WW2 Casualty Medal Group to a Royal Marine Gunner who served on Aircraft Carrier HMS Formidable plus photos, service papers, and CWGC information etc

PO/X 118377 Marine George Henry Mills, aged 20, died on 1st January 1946 whilst still on active service. Three medals came with this paper work as follows: 1939-45 Star, Pacific Star, War Medal. Original ribbons, never worn. Together with his original service papers, print of CWGC certificate, other related papers sent to his mother concerning his death and Will and photos of his final resting place and grave in Sydney. A few small photos of George himself and one of his RM colleagues placing flowers on his grave.

He enlisted at Eastney Barracks, Portsmouth on 23rd April 1943. Eastney Barracks served as headquarters for the Portsmouth Division of the Royal Marine Corps and was the location of the Sea Service Battery for those training to be gunners of the Royal Marines. There is a group photo of recruits and their Gunnery Sergeant. Mills is seated second from the left. He looks a cheeky chap.

On 15th May 1944 he was embarked on the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable and it was on this ship that he served out the war until 23rd December 1945, when he was transferred to hospital on shore in Australia on Xmas Eve, and recorded of having died of disease on New Year's Day, 1st January 1946.

George was on board the Formidable when it made several attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway in July1944 as part of the Home Fleet. Formidable was subsequently assigned to the British Pacific Fleet in 1945 where she played a supporting role during the Battle of Okinawa and later attacked targets in the Japanese Home Islands. Formidable's air group at this time had a strength of 36 Corsairs and 18 Avengers. Her flight deck was damaged by a Japanese bomb on the 4th May but she was able to function again by the following day.

With the war at end with Japan's surrender, Formidable arrived at Sydney on 24 August 1945, and had her hangar refitted to accommodate Allied ex-prisoners of war and soldiers for repatriation. Having left her air group behind to maximise the numbers of passengers she could carry, the ship arrived at Manila on 30 September, where she loaded over 1,000 Australian former prisoners of war on 4 October and unloaded them at Circular Quay in Sydney on 21 October. She departed three days later, bound for Karavia Bay, New Britain, where she loaded 1,254 men of the Indian Army and continued on to Singapore where she loaded Indian ex-PoWs before delivering them to Bombay. There Formidable loaded an Indian Army infantry battalion for transport to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies to maintain law and order until Dutch colonial troops could take over. The ship then loaded elements of the 7th Australian Division and their equipment at Tarakan Island, Borneo, and picked up more Australians at Morotai; she arrived at Sydney on 6 December. She sailed for home on the 27th December, but sadly without George who was ill and died 4 days later. Formidable returned to Sydney in March 1946 and it is assumed that it was then that is friend placed the flowers on his grave. The same friend appears next to George (on the far left of group) in a small photo of four RMs on the flight deck.

His CWGC entry confirms his parents as Albert Edward and Leah Mills of Lozells in Birmingham. His inscription on his grave (when replaced with the white headstone) reads:

"I am with you although not near God shall say when we meet again Dear. Mom".

His father's WW1 medals are listed separately as item 54362. His elder brother, Albert Edward (named after his father), also served in the Royal Marines (as POX107472, L/Cpl).

Code: 61329