大象传媒

We are now approaching April 1944 when suddenly all the trucks appear again and we find ourselves going up this winding road. I hope the Indian drivers don鈥檛 go over the side; it鈥檚 a steep drop. On reaching Kohima, we jump off the truck, pile our bedding on the side of the road, grab our respective parts of the mortar, together with ammunition and spades and climb up the hill until we reach the summerhouse and lawn, known as Summerhouse Hill. We have to dig a 4ft pit for the mortar and slit trenches, after mounting the mortar ready for action. We are told to forget the bedding as the Japs have arrived at the bottom of the hill.

Kohima is a field service depot, with stores, bakery, tennis courts, hospital and the district commissioner鈥檚 bungalow. It is 5000ft above sea level and the natives are called Nagas, an ancient head hunting tribe.

The Japs cut the road behind us and begin to throw in attack after attack. Positions were lost, recaptured and lost again and the perimeter began to shrink. Some of our companies experienced hand to hand fighting and grenades were being exchanged across the tennis courts. A few Japs managed to get through and were hiding in the bakery ovens but were soon cleared when daylight came.

I can recall a night when I presume it was a Jap officer singing, 鈥淎nnie Laurie鈥� and the British wounded crying out for water. Our two sergeants that were occupying the observation post were both killed and two more were sent out. My friend Paddy volunteers to go with them and comes back the next morning with his neck and shoulder peppered with shrapnel.
I find a mortar bomb has landed by my slip trench and failed to explode. After a few nights they managed to find a way to get the wounded out under cover of darkness, which was a big relief.

The cooks managed to produce a meal each day but tea was rationed to half a mug, because of the water supply. Dakotas flew over dropping supplies but we never got any bombs for our mortars, I don鈥檛 think it would be safe to drop them.

It was the fifteenth day that it was rumoured that our men were running out of their positions and we were ordered to fix bayonets. I had a grenade in my hand ready to drop down the mortar barrel to destroy it but then we were told that everything was alright again. On the sixteenth day, men come running in from behind us to occupy our positions and we are told to run out.

They were the Berkshire Regiment, part of the British Second Division and they had opened up the road behind us with the aid of tanks. We individually ran down the road past the tanks and then formed up when it was safe to do so. I suppose we went about half a mile down the road and rested up to regroup and be supplied with lost kit. It was a treat to get a wash and shave, take off our boots and get a good nights sleep. A Jap Zero flies low over us but doesn鈥檛 fire, obviously a spy plane.

After about a week, we move back into Kohima to find that the Japs have all been removed, so now we start the long chase back.

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