大象传媒

This was dictated by Mr Palmer to a volunteer.

I was in the 10th Gloucesters in Burma.
It was a wartime battalion made up mostly of British men - it wasn't a regular battallion.

At first we were in training - then sent to India to have jungle training - then Northern India (?Lido?) - then flown to Michina in Burma by Dakota airplane.

That was when the walking began. There was no transport - only mulesto carry supplies.
We walked and walked, often finding dead Japanese soldiers.

One night we found a perfect cave type place which was perfect to spent the night in - but it was full of dead Japs - so we threw their bodies out and made camp. It was the only thing you could do. The only way to deal with it .

Often the Japanese had died of vitamin deficiencies like beri-beri.
Whereas the British always travelled /fought in groups, of say, seven men and an NCO - the Japanese soldiers would often be on their own - so a sniper could appear at any time and take you unexepectdly.

Our transport of supplies etc was carried by mules which were supplied by Indian troops. They carried food, water and ammunition, but if we ran out of water we would fill our flasks from the waterways around the area. We thought that as the Japanese had to use it too, it must be OK.
One day one of our group were filling several water bottles at the water's edge nearby where we all were and he was shot and killed by a sniper.

When anyone was killed we would say
" (the name of the person) bought it today........."

Dakota aircraft would regularly drop supplies into the jungle. Different coloured parachutes would mean different things, whether it was food or ammunition etc.

I was in the Forces 6 years in all and in Burma for two and a half.
Once the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - we were sent to Japan for one year in the peace keeping forces.
We were expecting hostility - but what we got was this amazing passivity and constant bowing. It was very strange.

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