大象传媒

This is not a long story just a brief note of something that will stay in my mind forever and should be remembered by others.

My father who sadly passed away a few years ago used to tell us (his children) only a very few stories of his war years, but one story that he told stuck in my mind only by the impact that it had on him in the telling.

Tom was a very happy go lucky man's man, in the years we knew him, he was always positive and the glass is half full type. The short story that follows was told only in very slow, sad and somber words and tones, which I will remember forever.

Tom was a Marine Commando who did many sortie's in his war years but there was one particular hill in Burma (I can't remember the number is was 68 something or 86 something)which needed to be taken by the commando's, Tom and 800 others were landed to fight and take the said hill.

After much fighting and a lot of lost friends I'm not sure if the hill was won or lost, that was not the point of the story. What stuck in Tom's mind and mine is that in hushed and sad tones Tom says only 68 men were taken off. 700 men would never be leaving that hill or seeing their families again.

He would say that no matter how bad anything got at home or in work it would never be as bad as Burma. Tom has lots of medals Burma Star, Africa Star etc,etc, some of which are missing as my elder brother when he was young sold them for money for cigerettes, silly boy, He also has lots of pictures from the desert and Ceylon if anyone would be interested in seeing these.

I will always be proud of the man who volunteered for the forces, trained at Hackna Carrie (not sure how you spell it)and survived the Second World War.

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