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Where was I on VE Day?

Although I am now 82 I can clearly remember where I was on VE day. As a member of the 14th Army in Burma I was amongst an assortment of vehicles on the banks of the River Chindwin at Kalawa waiting to cross the river. I was driving a Mobile Cinema Unit and my vehicle was mixed up with light tanks, petrol bowsers etc all being marshalled to cross the largest Bailey bridge ever built.

To protect it from attack by Japanese aircraft this important bridge was heavily defended by AA batteries. As we queued up for the hazardous crossing without any warning all hell broke loose with the AA guns opening up in unison. Fearing that the bridge was being attacked we leapt out from our vehicles and dived for any cover we could find, even underneath the lorries and tanks.

After a few moments, no aircraft appeared and the guns ceased firing. We cautiously returned to our vehicles and were greeted by the NCOs and officers of the AA unit who handed each of us a couple of bottles of beer and some cigarettes. It eventually emerged that this was their way of celebrating VE Day in Europe!

Of course those of us in Burma had to continue to fight for quite a while after this until we were able to celebrate our own victory on VJ Day.

Ken Rawlinson
Ex WO1 14th Army
Aylesbury,
Bucks

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