Description
Object description
Five ms letters (3pp, 4pp, 3pp, 4pp, 24pp, with word-processed transcriptions, 17pp, which include explanatory detail) the first four starting on 3 September 1939 and ending January 1940 written to his mother while he was working for Burmah-Shell in Mhow, India, talking about the outbreak of the war, with really strong opinions about Hitler and Germany in general, how she wouldn't now be able to join him in India, mobilization of British personnel, and how he came to sign up as an Officer Cadet, and trying to get her to sell their car at a better value or ship it out to India. He was later Adjutant for 27th Mountain Regiment Indian Artillery (IA), but was in charge of 2nd (Derajat) Indian Mountain Battery (attached 24th Indian Mountain Regiment in the 5th Indian Division) during the Second Arakan Offensive, and the last long and detailed letter, written June 1944, contains much detail about the campaign from February 1943 - June 1944, focussing mainly on the fighting from January to April 1944, with good details of the Battery's movements, particularly around Maungdaw, Burma, the close hand-to-hand fighting he witnessed at Point 124, albeit from his Forward Observation Post, artillery support to infantry, Rajputs, until they were too close to the enemy, the trench systems at Point 124, hills on the Maungdaw-Buthidaung road, shelling the Razabil fortress, 24th Indian Mountain Regiment and one of the Brigades of 5 Division going through the Ngakyedauk Pass to help relieve 7th Division in the Admin Box at Sinzweya on the other side of the Mayu Range (February 1944), the Japanese counter attacks, moving to Bawli Bazaar and Taung Bazaar, a patrol to take a message to the Admin Box, connecting up with the rest of the Regiment who had been having a pretty tough time in the main 7th Division HQ box, coming under Japanese attacks while the Regiment was crossing the Ngakyedauk Pass, praise for the Regiment's mules, having a grandstand view of the taking of the Razabil fortress by Rajputs, sleeping in Japanese trenches and seeing the results of the shelling, the whole of 5th Indian Division being moved by air to Dimapur, and losing a colleague and friend John Rowbotham to a sniper. Together with: his contemporary annotated map of Kohima, Nagaland, India (printed April 1944) with the artillery trajectories and significant places of the battlefield written on by Nettelfield; and a Japanese Government Ten Rupees bank note.
Content description
Five ms letters (3pp, 4pp, 3pp, 4pp, 24pp, with word-processed transcriptions, 17pp, which include explanatory detail) the first four starting on 3 September 1939 and ending January 1940 written to his mother while he was working for Burmah-Shell in Mhow, India, talking about the outbreak of the war, with really strong opinions about Hitler and Germany in general, how she wouldn't now be able to join him in India, mobilization of British personnel, and how he came to sign up as an Officer Cadet, and trying to get her to sell their car at a better value or ship it out to India. He was later Adjutant for 27th Mountain Regiment Indian Artillery (IA), but was in charge of 2nd (Derajat) Indian Mountain Battery (attached 24th Indian Mountain Regiment in the 5th Indian Division) during the Second Arakan Offensive, and the last long and detailed letter, written June 1944, contains much detail about the campaign from February 1943 - June 1944, focussing mainly on the fighting from January to April 1944, with good details of the Battery's movements, particularly around Maungdaw, Burma, the close hand-to-hand fighting he witnessed at Point 124, albeit from his Forward Observation Post, artillery support to infantry, Rajputs, until they were too close to the enemy, the trench systems at Point 124, hills on the Maungdaw-Buthidaung road, shelling the Razabil fortress, 24th Indian Mountain Regiment and one of the Brigades of 5 Division going through the Ngakyedauk Pass to help relieve 7th Division in the Admin Box at Sinzweya on the other side of the Mayu Range (February 1944), the Japanese counter attacks, moving to Bawli Bazaar and Taung Bazaar, a patrol to take a message to the Admin Box, connecting up with the rest of the Regiment who had been having a pretty tough time in the main 7th Division HQ box, coming under Japanese attacks while the Regiment was crossing the Ngakyedauk Pass, praise for the Regiment's mules, having a grandstand view of the taking of the Razabil fortress by Rajputs, sleeping in Japanese trenches and seeing the results of the shelling, the whole of 5th Indian Division being moved by air to Dimapur, and losing a colleague and friend John Rowbotham to a sniper. Together with: his contemporary annotated map of Kohima, Nagaland, India (printed April 1944) with the artillery trajectories and significant places of the battlefield written on by Nettelfield; and a Japanese Government Ten Rupees bank note.
History note
Cataloguer SJO