2(T) Reserves and discharged on completion of engagement.
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