4th CORPS

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CLICK HERE to read about the Engineers' Bridge at Pegu

 The Badge of this Unit was;

A Black Elephant on a Red background was the Badge chosen for this formation.          

                                              History

Formed at Alesford in Hampshire in February 1940, by the then G.O.C. Sir Glaude Auchinlect, who choose the Badge of his old Regiment. (1st Punjab Regt).

The Corps formed the Northern Norway Land Forces in April 1940. The Corps were later sent to Iran, in the Spring of 1942 they were sent from Iran to India, firstly under the command of Eastern Armies (India) & then with the "Fourteenth Army".   

They were from then on actively engaged in Operations against the Japanese.

The Corps saw much of the hard fighting in the Liberation of Burma, it established the Irrawaddy Bridgehead & drove the Japanese from Meiktilla. They were in the Van of the "Fourteenth Armies" drive to Mandalay & Rangoon.

In 1945 they became part of the "Twelfth Army". 

They were COMMANDED by

Lieut/Gen. G. Scoones
 (C.S.I. O.B.E. D.S.O.) 

ORDER OF BATTLE

Lieut.-General Sir Geoffry Scoones ( - December 12, 1944)
            Lieut.-General F. W. Messervy ( December 12, 1944 - ? )

            Brigadier General Staff
                  Brigadier K. Boyley
                  Brigadier E. H. W. Cobb (November 1944 - ? )

            Deputy Adjutant and Quartermaster General
                  Brigadier L. R. Mizen
                 
            Deputy Director Medical Services
                  Brigadier D. F. Panton

            Corps Armour
                  255th Indian Tank Brigade (Brigadier C. E. Pert)
                        30th Field Squadron, IE
                        3rd Independent Bridging troops, RAC

                        116th Regiment, RAC
                        5th Probyn's Horse
                        16th Light Cavalry (armored cars)
                        4/4th Bombay Grenadiers
                        7th Light Cavalry (April 1945 - ?)
           
            Corps Artillery
                  Brigadier C. Goulder

                  8th Medium Regiment, RA
                  1st Indian Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, IA
                  67th Indian Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, IA
                  1st Survey regiment, RA                             

            Corps Engineers
                  Brigadier W. W. Boggs

                  471st Army Group Engineers
                  IV Corps Troops Engineers HQ
                        12th Engineer batallion, IE
                        75th Field Company, IE
                        424th Field Company, IE
                        94th (Faridkot) Field company, ISF
                        305th Field Park Company, IE
                        ? Mechanical Equipment platoon, IE

            Corps Signals
                  Brigadier E. V. McCormack
                 
                  IV Corps Signals

            Corps Infantry
                  78th Indian Infantry Company

            Forward Corps troops
                  51st Indian Company, 'D' (Deception) Division
                  No. 1 Control Center Forward Maintenance Area
                  No. 2 Control Center Forward Maintenance Area
                  B Group 'V' Force Operations HQ

 

PEGU

The main task that was carried out by 4 Corps Engineers, together with other units, was the construction of a Bailey suspension bridge across the Pegu river to replace the temporary arrangements at the demolished road bridge. We had not come across such a design and had been used to the conventional constructions which we were adept at. The senior officers of 4 Corps Engineers were presented to General Aukinleck, the C in C, and we were photographed with him at one of the anchorages. On completion it was necessary to test the construction and this was to be done by taking a fully loaded 10 ton truck across slowly, stopping from time to time and recording the sag by using a dumpy level on the bank sighted onto a staff on the centre of the bridge. A driver was asked for and I volunteered. The MAC 6 x 6 truck was loaded with a D4 bulldozer and stores to the required load. With some trepidation I progressed in short stages across, as directed from the other side, and all was shown to be OK after some adjustments to the tensioning of the cables. An excellent model of the bridge is on display at the R.E. Museum at Chatham but it gives the impression that it was erected in open country whereas it was in fact in an urban area.

At one stage we tried to activate the Pegu electricity generator. It was powered by a gas engine but when we discovered the whole thing was seized up we abandoned the attempt.

We heard about the atom bombs on Japan but their significance was not immediately realised. However as events unfolded our hopes rose that peace was coming. When the surrender was finally announced there was much imbibing among us together with hearty singing of "God Save the King" and "Land of Hope and Glory".

I was among many from the 14th Army detailed to take part in the Burma victory parade before General Slim and Admiral Mounbatten (?) in Rangoon. At a transit camp outside the city I was put in command of a miscellany of troops and issued with 2" of our medal ribbons (1939-45 Star, Burma Star, and General Service Medal). These were sewn on with much cackhanded use of the needle. The parade march past went off well. It so happened that one of the newsreel cameras (Gaumont British or Pathe) caught me marching past full face. My family history records that my dear Aunt Mamie, watching the newsreels in the Gaumont cinema at North Finchley, caught sight of me coming towards her, sprang to her feet, pointed to the screen and informed the audience "That's Peter!"

At this time there was a welcome distribution of games to the company for our leisure (?) time. Our mess, set up in a very nice two storey house got a set of badminton and after our D4 levelled out a suitable area and we had no excuse for not getting enough exercise. There was one drawback because the extra humidity at this time lost us a lot of weight in sweat.

Ed - the Internet site where this came from would not open so that we could find the originator of this account.  Credit must go to the author as this is a direct copy of what he obviously intended to go onto the internet