George Arthur Knowland

He held a vital hill against repeated attacks until he fell.

George Arthur Knowland was born in Kent in August 1922. His mother died when he was young; he later lived in Croydon and enlisted in the Army in 1940. He joined the Royal Norfolk Regiment, volunteered for the Commandos and served in the Mediterranean. After becoming a sergeant he was selected for officer training and married Ruby Weston.

In January 1945 Lieutenant Knowland joined No 1 Commando in Burma. On 31 January, at Hill 170 near Kangaw, his 24-man platoon faced repeated attacks by a much larger Japanese force. He moved between positions with ammunition, took over a Bren gun after its crew became casualties and continued firing while wounded men were evacuated. Later he used a light mortar at close range, then a rifle and submachine gun. He was mortally wounded, but the surviving defenders held their ground.

Knowland's Victoria Cross was awarded posthumously. He was 22 and is buried in Taukkyan War Cemetery, Burma.

Victoria Cross citation: In Burma on 31st January, 1945, near Kangaw, Lieutenant Knowland was commanding the forward platoon of a Troop positioned on the extreme North of a hill which was subjected to very heavy and repeated enemy attacks throughout the whole day. Before the first attack started, Lieutenant Knowland’s platoon was heavily mortared and machine gunned, yet he moved about among his men keeping them alert and encouraging them, though under fire himself at the time. When the enemy, some 300 strong in all, made their first assault they concentrated all their efforts on his platoon of 24 men, but, in spite of the ferocity of the attack, he moved about from trench to trench distributing ammunition, and firing his rifle and throwing grenades at the enemy, often from completely exposed positions. Later, when the crew of one of his forward Bren Guns had all been wounded, he sent back to Troop Headquarters for another crew and ran forward to man the gun himself until they arrived. The enemy was then less than 10 yards from him in dead ground down the hill, so, in order to get a better field of fire, he stood on top of the trench, firing the light machine gun from his hip, and successfully keeping them at a distance until a Medical Orderly had dressed and evacuated the wounded men behind him. The new Bren team also became casualties on the way up, and Lieutenant Knowland continued to fire the gun until another team took over. Later, when a fresh attack came in, he took over a 2 in. Mortar and in spite of heavy fire and the closeness of the enemy, he stood up in the open to face them, firing the mortar from his hip and killing six of them with his first bomb. When all bombs were expended he went back through heavy grenade, mortar and machine gun fire to get more, which he fired in the same way from the open in front of his platoon positions. When those bombs were finished, he went back to his own trench, and still standing up fired his rifle at them. Being hard pressed and with enemy closing in on him from only 10 yards away, he had no time to re-charge his magazine. Snatching up the Tommy gun of a casualty, he sprayed the enemy and was mortally wounded stemming this assault, though not before he had killed and wounded many of the enemy. Such was the inspiration of his magnificent heroism, that, though fourteen out of twenty-four of his platoon became casualties at an early stage, and six of his positions were over-run by the enemy, his men held on through twelve hours of continuous and fierce fighting until reinforcements arrived. If this Northern end of the hill had fallen, the rest of the hill would have been endangered, the beach-head dominated by the enemy, and other units farther inland cut off from their source of supplies. As it was, the final successful counter-attack was later launched from the vital ground which Lieutenant Knowland had taken such a gallant part in holding.

Supplement to The London Gazette of 10 April 1945. 12 April 1945, Numb. 37027, p. 1939