George Arthur Knowland

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George Arthur Knowland (16 August 1922 - 31 January 1945) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

He was born on 16 August 1922 in Catford, Kent and attended Elmwood Primary School in Croydon. He joined the Royal Norfolks in 1941 as a private and was commissioned before the end of the year.

[edit] VC Action

He was 22 years old, and a lieutenant in the Royal Norfolk Regiment, British Army, attached to No. 1 Commando during the Second World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 31 January 1945 near Kangaw, Burma (now Myanmar), Lieutenant Knowland was in command of a forward platoon of a troop which was being heavily attacked - some 300 of the enemy concentrating on his 24 men. During the attacks he moved among the men distributing ammunition and contributing with rifle fire and throwing grenades at the enemy. When the crew of one of his forward Bren guns had been wounded, he rushed forward to man it himself. In order to hit the enemy only 10 yards away but below the level of the trench he stood up to fire into them. He continued until the casualties had been evacuated. A replacement gun team that had been sent for were injured in the process of moving up and he kept with the gun until a third team arrived. In a subsequent attack he took over a 2 inch mortar which he fired from the hip directly into the enemy. He returned to the trench for more ammunition and fired this from out in the open. When this was used up he fired his rifle. The enemy were now very close and without time to reload his rifle picked up a Tommy gun and used that killing more but receiving mortal wounds in the process. Despite over 50% losses in the platoon the remainder held on. By the time they were relieved the men had held the ground (preventing the enemy from advancing further on that hill) for 12 hours.

His grave is in the Taukkyan War Cemetery, Burma

Medal Stolen

[edit] External links

• The Royal Norfolk Regt in WW2
• the Victoria Cross Society

[edit] References

• British VCs of World War 2 (John Laffin, 1997)
• Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
• The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)

This page has been migrated from the Victoria Cross Reference with permission.