大象传媒

This story has been added to the People's war website by Marie on behalf of Dennis with his permission. Dennis fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

As Duty officer for the night I sat in the duty tent on the edge of the airfield rejoicing in the news of the end of the war in Europe.

Suddenly the quiet was broken by the crashing sound of heavy artillery fire close by and for us on the tropical island of Rarmee (?) of the coast of Burma that meant a Japanese attack. All hell was let loose by the roar of the guns whilst the horizon was alight with gun flashes showing men frantically racing to their defensive positions, and within minutes an eerie silence fell on the hot tropical night.

Pistol in hand I went outside half expecting to see a row of grinning teeth but my fears were unfounded and the safety catch of my pistol was restored to its guarding position. An hour of uneasy quiet followed so that I jumped out of my skin when the telephone rang again with HQ giving me the stand down order.

Next morning we learned that the C.O. of the nearby Artillery Regiment having celebrated V.E. Day with a slight excess of enthusiasm had in his excitement ordered every gun under his command to be fired in honour of the occasion.

It was therefore no surprise to see a jeep loaded with empty hooch bottles driving towards the dump, nor to see a befuddled C.O. driven to a homeward bound plane. The rest of us had to carry on to win the war against the Japanese.

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