大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Graham Lewis for Three Counties Action on behalf of Mr Edward L. Hancock and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Hancock fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

A major, and frightening, incident occurred on the first night after leaving Tiddim. All vehicles were handed over to the infantry so that they could go ahead of the immense column, clearing Japanese roadblocks. We had travelled about eight miles when we stopped for the night. The Camp Commandant, in whose Rear Division HQ I was, took over an empty 鈥榖asha鈥� (straw and bamboo hut). At this time we were 3.5 miles ahead of Advanced Division HQ.

At around 8 pm all our men were in the 鈥榖asha鈥� lying on the bamboo and straw raised platform which stretched along one half of the hut. I was extremely thirsty and asked the Camp Commandant if there was any beer on the 15-cwt truck. When I went to get a bottle someone shouted in Urdu ,鈥淛apani wale idder hain鈥�: 鈥渢he Japanese are here鈥�. This was accompanied by a series of explosions, after which all kinds of weapons were fired by very frightened men. The first explosions were probably caused by 鈥榡acky jumpers鈥� and it emerged that no Japanese were involved in the incident. It was caused by some renegade Indians 鈥� the Japanese Indian Infantry Force (JIIFS) - who had infiltrated our lines, and all the ensuing fire-fights were battles among ourselves.

I dashed into the 鈥榖asha鈥� and got the sleeping men out and into slit trenches or under the truck. I dived into a slit trench, but soon got out because a Gurkha company, on a hill above us for our protection, started firing at us and tracer bullets ripped through the 鈥榖asha鈥� and my slit trench. I ended up under the truck. It was pitch dark so no good would have been served by stumbling around. Unfortunately, the Camp Commandant did not see it this way and decided to walk back to HQ to find out what was going on. He told me to take charge of our group. I never saw him again as he was killed by a grenade thrown at him by a sergeant in the Ack鈥擜ck regiment. Unaware of this, I posted guards at certain points and took one myself.

Shortly, I heard someone crawling towards me. I challenged him twice but received no response. I shouted a third time saying I would fire. A timid, shaken voice answered me, so I told him to come forward. It turned out to be a very frightened Indian lieutenant. I never saw him again and later wondered whether he had been one of the JIIFS very frightened by the mayhem he had caused.

The firing continued for hours and by 6 am I could see Japanese on horseback crossing the river. Lack of sleep over the past three weeks and this incident had taken their toll. There were no Japanese or horses. All the shooting was done undoubtedly by our own soldiers firing at each other. 74 soldiers were killed and were buried in a mass grave the following morning. During the night the same Ack-Ack regiment fired one tracer round which shot along the cliff and was seen by many. The unit denied having fired it.

This incident settled the nerves and the Division never lost its self-control afterwards.

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