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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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