大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Claire White of 大象传媒 Scotland on behalf of GW Walton and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

In 1945 I was 20-ish and stationed at a radar station on Maungdaw, an island leading out to the sea on the Arakan coast.

We were hedge-hopping i.e. jumping from island to island in troop ships. We'd done Akaba (an island the Japanese had held) and our troops had gone through the island but couldn't find them. They issued us with US combat hammocks with a tarpauling roof and mosquito netting sides. But the hammocks were useless because they were only 4ft long and the Japanese had chopped down all the trees on the island for firewood so there was nothing to hang them from. Instead we laid hammocks on the beach and arranged makeshift cover.

The next day we boarded Dunera troop ship to go to Rangoon. As we went up the gangway it was announced that the German war had finished but there wasn't a peep from any of us. Some comments were mumbled about us still being stuck out East.

When in Maungdaw we were guarded by RAF regiment aircraft guns. Their captain said Green Howards had been badly shot up by the Japanese in patrols. I said they could have some of my men on the next patrol. They put up a good show and word went round the army that any RAF boys wearing jungle green weren't too bad.

When troops arrived from Britain just after the ceasefire and started throwing their weight around it didn't go down well. They'd been sitting in a troop ship and the army and navy didn't take kindly to their capers after having been through Burma. Any army or navy groups left in jungle green passed us by with a wave. The new arrivals from Britain tried to buy clothing (bush jackets, etc.) from us so they could go into town without being beat up!

I journeyed down the Arakan coast with the 14th Division and we couldn't understand why we couldn't get Brylcream in NAAFIs en route. Later we discovered that the Africans had been buying it to spread on their bread because margarine went runny in the heat.

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