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Captain JOHN NIEL RANDLE

Service Number: 130097
Regiment & Unit/Ship

Royal Norfolk Regiment

2nd Bn.

Date of Death

Died 06 May 1944

Age 26 years old

Buried or commemorated at

KOHIMA WAR CEMETERY

2. C. 8.

India

Kohima 70th Anniversary, India - April 2014: headstone of Captain J. N. Randle, VC in Kohima War Cemetery

Photographer: CWGC Outer Area

  • Country of Service United Kingdom
  • Awards Victoria Cross
  • Additional Info Son of Dr. Herbert Niel Randle and Edith Randle; husband of Mavis Ellen Randle, of Holywell, Oxford. Qualified in Final Honour School in Law for the degree of B.A. (Oxon).
  • Personal Inscription REMEMBERED BY HIS DEVOTED WIFE, ONLY SON LESLIE JOHN, PARENTS AND SISTERS
  • Additional Citation note

    The following details are given in the London Gazette of December 8th, 1944:- On the 4th May, 1944, at Kohima in Assam, a battalion of the Norfolk Regiment attacked the Japanese. Captain Randle took over command of the company which was leading the attack. His handling of a difficult situation was masterly, and although wounded himself he continued to inspire his men until the company captured its objective. He then brought in all the wounded men who were lying outside the perimeter. Captain Randle refused to be evacuated, and despite his wound carried out a personal reconnaissance with great daring, prior to a further attack on the new enemy positions. At dawn on 6th May Captain Randle led this attack, and ran into heavy fire from a bunker. Appreciating that the destruction of this enemy post was imperative, if the operation was to succeed, Captain Randle charged the Japanese post single-handed. Although now mortaly wounded, he silenced the gun with a grenade thrown through the bunker slit. He then flung his body across the slit so that the aperture should be completely sealed. The bravery shown by this officer could not have been surpassed, and by his self-sacrifice he saved the lives of many of his men and enabled not only his own company but the whole battalion to gain its objective and win a decisive victory over the enemy.

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