CHAPMAN Albert Edward

Appears on the Army casualties list for Worcestershire.

A letter from H.J. Winnington, Honorary Secretary of PCC, St James Church, Wollaston dated 17th December 1950 can be found within war records held at Worcestershire Archives requesting that CSM Albert E. Chapman, Worcestershire Regiment be added to the county roll of honour.

The following information has been researched and transcribed by The Black Country Society:
Albert Chapman lived at 3 Unwin Passage, Wollaston, and later moved to 28 Beauty Bank Crescent with his wife Florence and three children.  He enlisted in the 7th (Territorial) Battalion of the Worcesters and went to France with them in 1940.  He experienced the fearful retreat to Dunkirk and returned to England.  His brother William was with him in the same Battalion but was killed in the retreat.  In March 1944 he went with the Worcesters to India to face the Japanese forces embarking on the invasion of British India.  In a rapid advance they had crossed Burma and were on the Indian frontier at Imphal.  The battles of Kohima and Imphal were a remarkably stern test and the Worcesters were among the forces which halted the Japanese armies.  They then forced their enemy back into Burma, crossing the Chindwin in December and reaching the Irrawaddy in January 1945.  The Burmese terrain and climate were extraordinarily difficult for the British troops, but there was no doubt that they inflicted a real defeat on the Japanese army.  The enemy were never prepared to give up and a desperate Japanese attack on the Worcesters on the 7/8th February at the village of Dawete brought unexpected casualties.  They included Company Sergeant Major Albert Chapman.