´óÏó´«Ã½

I was 16 years old when I first joined the army. At 18, with the Kings Liverpool Regiment I left by boat en route to India — it took 3 months!

On arrival we went first to Bombay and then travelled some distance by train. However, there were still many more miles to march over very hilly difficult terrain and we finally arrived at Imphel. From there we had to cross the River Chindwin. We did this by rope and arrived in Burma.

I was an original Chindit, so I joined with soldiers from the Indian Army and the Gurkas. General Wingate was our commander but I never met him.

Our mission was to get through the jungle without confronting Japanese. This was to show it could be done and we were successful. We carried rifles, but we didn’t use them. Our food was brought to us by planes — we laid a white sheet on the ground and the plane dropped supplies.

Walking through the jungle was very hard — we marched miles almost into China. After that we were taken back to India. I went to train to parachute — I didn’t have to use this skill in wartime. It was here that I met the lady who was to become my wife.

We were transported home via the Med and I was stationed at Bufford, in Wiltshire from where I was demobbed.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.