大象传媒

I feel this is a episode in World War II which is worth repeating when I read about this site.

My father was in Burma during World War II in the RAF police. He and an officer were accompanying a Malay Spy back to base where he was going to be interrogated. They hitched a lift in an army lorry full of soldiers and going through the jungle they stopped in a clearing. Little did anyone realize the Japanese used to put soldiers up in the trees to spy on passing allied soldier traffic and report back to base.

My father, the officer and the spy got out. I was a very little girl at this time so I can only suppose someone wanted to relieve their bladder. The Japanese soldier high up in the trees fired a shell straight into the lorry killing everyone instantly. He knew he could not get the three people who had got out individually so he exploded a shell above their heads. The officer was badly wounded as was my father who, as the spy was running away shot him dead. I remember my sister and I crying when we were told but you have to remember we were very very young. The fact that our father could kill someone was something we could not understand. My father dragged the officer under the trees and stayed with him until he died. So there he was badly wounded and totally alone behind enemy lines. For two days he wandered in the jungle trying to clean his wounds in polluted pools which gave him an infection until the day he died. He also had a piece of the shell inbeded in him which they would not remove.

Of all things he was found by a party of forward scouting scottish soldiers. I said to him as a very very little girl 'Daddy what did you do'. He said (which I thought was very honest.} 'I fainted'.

To me it is a story of hope, of never giving up even though the odds are stacked against you. He came back to his family and lived another 35 years but he had nightmares until the day he died.

I hope you enjoy the story.

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