1st Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (British Army)
Died:
13/04/1942 (Killed in Action)
Age:
27
Summary
John Wallace was the son of Mary Ann Wallace, He was born about 1915. Lance Corporal John Wallace served with the 1st Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in World War Two. The 1st Battalion were based in southern India at the outbreak of World War Two. In March 1942, the battalion were flown to the north of Rangoon in Burma, with the objective of destroying oil wells in the area of Yenangyaung. Lance Corporal John Wallace is recorded as dying on 13th April 1942, so it must be assumed that he was killed prior to the Battle of Yenangyaung.
Further Information
John Wallace was the son of Mary Ann Wallace, He was born about 1915.
Lance Corporal John Wallace served with the 1st Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in World War Two. The 1st Battalion were based in southern India at the outbreak of World War Two.
The Japanese swept through south east Asia in early 1942, capturing Singapore and invading Burma.
In March 1942, the battalion were flown to the north of Rangoon in Burma, with the objective of destroying oil wells in the area of Yenangyaung.
By 17th April 1942, the battalion had reached the oilfields to find that the Chinese force that had advanced from the north had already demolished the wells. By then however, the entire division was cut off by a ring of Japanese positions.
Lance Corporal John Wallace is recorded as dying on 13th April 1942, so it must be assumed that he was killed prior to the Battle of Yenangyaung. The battalion diary does not list casualties for that day.
Losses were extremely heavy and less than one third of the men of the 1st Battalion returned from the jungle to India.
Lance Corporal John Wallace has no known grave and is commemorated on the Rangoon Memorial in Burma.
Lance Corporal Wallace is commemorated locally on Fivemiletown War Memorial.
Lance Corporal John Wallace is listed on page 99 of the Fivemiletown book, from which these details come from. Many thanks to Mark Byers for the information.
The CWGC record Lance Corporal John Wallace as the son of Mary Ann Wallace of Maguiresbridge, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.
