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Part VI C

We did get a few hours sleep but were told that we had to go to the bottom of the hill again to start work on a mule track so that stores and ammunition could be carried up to the village. It was a hard job because the ground was very muddy and the hill was very steep, the job was eventually finished and the mules made their way to the top, this made the track even worse and some more men had to go down and carry out repairs to the existing track. The following day we marched again over the hills, our leading troops contacted a few odd Japs and quickly removed them from our path, after a little more marching we came out on the Kohima-Imphal road at the 52 milestone. By this time the Japs were well on the run and our troops were trying hard to catch up with them. That night we moved in to an old hospital and had quite a good nights sleep. At the same time as our advance along the Kohima road the 4th Corps were pushing out from Imphal hoping to meet our forward troops very soon. So far this campaign has sounded very easy but I have not dwelt on the hardships and privations of the troops fighting in this theatre of war, the reader would not believe me so there would be no object in writing about every small incident, many things were beyond description, and it did not seem possible that human beings should be asked to tolerate such appalling conditions. Up to this date the Division had suffered heavy casualties and we could get no men to reinforce us, not Englishmen anyway, general Grover had been offered Indians as reinforcements but he refused, which was certainly the best thing to do. Bridging had taken a lot of our time along the road and in the Monsoons this was not an easy task but it was a job that had to be done for without bridges the Division could not move. At the 59 milestone there was another bridge which the Japs had blown and we were waiting to go and build another one in its place, the Bailey equipment was waiting behind for when we called for it and the sections were standing by to do the work. Now the 4th Corps were only 20 miles away from our leading troops and we were still advancing fighting the remnants of a beaten Japanese Army. On the 14th of June the Unit sent a Recce party in the tank column, their job was to reach the blown bridge, measure the gap and send details back so the that the unit could start building as soon as possible so that the advance could continue. The advance on that day was easy and the bridge was reached without any trouble, forward elements of the Recce Corps spread out to form a covering party so that the Sappers could start building the bridge. The bridge was erected in a very short time and the tanks moved on again. Along this part of the road there was quite a number of different types of bridges, the Japs did not blow them completely presumably owing to the lack of explosives, but they did enough damage to make the bridges unsafe for traffic, all of these had to be repaired by the Sappers who had a very enjoyable time! One small bridge had two or three girders partly blown by the use of magnetic mines, this was built up with crib piers and left until other Engineers came up behind us and made a permanent job of it… The next bridge produced quite along job, it was a large Hamilton which had been blown very well, it had to be stripped of nearly everything, rebuilt and launched again, this was going to be difficult for the unit because many of the Officers had never had this type of work before, but after taking about three times longer than usual the task was completed, not without incidents of course, a Derrick of Indian construction was used and this broke while under load causing injuries to a few of the company, had this been a civilian job there would have been a fuss and compensation claimed but as it was the Army nothing much was said. On the 22nd of June 1944 the road to Imphal was open and the Japs which were left were pushed in to the hills and left to their own devices.
The Hamilton bridge was our last task in action, we were going to have a rest for a short while. A small party was sent to our new area to get things ready for the rest of the Company, there were a few old native buildings and with the use of tarpaulins we made ourselves fairly comfortable. Here it was decided to teach the men how to do drill once again, so after fighting for a long time, N.C.O’s had drill squads on the road, this was not considered funny by the men! It was then decided that a large Rest Camp should be built for the Division so Number 1 Section was sent to start the work, it was quite a large job but the men enjoyed it because they thought they were doing something useful for a change instead of marching up and down the road. Now I would like to say a few words about the hospitals, I was admitted at this time with Malaria and was taken to Kohima by ambulance. The hospital was a disgrace, the food was bad, the attention was bad and taking it all round everything was bad, I thought that it was a rather poor show, because the patients were all men who had taken part in the bitter fighting around Kohima and deserved some good attention but there was nothing we could do about it, it was a case of ‘grin and bear it’. After leaving hospital I had quite a job in catching the unit up, they had a very short rest and were now near the borders of Burma, I did catch them up at Moreh which turned out to be a large R.E dump left by the British in the 1942 retreat, this was our home for quite a while, tents were pitched and we were settled once again. It was rather amazing to think that all the stores had been left behind and the Japs had not bothered to place any Booby Traps around the place, perhaps it was better for us that way. Here all the company was employed on road making, that was a long and tiring job, material was hard to get and the general working conditions were difficult owing to the heat. The mosquitoes in this area were of a very large type and took delight in biting during the day or night….we enjoyed that! At this location we found plenty of loot left behind by the retreating Japs and fortunately there were still no signs Booby Traps. The unit was again working on bridging, this time it was the Folding Boat Equipment, the river over which this was built was very fast and was liable to rise at any time, the river did rise very rapidly one day without much warning, the O.C was on the spot and gave orders for the bridge to be ‘broken’, men were washed into the swirling waters and one man was last seen going down stream clinging to a log, he was never seen again,- through the gross stupidity of the O.C (Major StJohn Edwards) we lost one of the boys,- the rest of the unit was in an uproar at this accident but nothing could be done to bring the missing chap back, to this day we never know what exactly happened to him, he may have been drowned, or he may have been captured by the Japs, as crude as it may sound we can only hope that he was drowned! After that incident the unit was far from right and after a short while the Sections were split up and reorganized. The mosquitoes were still biting and many of the company were removed to hospital with Malaria or some other type of fever, irrespective of this the remainder of the unit pushed on into the Kabaw Valley otherwise known as ‘Death Valley’ to do some more Bailey Bridging, this continued until they were withdrawn and went back to have a rest, they needed it too because everyone was really beat by the heat and fever. The company’s new location was at the 82 milestone on the Kohima — Imphal Road. Tents were pitched and various other buildings were constructed and things in general were not too bad, there were wild rumours of leave and we all hoped that we should get a short break. E.N.S.A shows came our way but as usual they were not very good, the people who produced these shows should have realized that the soldiers of today enjoy and appreciate decent entertainment and not shows which made the morals of the troops seem very low, as far as E.N.S.A went they were a failure, of course people in Calcutta enjoyed many of their efforts, but we were in the forward areas and could not expect too much! The Divisional Concert Party deserved much praise because they really did put on some excellent shows for us, E.N.S.A could have learnt many things from them.
Training was the fashion once again with some odd jobs of works for the various Sections, this helped to pass the time, P.T. as usual was the most gruesome event at 6.30 in the morning and strange as it may seem the weather was very cold at that time. During September it was decided that the Company had not done enough Bridging during the last campaign so we all went on a bridging course to see how it was done. This lasted until early October and then we returned to our old location. We had not seen enough Jap ‘bunkers’ so working parties went out to build some for the Artillery to blow down…all this was very amusing except for the people who had to do the work. Leave started but very slowly, one or two men went at a time and it was definite that we should not all get a rest, still we hardly deserved it after being in action for all that time!! One day I was told that I could go on leave for fourteen days, it was rather a shock but I decided to go, I am now going to break away from the war and write a few details of my ‘doings’ in the hills of India…..it should be good!!

…â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦.

NOTE :

I do not know whether my Father did write anything about his ‘doings’, but I have not found any further notes from October 1944 until he was wounded in April 1945. The following paragraphs are his notes about the day he was shot, and also his concluding thoughts.

Friday 13th April 1945

At this stage of the Burma war I was a Corporal with No 1 Section after being Reconnaissance N.C.O for some time. On the morning of the 13th April I was instructed to take my section in company with some men of the Dorsets as a Mine clearing party so that the tanks could advance on Popa. We left the Company area at 8 a.m. and proceeded to our R.V. The advance commenced with tanks of the Carabiniers, the Dorsets and the 208 Section of foot in front of the tanks. It was a beautiful morning and I always remember asking the Tank officer if he felt safe in his tank just before he closed the hatch… his reply was friendly but not too polite. The column stopped and we were informed that we had hit a road block, I then received instructions to clear this block as soon as possible with my section and to take some infantry support. We managed to get one tank to the corner facing the road block which was some eighty to hundred yards away. We started to approach on foot having warned my chaps to ‘keep their bloody heads down’ as this could be our last action.
The road block was well manned and the Japs reacted strongly to this intrusion so early in the morning and opened up with machine guns, rifles and mortars. As I was out in front of the column the machine guns were well and truly aimed at me and after all that time ‘I stopped a packet’. My left arm was badly shattered, the breast pocket of my shirt was ripped off and I had a dotted line across my chest and one lonely little bullet went through my Bush Hat. At the same time the Dorset N.C.O was hit in the leg and we had to get out somehow. The tank opened up and enabled us to withdraw to a safer place. There were no ambulances available but Phil Kent was knocking around in the armoured car and gave me a lift back to the advanced dressing station where Major Maquire was waiting with the Padre…I thought they were going to toss up for me at the time! From then on it was a journey on Jeep ambulance and aircraft until I reached the safety of Comila Hospital.

This incident is illustrated on Page 292 of STRAIGHT ON FOR TOKYO written by Lt. Col.O.G.W.White of the Dorsets.

One funny incident happened some time afterwards….as my pocket was shot off, the G.S watch and pens were shot to pieces and I never saw them again. Some time later as I was resting in Hospital I received a letter from Ron Tomsett who was then Q.M asking me to return the said G.S.Watch……I replied to his letter explaining why the watch was no longer under my control !

…â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦.

The reader is now at the end of the screed, if you enjoyed it I am glad and if you did not then why bother to read it ? The facts are true, all the events have been real and I do not apologise for any rude remarks or comments which have been written, the whole story has been told as seen through the eyes of an ordinary soldier in the ranks, the man who did the work and received the smallest amount of pay for doing it. I have been cynical and sarcastic but the Army has made many men like that during the last six years, we have learnt a lot but the price we have paid for our knowledge has been very high, we would like to settle down and enjoy the fruits of our labour but we are afraid for the future, the future holds many things for us and I feel certain that another war will come and our sons will once again take up arms to fight the so called ‘war to end wars’! and so it will go on ‘ad infinitum’ until mankind has been wiped out. One can see by the papers that an air of distrust hangs over the Three Powers who are laying the foundations for a Great Peace, but until that is wiped out we must stay prepared for what ever may come, I only hope that I shall never have cause to sit down and write another Memoir of this description, I am bitter and cynical and shall remain so until I see that we shall have peace for the rest of our lives and that Brave New World begins to take shape.

…â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦â¶Ä¦.

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