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This story has been submitted to the People's War website by Don and Betty Tempest of the Lancshomeguard on behalf of Henry Foster and added to the site with his permission.

In March/April 1943, after our ‘Jaunt in the Desert’ and our re-enforcement at Iraq, we sailed across the Persian Gulf and eventually arrived in Bombay in India. From there we travelled across India to an area close to Calcutta.

We had two weeks leave in Calcutta and then we started jungle training. In November 1943, we moved onto the Arakhan front which was on the Bay of Bengal.

From January 1944, we were fighting the Japanese and we were involved in the ‘Battle of the Box’ which was the 14th. Army’s first victory over the Japanese.

Come March 1944 we were pulled out of action and taken to an Aerodrome near Chitagong. From there we were flown up to Imphal. We had no training and had never been on an airplane before.

At Imphal we fought the Japanese, the whole 14th. Army. It was a horror! We were totally surrounded and there was no way out. The fighting continued until August 1944 and then Imphal was released.

We were given the job of chasing the retreating Japanese up to the Chindwin River and it took us until November 1944, and we had been in action for a year.

We were released just before Christmas 1944 and spent it at Kohima. From there we went up to Assam, doing training as re-enforcements.

In March 1945 we were flown, in two stages, to Miktila in Burma, for a big battle! This battle lasted for three or four weeks until we broke the back of the Japanese. The fighting continued and took most of the summer until the first Atom Bomb was dropped.

By then we had reached Rangoon and there were plans to invade Singapore. We were on a ship ready to go to Singapore and then the second Atom Bomb was dropped and the war was over.

I was given the opportunity to come home to England, which I took. On arriving home I was sent to Germany for about six months and then was demobbed.

I have to say that those days in the jungle were full of fear and when you look at things that are still happening today, you have to ask, were they a waste?

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