大象传媒

The Tunnels Battle.

At the beginning of the first Arakan campaign, the 10th battalion Lancashire fusiliers, of which I was a sergeant, were detailed to advance on to a river port known as Buthidong. At this time we were just south of Gopi bazaar. I was in charge of a guerrilla platoon, and it was decided that the 2 tunnels which connected the road between Buthidong and Mondo were occupied by the Japs.

It was decided that I would take the guerrilla platoon down to the East tunnel. On the 17th of January 1943, we would attack the tunnel whilst the battalion would attack a village known as Letwidet. But the plan was that I would leave the battalion 10 days before they moved, with complete radio silence and no communication at all. However, the Japs had vacated both the tunnels and Letwidet and moved further south.

But we had no means of communication when I moved off, a week before the battalion. (Incidentally, on our way to these tunnels, we passed a place known as the Admin box, which later became famous for a battle). It took us a week to get there, but we duly arrived at our position, at about 6 o'clock in the morning. We were sitting right on top of this tunnel and it was pouring down. We didn't know that the Japs had left this tunnel, so when we spotted some people patrolling the tunnel mouth and surrounding area, we presumed they were Japanese.

At this time, there were 2 bombers which had been detailed to bomb Letwidet, along with the attack from the battalion. They moved down to a position to attack it, and we then attacked the tunnels. Our position was slightly above the position of the tunnels, because they had been built on a road which cut through the mountain side. So we were higher than the road. The road levelled out, then it dropped away again.

Some time later, when I'm sure we must have inflicted quite some casualties on them, I decided to take a section of the guerrilla platoon onto the other side of the road. We managed to get across the road, and another section of the platoon got on top of the tunnel. But as we were firing into the tunnel, and more or less reducing them to a shambles inside, a British officer came up from the direction of Letwidet, shouting "stop firing, stop firing!" So everybody stopped firing. He came up to me and said, 鈥渨hat are you doing?鈥� I said, "well, we're attacking the Japanese!" He said, "you're not, you know! You're attacking the first 15th Punjabs!"

What had happened was that the Japs had vacated this position, without anybody knowing. Due to this radio silence that had been imposed on us by the move down south, we weren't aware of this fact, and you've a job to tell the difference between a Japanese in the monsoon in a rainmac, and a 15th Punjab! So that was the cause of the mix up.

Anyhow, we eventually formed up into position. The officer liaising with our battalion must have been from the Punjab. The battalion in the meantime had simply walked into Letwidet, which had been vacated by the Japanese. So we marched the 5 miles to Letwidet. From Letwidet, they'd walked into Buthidong, which was then a navigable port on the river Mayu, the last port where mechanised vehicles could use the river. We joined the battalion there, and we were put into the village school. We stayed there for a time and celebrated Christmas day 1943 in Buthidong.

While we were there, a patrol went out from A company under Sergeant Burns, and he brought back 2 brothers, part of a native tribe known as the Mogs who were joining up with the Japanese. These brothers were known as the Kings of Burma, and he'd captured them and brought them back. On Christmas day, or the day after, I'm not quite sure which, we shot them, because they were liaising with the enemy.

We stayed about a week in Buthidong. The plan was to move further down the river, and proceed down with this attack on the Japanese, the main objective being Akiob island which was right at the bottom of the river.

On the West bank of the river at Buthidong were 2 sandstone plinths. Lying on top and facing the river were 2 lion or sphinx like figures. These were thought to be local deities and were called Chinths. This is thought to be the word from which Wingate鈥檚 force derived its name: the Chindits.

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