Description
Physical description
star, six pointed, in copper-zinc alloy approx 44.5mm in height and 51mm in width. The obverse design bears the 'GRI VI' cypher, ornate, in a circular centrepiece surrounded by an edged band bearing text 'THE BURMA STAR'. The star is suspended (via a linked ring on the tip of uppermost ray) by a ribbon 31mm in width with a central vertical stripe of red with three narrow vertical stripes of navy blue orange and navy blue at each edge. The design of the ribbon is attributed to HM King George VI. The ribbon colours are said to symbolise the British Commonwealth forces (red) and the sun (orange).
Qualifying service in the Burma campaign counted as from 11 December 1941. For land operations the award was made for services in Burma, and for services on land in Bengal or Assam from 1 May 1942 to 31 December 1943, and from 1 January 1944 onwards, in those parts of Bengal or Assam east of the Brahmaputra. For the Royal and Merchant Navies awards were confined to service in the Bay of Bengal enclosed by lines running from a point 300 miles off the southernmost point of Ceylon, thence to a point 300 miles from the southernmost point of Sumatra and continuing to the western side of the Sundra Strait. The Malacca Strait was included. Air crew service in operations against the enemy qualified as did entry into the prescribed areas of land operations by Navy personnel and non air crew RAF personnel. Those who qualified for both the Burma and Pacific Stars (qv) were awarded the first star earned with a clasp on the ribbon to denote that qualifying service for the second star had been rendered.
History note
Regimental Sergeant Major Bertie Robert 'Winkie' Fitt served with the Norfolk Regiment throughout his army career. He joined the 2nd Battalion from the 1st Battalion who had been in India, after the 2nd Battalion had been decimated in the 1940 campaign in France. Corporal Fitt was immediately put in charge of his cadre in A company due to his previous 7 years' service. He was promoted to sergeant. Not all those transferred from the 1st Battalion were of similar calibre, as Fitt remarked in his oral history interview:
'Well, like every other battalion, if you transfer men from one battalion to the other, you obviously don't transfer your best men. So we got a mixed bag. Quite a number of them had been called up for service and didn't care what they did, or what happened to them. They weren't very helpful. Some of them were quite terrors, they'd go out and cause trouble if they could, chiefly fighting. Going out, getting drunk, missing the bus home and being late coming in.'
Fitt worked very well with his commanding Lieutenant Sam Horner, as like any sensible young officer he listened to his sergeant when he wasn't sure what to do. Fitt then became the Provost Sergeant of the battalion, responsible for discipline with his punishment parades acquiring a reputation second to none.
The unit retrained, for instance undertaking combined operations training aboard HMS Glenairn in Loch Fyne, and then embarked for India on 15 April 1942.
The battalion was part of 2nd Division, it underwent acclimatisation as Fitt remarked: 'But as far as the regiment was concerned they realized that if you were fighting out east, then you may have to fight through the heat of the day and do long marches. So most of the training consisted of route marches, starting off about eight, ten miles and then building up to a matter of about twenty five miles in a day – all in the heat of the day. Very, very hard going.' The battalion also underwent jungle warfare training before joining the fighting at Kohima in North East India. Sergeant Fitt was in charge of B Company, leading by example as he stated: 'I wanted to go into battle with thirty men and come out with thirty men. That was my idea as far as the leadership was concerned. I never asked any troops under me to do what I couldn't or wouldn't do myself.' In one attack on GPT Ridge, his company captured a 70mm gun. In the attack on Norfolk bunker, in actual fact a cluster of interconnected bunkers, Captain Jack Randle took over command of B Company and led the frontal attack. Fitt remarked: 'We moved and we got about half to the base of the hill, Captain Randle had already been hit at least twice before we even got to the bottom of the hill.' Randle was shot but managed to release his grenade into the bunker, Fitt and his men carried on as the first two bunkers they had taken, were just the start of the Japanese defence system. He was hit whilst attacking another bunker and was evacuated to the regimental aid post. For this action Randle was awarded the VC and Fitt the DCM. The citation for his DCM stated: 'His able handling of his sections resulted reduction of three enemy bunkers in quick succession, and the maintenance of the attack…On this and the following day his personal example to his men inspired them in a manner beyond praise. When orders for withdrawal were issued C/Sgt. Fitt remained in command though wounded and succeeded in withdrawing what was left of his Coy.'
Fitt served throughout the Burma campaign, as well as in Berlin and Korea after the war.