224886 L/Cpl. John Pennington Harman VCBritish Army 4th Btn. Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment from:London (d.9th April 1944) John Harman was the son of Martin Coles Harman and Amy Ruth Harman, of City of London. He died on the 9th April 1944, age 29 and is buried in the Kohima War Cemetery in India.
The following details are given in the London Gazette of June 20th, 1944:- "At Kohima, Assam, on 8th April 1944, Lance Corporal Harman was commanding a section of a forward platoon. The enemy had established a machine-gun post within 50 yards of his position which became a serious menace to the remainder of his company. Unable to bring the fire of his section on to the post, Lance Corporal Harman went forward by himself and annihilated the post, returning with the enemy machine-gun. The next morning, having first recovered a forward position, he again charged an enemy post alone, shooting four and bayonetting one, thereby wiping out the post. As he returned Lance Corporal Harman received an burst of machine-gun fire in his side and died shortly after reaching our lines. Lance Corporal Harman's heroic action and supreme devotion to duty were largely responsible for the decisive way in which all attacks were driven off by his company."
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