大象传媒

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Chapter Three ~ Return to Burma

Sunday night 14th May 1944 has stayed with me all my life. Just after stand-to on the inner defences the CO said to me; 鈥淲e have just received a telephone call from Flying Officer Elvington that he has an unconscious man on a gunpit floor, if it is spinal or cerebral malaria he will die in 24 hours鈥�.

鈥淣obody knows that track like you, I am not going to order you but if you volunteer to go up there and see what you can do I will order the medic, Cpl Hindmarsh, to go up with you with a stretcher.鈥� I collected 4 hand-grenades, two on each side of my belt, and we made our way upwards. It was eerie; flares floated overhead, heavy gunfire and the disturbed monkeys moving about. I led the way keeping hold of a telephone wire. Near the top we met a patrol sent to meet us and the password that night was 鈥榦range鈥�. On the gunpit floor was LAC Vic Busby, one of the biggest lads on the unit! We strapped him onto the stretcher and set off. I took the front end of the stretcher and going down all the way meant I had to take most of the weight. The patrol that met us went ahead and escorted us about a quarter of the way down to what we called the 鈥榬ock wall鈥�. We had just cleared this section when cries of 鈥淐ome-on Johnny鈥� came from below us and between the inner defence positions. This Japanese 鈥榡itter party鈥� had got through a saddle on the tops while we were at the gunpit. We moved off the mountain path and sought refuge behind a thick clump of bamboo, about eight feet from the path. The medic put a wad over the patient鈥檚 mouth in case he came to and called out. While it was night-time, it was still quite light. Behind us was a sheer drop. We waited, in a prone position, for what seemed like ages but, in fact, it was only a short time before we heard the Japs chatting to one another, realising that they were coming back up. An officer, or warrant officer, with sword draw and four others, dressed in khaki cotton, caps and soft boots; their long rifles with bayonets fixed towering above them as they went by still chattering to one another. One could not believe the noise they made in the midst of our defences. (Later, this was typical of them before making dawn attacks when assembling.) We stayed put for a short time in case there were others and then made our way down until challenged by a Bren gun post which covered the shale gully at the bottom. They were pleased to see us as they had heard the Japs and thought we had run into trouble. Then we were relieved and LAC Vic Busby, a Londoner, was taken to a Field Medic Station. Sometime later he returned to the squadron. When the telephone lines were cut at night they used to say 鈥渨e have had visitors鈥�. For some reason, no lines were cut that night.

That was a terrifying experience that has stayed with me throughout the passing years, something I had volunteered for and the implications of the operation not being a success would have had serious results affecting others. Flying Officer Elvington told me he had recommended us to be 鈥榤entioned in dispatches鈥� in what he termed 鈥溾�� a brilliant job鈥�. I later heard that the medic received it. Although I mention this, there was no thought of it at the time; it was survival, with our backs to the wall, with everyone helping each other and sharing out things we had. I saw cigarettes being cut in half. All of this and besieged by an enemy so ferocious that some of the acts they committed were beyond belief. We were told by an Intelligence Officer 鈥淚f the Japanese break in here, remember you have nowhere to go. Drop a hand grenade and take them with you. Do not get taken prisoner; we know they will use you for bayonet practice. This has happened near Kohima where an officer had been found fastened to a tree with barbed wire.鈥� This was borne out by what we saw later at a Japanese medical centre, a basha, at Tamu. Where they had even shot their own men in their beds before they retreated down the Kabaw valley. Outside was a wrecked ambulance with an Oxo cross.

The JIFFS (Japanese Indian Freedom Forces) also operated in the area of the Kipper Box. It was a case of any Indian soldier without his special shoulder flash who could not give the password was shot, unless he came forward without a weapon and his hands up. They did this in droves towards the end of the siege; those that could speak English had only joined this force to get out of the hell camps at Singapore and Malaya where they were captured with other allied forces. It can be said that they became an embarrassment to us, and of no use to the Japanese as a soldier.

The air battle was won and the skies over Imphal secured in the first few days of the siege. The coming on the scene of No 607 City of Durham Squadron (ace of spades insignia) with their four-bladed Spitfires quickly saw off the Japanese Zeros and Oscars, which had finally met their match.

By the end of June the break in the monsoon saw the Japanese retreat from Kohima, halfway back down the mountain road north from Imphal to Dimapur, the railhead in Assam. They were falling back to the south towards Tamu and the pestilent Kabaw Valley and the 80 mile dirt road through it to the river Chindwin and Kalewa. This dense jungle is so thick that the sunlight only penetrates it in streaks; steamy and very hot, it is known as one of the worst places on Earth. So lacking in food, they were in real trouble and this was coupled with the heavy monsoon rains.

On the night of Monday 3rd July a suicide party of Japs and JIFFs got through the defences at Palel airfield in the south of the valley, the area of No 20 Indian Division holding the heights at Shenham Pass. They destroyed 3 Spitfires, 2 Hurricanes, a Harvard communication aircraft. They were in bays cut into a small rock 鈥榩imple鈥� which had an army Bofar post on top of it. A small timing device was placed in each aircraft鈥檚 air intake. The party was seen leaving and challenged by a two-man patrol from 2943 R.A.F. Regiment, who opened fire. While this was going on our heavy guns were shelling Japanese positions. On leaving the scene a party of JIFFs ran into a position held by Indian troops of 20 Division who, after being greeted and thinking our Indian troops would be with them, turned upon them and killed them all. Later, captured documents were found to be in the name of a Japanese officer, Captain Ione, while attempting a similar raid at 1.30 am on the 9th March 1945 at Onbauk in Northern Burma. His body, dressed in Burmese clothing, was found at dawn.

Thursday 6th July, 2944 Squadron R.A.F. Regiment was withdrawn from the heights above Imphal main airfield and reinforced 2943 Squadron at Palel. Due to heavy use by transport aircraft the runway was cracked and was being used only by fighters and Hurricane fighter/bombers, which carried a 250lb bomb under each wing and eight .303 Browning machine guns (later replaced by four 20mm Hispano canons). They must have dived in close when in action judging by the tree twigs sticking out of the engine air intakes. I greatly admired the pilots who flew all hours of daylight over a very hostile jungle from the moment of take off to landing. Our Squadron took up defensive positions outside the perimeter of the airfield, supporting the under-strength 2943 Squadron. It had an armoured Flight operating with 100 Indian Infantry Brigade of 20 Division commanded by Major General Douglas Gracey (later Sir). This area, up to the Palel/Tamu Road, through the Shenham pass to the Burma border, had some of the worst hand-to-hand fighting of the Imphal conflict as the Japanese made continuous attacks, day and night, to force their entry into the Imphal valley.

When the monsoon developed the Japs retreated back down the Kabaw valley to the River Chindwin and we found ourselves on the move again. Before this, all fighting had stopped in a monsoon period, the order came for pressure to be kept on the Japanese army and it was to be followed up to the River Chindwin, Northern Burma. We were kitted out with waterproofs and attached to No 11 East African Division protecting a radar and radio unit known as an AMES (Air Ministry Experimental Station). We thought what we had been through was the worst, but nothing prepared us for what was to come in the seven weeks we spent going down this jungle valley, just a dirt road, littered with the wreckage vehicles of our retreat from Burma; Japanese bodies piled high and flame guns used to dispose of them in order to prevent the spread of disease. When the shone it was through trees and undergrowth was so thick that we only saw scattered beams of light. The high humidity is quite impossible to describe so if we were not soaked in sweat, we were soaked by the rain, which was a short relief in some ways. For sure, we were never dry and our clothing rotted on our backs, we were told some bales of clothing were going to be dropped to us. The Dakota flew over low, under the cloud cover, and a Japanese fighter shot it down 鈥� end of that story.

We were here in the heaviest monsoon for years, over 400 inches in seven weeks, everywhere a sea of mud and water with a tracked Bren gun carrier towing the radar unit. We only saw dead Japs and the stench was terrible. At the end of all of this, in the most isolated and pestilent place on Earth, we came to the Kalewa Gorge and it was here that the enemy had decided to put up a stand. The King George Vs Own Ghurkha Rifles and 3/1, 80 Indian Infantry Brigade and 20 Indian Division were sent forward to clear them. This was back to WW1 hand-to-hand fighting. The Ghurkhas won the day but suffered heavy losses. They went on to capture an airfield at Taukkyan and we relieved them. We are now back over the River Chindwin and recorded as the first RAF unit back into Burma. It was in a small valley surrounded on three sides by jungle covered hills, elephant grass eight feet high up to the perimeter and large yellow bananas (we called them jungle bananas) with black seed like baked beans down the middle of them; they looked appetising but tasted of soap! It was now November 1944, the airstrip was made secure by checking with endless patrols and compass bearings. No 17 Spitfire Squadron flew in (the C.O. being Squadron Leader Ginger Lacy (made famous in the Battle of Britain when he shot down the Heinkel that bomber Buckingham Palace). What a drastic chance of scenery this was to home ground.

The diary of 1944 closes at that, what a journey it had had, hidden behind the lining of a Bren gun case. In that short itme all had gone from being boys to men. I just hope that if you do nothing more when reading this story of what life was like in those dark days spent thousands of miles from home, that you remember the men from these islands who served, and our friends who gave their lives for the freedom we now enjoy today.

British/Commonwealth Casualties

Kohima - 4,064
Imphal - 12,603

Japanese Casualties

Kohima - 5,764
Imphal - 54,879
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Added by: Alan Brigham - www.hullwebs.co.uk
Transcribed by Karen/Alan 大象传媒 Open Centre Hull

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