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Major Michael John Gore ANLEY (71114)
D Company, 1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry Date of birth: 9th June 1917 Date of death: 27th January 1944 Killed in action aged 26 Commemorated on the Rangoon Memorial Face 7
Michael John Gore Anley was born at Richmond in Surrey on the 9th of June 1917 the younger son of Brigadier General Frederick Gore Anley CB CMG, Essex Regiment, and Ethel Marion Gore (nee Maitland) Anley of Rycroft House, Bolney in Sussex. He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Olds House from January 1931 to 1935. He was a Corporal in the Officer Training Corps and achieved Certificate A in 1934. He also achieved his School Certificate. In 1935 he went on to the Royal Military College Sandhurst from where he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Somerset Light Infantry on the 28th of January 1937. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 28th of January 1940 and to temporary Captain on the 2nd of February 1941. On the 14th of January 1944 the 1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry relieved the 4/5th Gurkha Rifles at positions near the Pyinshe Kala Ridge in the Arakan in Burma. The following days were spent in patrolling and in harassing the Japanese forces there. At 6am on the morning on the 26th of January 1944 D Company, and a platoon from A Company, 1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry, under the command of Michael Anley, launched an attack against the Japanese against Point 186 on the Pyinshe Kala Ridge. As they approached the enemy positions and rounded a bend in the narrow track, some thirty yards from Point 186 they came under heavy machine gun fire along with a shower of grenades, suffering heavy casualties among the leading men. Anley rallied the survivors and rushed the enemy position but they were thrown back with more men being killed or wounded. Michael Anley was wounded during this attack and command passed to Captain Kennedy. Kennedy decided to regroup as the men were now badly disorganised and, at 8.20am, they fell back down the track towards Pyinshe Kala village and dug in some seventy yards from Point 186. During this move they began evacuating the wounded to a basha but Michael Anley refused to be moved until the rest of his men had been evacuated. While the others were being moved he was hit again by a sniper. At 9.45am they reported to Headquarters that they were running low on ammunition and that they were under mortar fire. At 9.55am they evacuated their casualties to the north end of the village under the protection of a small covering party. In these new positions the Somersets hung on throughout the day and through the following night. At 1pm on the 27th of January the Japanese launched a counterattack, with heavy fire being heard from the support positions below the ridge and by 1.30pm the men began falling back in numbers and arrived at their starting position in dribs and drabs throughout the afternoon. During the flight from their position on the track the wounded had been abandoned and reports began coming in of a massacre. On his return Captain Kennedy reported that he had heard single shots and screams coming at regular intervals from where the wounded were located. Private Burrow of A Company stated that he had definitely heard his friend, Private Bertram Harwood, who he had known for four years, shout out "No, no for God's sake don't" two or three times before he heard a shot and then silence. A Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery reported that he had seen the Japanese bayoneting the wounded. The men known to have been among the wounded who were left behind were: - Major Michael John Gore Anley Lieutenant Walter Fairfax Cameron Cassels Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry attached to the 1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry Corporal 5673095 Frederick George Francis Private 1671770 Bertram Harwood Private 5683201 Walter Frederick Benjamin Banks Private 14280242 Thomas Alfred Magee Sergeant 5323786 Alfred Thomas Lance Corporal Stanley Gilbert Pavey (known to have died by the time of the retreat) The Somersets had suffered casualties amounting to sixty percent of the men who had begun the attack the previous day. Their casualties were two other ranks killed, one officer and twenty six other ranks wounded with seven other ranks missing believed killed. A further two officers and thirteen other ranks were known to be wounded and missing with three officers and twenty six other ranks missing. He is commemorated on the war memorial at the Royal Military College Sandhurst.

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