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This story has been submitted to the People’s War website by Anne Wareing of the Lancashire Home Guard on behalf of Jack Hill and has been added to the site with his permission…

At the beginning of the war my mum and dad, two sisters and myself were living in Haslingden.

In 1940 I volunteered to join the RAF at Blackburn. I started my training at Padgate, but then was transferred to Blackpool for two or three weeks.

Forty of us traveled to Uphaven, Salisbury Plain and removed en bloc to Gunner Group Head Quarters, pre RAF postings to Manston, Biggin Hill and Hornchurch.

I was posted to Bombay in the ops. Room. On arriving there, the Commanding Officer said. ‘This is number 6 Ops. not, number 9, you should be at Imphal, Assam.’

I was on my own and it took a week to get there, going part of the way by train, and the rest of the way with a small contingency of RAF men. We were on a road 137 miles long, through a narrow pass. You could only travel in one direction on one day, as it was closed to you when people were traveling in the opposite direction. Whilst making my way across this road I came across a W.V.S. canteen and I asked the lady for a cup of tea, it came out that she came from Bury. Which was about 7 miles from my home. What a coincidence!

Eventually arriving in Kohima, Burma, which was as far as the Japanese got, we went through central Burma to Mandalay and Micaladon.

I was posted to the 56 Maintenance Unit, 9 Ops. Later on being re-posted to One Forward Repair Unit.

On VE Day, when the news came through, I was between Mandalay and Rangoon. On arriving and reporting to the Head Quarters, Squadron Leader Davies said. ‘There’s no one else here except you and I and we are starting this unit.’ The rest of the unit were in Britain.

I received the Burma Star, the 39-45 Star the Defence and the Victory Medal.

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