Description
General Service Medal, GVI, bar S.E. Asia 1945-46, 14730497 Private R. Lloyd, 6th Battalion South Wales Borderers. A scarce clasp for service in Sumatra just after the end of WW2.
Officially impressed: “14730497 Pte R. Lloyd. S.W.B.”
Confirmed on the medal roll, for service with the 6th Bn SWB who were deployed to Sumatra during this time
Excellent unworn condition.
Service number corresponds with joining the General Service Corps, somewhere around late 1943.
For further information, a story can be read by Anthony Cave-Browne-Cave DSO, who was an Officer of the 6th SWB during the campaign:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/27/a8609727.shtml
Also the following page on their services from the Burma Star Memorial Fund:
https://burmastarmemorial.org/archive/stories/1405880-south-wales-border-regiment?
Immediately following the end of World War 2, particularly the surrender of the Japanese in the region, the Royal Navy was sent alongside some of the British Army and the RAF to “re-establish the pre-war status quo in South East Asia” and help their allies the Netherlands regain control of the country.
To qualify you would have see service for 28 days in one of 2 theatres:
1. Java and Sumatra, 3rd Sept 1945 – 30th November 1946
2. French Indo-China, 3rd September 1945 – 28th January 1946.
The 6th Battalion of the South Wales Borders were already in the area, having been deployed to take part in the Burma Campaign being very successful in this task.
“In July 1945 it joined the force being gathered at Bangalore for the invasion of Malaya. But with the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the Japanese surrendered on the 14th of August, before this force was ready.
The battalion sailed early in October for Belawan as part of the reoccupation army in Sumatra. Here it served as a guard of honour when the British and Dutch flags were broken. It then moved to Medan where it was occupied in disarming and evacuating the now fully co-operative Japanese, and in protecting the Dutch against Indonesian terrorists. This involved guard and escort duties, patrols and skirmishes with an enemy armed with anything from blowpipes and poisoned arrows to machine guns.
The battalion was formally disbanded on the 15th March. 1946, but in spite of this its remnants were still patrolling and raiding early in April.”
Things were not as easy as they fought, as the Indonesian Resistance had sparked the Indonesian National Revolution on 17th August 1945 during a complicated period following the fall of the Japanese Empire who had occupied Indonesia during WW2 causing a power vacuum in the country.
Assisted by the Royal Navy and their guns, the British Army were deployed to Surabaya to fight in the Battle of Surabaya, which although a British Victory technically, ignited a fierce resistance from Indonesia through their heroic effort which helped galvanise their desire for freedom, now celebrated as “Heroes Day” every 10th November.
Britain were forced to withdraw from assisting the Netherlands in 1946, losing 1000 British & Indian Soldiers, eventually the Dutch lost the country, returning it to to the people of Indonesia in 1949.
The whole event that led to this clasp is widely celebrated in Indonesia as the birth of their free nation, having sent both the British and the Netherlands packing back home.
