Two years ago, I set myself the challenge of writing about an ancestor who died in military conflict, with the aim of publishing a Remembrance Day blog post to mark their life. In November 2022, I duly published the story of my great uncle Sam and at the end of that post, I set myself a new challenge: namely, to find out more about the Second Chindit Expedition and about Sam’s part in it.

As part of the process of writing the story of Sam’s war time experiences, I wanted to get a copy of his military service record and although it took several months, it did eventually arrive and, armed with his dates and movements, I’m now able to expand on my original version of the story…

My great uncle Samuel Christie Annal died 79 years ago. Sam (he was always ‘Sam’) was the youngest of the seven children of my great grandparents, Samuel Christie Annal senior and Margaret Ann Clouston Annal (née Miller) but he was also the first of the seven to die. My grandfather, one of Sam’s four older brothers, died of a heart attack in 1953, aged just 45, but the other three, along with his two sisters, all made it into what would have been considered ‘old age’ at the time, dying aged between 66 and 85. But Sam was just 20 when he died on 11 August 1944, not of natural causes, not as the result of an accident and not through misadventure. Sam died on active service in the Second World War, in quite horrific circumstances.

Sam was born on 4 December 1923 in his parents’ home at 37 Ramsay Lane, Portobello, Edinburgh’s seaside town. He would have been just two years old when, in 1926, his father began a new job as a surface worker at New Craighall Colliery and the family moved to a brand new company-owned house at 1 Park Terrace, New Craighall.

The family moved again in 1937 to 18 Sciennes Road, Edinburgh and this is where Sam was living when he received his call up papers. Under the terms of The National Service (Armed Forces) Act of September 1939, he would have been liable to be conscripted from the date of his 18th birthday on 4 December 1941. The letter announcing his call up would have dropped through the letterbox of the family’s home at 18 Sciennes Road, where Sam’s dad lay in bed suffering from asthma, the result of years working on the railways as a young man and later as a coal depot foreman. Samuel senior survived the winter of 1941/42 – the coldest European winter of the 20th century – but fell victim to his asthma on 3 March 1942.

Sam’s oldest brother, James Christie Miller Annal, took on the responsibility of registering their father’s death. As railway workers, James and his brother John would both have been exempted from military service but the two other boys, William (‘Bill’) and Robert (‘Bob’) were both conscripted into the Royal Air Force.

Sam and Bob were inseparable growing up. There was a significant age gap between them and the other children – James, the oldest, was nearly 21 when Sam was born – and photos of the family always find Bob and Sam together. One of the most precious family photos I own shows the two of them, respectively in their air force and army uniforms, both so young and full of life. The photo was probably taken in 1942 shortly after Sam had joined the army.

Sam was just 18 on 18 June 1942 when he was enlisted into the General Service Corps and given the Army Number 1421440. The General Service Corps was the default option for new recruits, the idea being that the men would be assessed over the first six weeks and then assigned to the most appropriate unit. It’s important to note that when the documents say ‘enlisted’, what they actually mean is ‘recruited’. The actual phrase used was ‘deemed to have enlisted’ – Sam had little or no choice in the matter.

At the time of his ‘enlistment’ Sam was 5 foot 8¼ inches tall; he weighed 132 pounds (9½ stone) and his chest was 34” ‘when fully expanded’. He had blue eyes and dark brown hair and a mole on the right of his back (‘R[ight] lumbar region’) and his religion was recorded as Presbyterian. All of these details are taken from his military service papers but of more interest to me than any of this is the fact that he was an apprentice grocer. This is a detail previously unknown to me.

The first year of Sam’s military service was relatively uneventful. He underwent his basic training at the 10^th Infantry Centre in Aberdeen, completing it on 30 November, at which point he was transferred to the 9^th Battalion, the King’s Own Scottish Borderers. He was now part of the 213^th Independent Infantry Brigade and he was posted to Norfolk on Home Defence duty. For a young man on ‘active duty’ in the middle of World War Two, this could hardly have been a better posting.

On 14 April 1943, Sam wrote his will using the standard Army Form B. 2089 and appointing his mother, Mrs Margaret Annal of 18 Sciennes Road, Edinburgh as his executor and sole beneficiary. But just a few months later, on 10 July, Margaret died at home at 18 Sciennes Road of acute bronchitis. Again, the oldest son, James, came through from Bathgate to register the death. The youngest of the two girls, Jane Christie ‘Jean’ Annal, had married in January that year, leaving the oldest daughter, Margaret Sinclair Annal, as the sole occupant of the family home at Sciennes Road. She was to move out soon afterwards.

A copy of his mother’s death certificate is filed amongst Sam’s service records suggesting that he was informed of her death. He was, however, no longer in the UK at the time. On 17 June 1943, while still attached to the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, Sam was posted to India, disembarking at Bombay (Mumbai) on 14 August where he waited to be assigned to a new unit.

On 17 September Sam was transferred ‘in theatre’ and rebadged to the 2^nd Battalion the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment). The 2^nd Battalion had seen action in Heraklion, in Crete and in Tobruk, Libya in the early years of the war but had been in Bombay on security duties since February 1942. Sam was part of a reinforcement draft.

The 2^nd Battalion was then allocated to the ‘Long Range Penetration Group’ and began jungle training in India. From February they began training for participation in the ‘Second Chindit Expedition’ which would see thousands of men dropped behind enemy lines in Japanese-occupied Burma (Myanmar). The 800 men of the 2nd Battalion, the Black Watch formed part of the 14th Infantry Brigade under the command of Brigadier Thomas Brodie.

With their training complete, the men were dropped into the jungle in March 1944: the aim was to disrupt Japanese supply and communication lines and to generally act as a nuisance to the occupying forces. The 14th Brigade were flown into a base known as Aberdeen near the town of Indaw in northern Myanmar. Over the next five months, conditions for the men of the 2nd Battalion rapidly deteriorated. They were entirely dependent on the supplies dropped to them by allied aircraft and were often without clean drinking water for long periods, fluid from bamboo shoots providing the best alternative source. Although the campaign was ultimately considered to be a military success, the battle losses along with the effects of diseases such as malaria and dysentery had a devastating impact on the unit. Of the 800 men who began the campaign only 50 were fit for duty when they left the jungle in August 1944.

By late summer 1944, the 14^th Brigade had made their way some 100 miles north towards Mogaung and it was here that the men were finally relieved and flown out. Around 1400 men had died, including Sam, who succumbed to typhus fever on 11 August. I don’t know exactly where he died but I believe that the evacuation of the troops began just six days after his death so it’s reasonable to assume that he died somewhere just to the south of Mogaung and that he nearly made it.

Sam’s cause of death was initially unknown but on 7 September it was reported that he was now known to have died of Fever. Six days later, his next of kin were informed. On 30 November the cause of death was officially declared as ‘Typhus Fever (Clinical)’.

The news of Sam’s death would have been devastating to the family back in Edinburgh. With both parents dead, his sister Margaret was now his legal next of kin. Bob and Margaret had always been closest to him and it was they who would have felt the loss most strongly. I often wonder how Bob got the news and how badly affected he must have been by it.

On 27 September, Sam’s personal effects were returned to the family. The list was a short one:

Wallet
Photos
Glengarry & badge (KOSB)

Sam had evidently kept the cap that he’d worn during his time with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers: the very cap that he was wearing in the photo, taken with his much-loved brother Bob.

I remember as a child hearing about Sam from family stories and seeing his name in the Roll of Honour in Edinburgh Castle but it wasn’t until I started looking at his wartime experience in detail a few years ago that I came to realise the full horror of what the fresh-faced lad from the photograph must have gone through and how he must have suffered and how frightened he must have been during that long summer in the Myanmar jungle.

Sam’s body was initially buried in the Sahmaw War Cemetery, a battlefield cemetery which, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission was “difficult to access and could not be maintained.” In 1954, his body, along with hundreds of others, was exhumed and reinterred at the Taukkyan War Cemetery https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/92002/taukkyan-war-cemetery/ . Photographs of the cemetery show that it’s a beautifully maintained site and Sam’s plain, simple memorial seems to be in good condition.

The dedication on the stone reads:

Youngest son of the late Samuel and Margaret Annal. Remembered Always.

I feel that as the family record keeper, it’s my responsibility to make sure that those last two words are honoured and respected. It’s important that we keep stories like this alive in the family: that the young men and women who lost their lives in the terrible conflicts of the 20^th century are retold and Remembered Always.

I still need to find out more about the Second Chindit Expedition, codenamed Special Force, and about Sam’s part in it. And I want to find out what happened to Sam’s medals – they were sent to his sister, Margaret, who died in 1973, while living in County Durham with Bob and his wife, Jan. Remarkably, Jan is still alive, now aged 97. Perhaps, who knows, the glengarry is still in the family. Now that would be a precious thing…

Postscript:

While researching this blog, I was looking at the Roll of Honour of the 2^nd Battalion Black Watch (the names of 102 men who died in Burma between March and September 1944 are listed) and as well as noting Sam’s name, there was another one which jumped out at me: Corporal Methven George Ogg had died on 20 August 1944, aged 24. He was, therefore about four years older than Sam but they must surely have known each other prior to joining the Black Watch. Because Methven lived upstairs from Sam’s brother (my grandfather), William in Carrick Knowe, a suburb to the west of Edinburgh. I knew Methven’s sister Hazel very well when I was growing up. Mrs Ogg’s was a familiar and friendly face whenever we visited my grandma in the 1960s and ‘70s. Perhaps having Methven with him in Myanmar made Samuel’s experience just that little bit more bearable – I’d certainly like to think so.

© David Annal, Lifelines Research, 10 November 2022 & 10 November 2023

With thanks to Graham Caldwell for transcribing and interpreting Sam’s army service record and to Darryl Oats for the colourised photo of Sam and Bob.