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The Rangoon Memorial is situated in Taukkyan
War Cemetery, which is outside Yangon (formerly Rangoon), near the airport
and immediately adjoining the village of Taukkyan. It is on the Prome
Road, about 35 kilometres north of the city, from which it is easily
accessible. The Memorial stands in the centre of the Cemetery, surrounded
by the graves of more than 6,000 men who fought and died with those whom
it commemorates, whose remains were brought from the battlefield
cemeteries at Akyab, Mandalay, Meiktila and Sahmaw, and from scattered
jungle and roadside graves all over Burma. It is in the form of two long
open garden courts flanked by covered walks and joined by an open rotunda.
The names of the fallen are carved on the inner faces of broad rectangular
piers placed at intervals to form the sides of the covered walks. Through
these colonnades can be seen the green lawns of the cemetery and the
colourful garden courts. On the frieze inside the rotunda are inscribed in
English these words: 1939-1945 HERE ARE RECORDED THE NAMES OF TWENTY SEVEN
THOUSAND SOLDIERS OF MANY RACES UNITED IN SERVICE TO THE BRITISH CROWN WHO
GAVE THEIR LIVES IN BURMA AND ASSAM BUT TO WHOM THE FORTUNE OF WAR DENIED
THE CUSTOMARY RITES ACCORDED TO THEIR COMRADES IN DEATH Also engraved on
the rotunda in English, Burmese, Hindi, Urdu and Gurmukhi is the
additional inscription: THEY DIED FOR ALL FREE MEN
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