Background
5th Indian Division was known as the “Ball of Fire” because of its shoulder flash of a round red circle on a blue background. (There were other unprintable nicknames).
Two brigades (9 and 123) of 5th Indian Division were flown in urgently from the Arakan to reinforce IV Corps in Imphal. It was becoming evident that the main Japanese advance from two directions towards the town required greater force to oppose it.
The fly-in, including 20 Coy, lasted from mid-March 1944 to the end of the month. 20 Coy was sited near the big hill-feature called Numshigum to the North East of Imphal. The other brigade travelled to Kohima and took part in the battle there.
The company was switched westward to assist the advance up the Imphal-Kohima road where, after a series of operations to clear the Japs from both sides, contact was made with the relieving force at milestone 109 on June 22nd.
The Division was then switched to the South of the town, where 17 Div (Black Cat) had repulsed the enemy advance, with orders to clear the Tiddim Road as far as milestone 36 and establish a firm base there. Because sufficient air supply became available this was changed to milestone 65. Eventually Tiddim-Kennedy Peak-Kalewa were defined as the objectives, with our brigade to take the lead as far as milestone 83.
Imphal
I landed from a Dakota on an Imphal airstrip in early April 1944. There had been an air-raid warning whilst we were in flight from Comilla and we had had to turn back and wait at Silchar. When we arrived there was a blazing plane at the end of the runway and gunfire in the distance. I had been through the blitz but this was real war and not like the movies. I had to wait a few days in a “transit camp” – one lonely officer in a solitary tent.
Posting
I was posted to 20 Field Compy, Royal Bombay Sapppers And Miners, O/C Major Phil Hatch and 2 I/C “Dutch” Holland. The company was sited some 8 miles N E of Imphal near a large hill feature called Numshigum. This dominated a view across the Imphal plain and had recently been cleared of the enemy after a slogging battle which had involved getting the tanks up its steep wooded slopes. The Japanese 15th Div had surrounded the town and here in the north had dug-in on a number of dominating peaks, including those sitting astride the only road north. The road led to Kohima (itself besieged by the Japanese 30th Div) and to Dimapur the rail head.
Sapper Task
The sapper task was to provide access for men, mules, jeeps, trucks and tanks to wherever they were needed. This involved hand dig, dozer, grader work, drainage and much bridge construction with whatever materials were to hand. Luckily some engineer equipment had been saved from a large dump at Kanglatomi before it had been overrun.
5 Div had the 2nd, 20th, 74th Fld Coys and 44th Fld Park Coy. One company had not been flown in but was routed overland to Kohima.
Sheets
I was soon to have my first reprimand and learn the importance of concealment. My tent was pitched on a hillside and one morning after a night’s rain my bedding got soaked. On a bright sunny morning I spread the two sheets to dry across some bushes. The dohbis back at Kirkee had made them “Daz” white and visible for miles. The remedy was to soak them in the remains of the “lunger” tea boiler.
Grader
A further lesson soon followed for this green 21 year-old Lt. I was put in charge of a grader and its operator to enlarge a path along a valley floor to jeep track standard. The necessary alignment required the demolition of a bamboo basha (house). My short time with an English local authority had impressed me with the need to respect land and property even though bombed in an air raid. I balked at destroying a family home but very quickly I was taught my second lesson – bash on regardless!
Vehicle Dump
There was an area set aside where REME dumped all vehicles which had been written off through falling down the hillside, enemy action, old age or whatever and it was open house for any unit to browse round to find any parts of use for their own use. The story has it that one searcher left his Jeep on the outskirts far a few minutes only to find it denuded of battery, wheels and other items.
A Brush with Death
We were moved to the west for the brigade to clear the peaks on either side of the road to Kohima and advance up it to meet a relieving force coming down from Kohima, now cleared of the enemy. A gunner officer and I were detailed to accompany an infantry company whose task was to make a wide hook to behind the Japs and clear the enemy astride the road. The gunner would radio to his 25 Pouders, back on the plain, for any artillery that was required, while my task was particularly to recce for a possible tank route were it to be needed.
The country was steep, partly jungle and with deeply-cut nullahs (ravines) running down from the heights above. We had just got across one of these with difficulty to the other side when the distinctive rattle of an enemy light machine gun opened up and we all lay flat. Visibility was very limited but you know when you are in the line of fire in this sort of terrain because there is a little drizzle of chopped off leaf trickling down on you.
Having no immediate task, I edged back on my stomach to reach safer ground but quickly found my boots in thin air over the sheer drop to the bottom of the nullah. There I had to stay until things had quietened down.
I had had my first brush with death but the infantry officer with whom I had struck up an acquaintance along the way, took the brunt of the ambush and was killed. I saw him carried past me on a stretcher.
A Rum Do
During another left hook behind the enemy, in very bad weather, it was rumoured that there had been an air drop of supplies which included rum for issue all round. It has always been Army practice to issue rum when wet and cold weather was particularly severe. We never saw the rum. The story went that the guard put over it at the rear discovered what a delightful drink was in their charge, drank to the full during the night, wasted the rest and were hospitalised as chronic alcoholics in danger of death.
Rations
These sorties tended to last two or three days and the small force often had to carry all the supplies needed on a small detachment of mules. Fires for cooking could give our position away so all rations were dry rations. Having taken a breakfast snack of a third of a tin of some unknown species of fish together with a third of a packet of biscuits wrapped in the thinnest paper imaginable, we had to carry the “Unexpired portion of the days ration” (as it was called) rattling around in our haversacks. The condition of the food and the haversack worsened as the day wore on and the evening meal could best be described as a “fishy biscuity mash”.
Phosphorescence
Each night individual slit trenches had to be dug and, crouched therein and protected by a rigged-up ground sheet, one tried to get some sleep. One time in the middle of the night I woke to see greenish lights in front of my eyes. It turned out it that tree roots, sliced through during the trench digging, phosphoresced when exposed to the air.
Lost
During another of these left hooks we got hopelessly lost. The mapping people had tried their best but the only positive feature that could be seen on air photos was the Imphal-Kohima road, much of the hill and stream detail being hidden under a cover of jungle-like forest and its accuracy not guaranteed. Our gunner solved the problem. He radioed back to his guns at Imphal some miles behind.
They were using the same maps, and he gave them a grid reference on which to fire a couple of rounds of smoke. The theory being that, if we could spot where they landed, that point could be identified on our map (which I still have) and we could make a pretty good estimate of our own position. The only concern was that the map reference given might by chance be our own! We spotted the smoke on an adjacent hill and all was well.
Jeep Track
To the east of the road were well dug-in deep bunkers and, despite air strafing by Hurricanes and artillery shelling (shells were in short supply) they held out tenaciously. The Company were to help bring up tanks and jeeps whenever possible to back up the battling infantry with fire power and supplies. We cut one major track out of the hillside for access to just below the village of Mapao. It was in support of the attack on bunkers an a feature coded as HUMP. The 3/9th Jats eventually captured it.
D-Day
On 7th June I remember taking shelter in a roadside ditch while the air pummelled a bunkered hilltop. We were listening to All-India Radio and heard the long-awaited news that our armies had landed in Normandy. Now, everybody thought, we can see the eventual end of the war in Europe and better back-up for the forgotten 14th Army. Going off-net was against orders but at such times the temptation was too great.
US & Canadian Help
All this time the only way to supply the beleaguered Imphal garrison was by air. Most of the civilian population had been evacuated early on but, with thousands of troops in action, the demand for every sort of item was constant We were fortunate in having a number of American and Canadian Dakotas making supply runs from India all day. There were two airstrips available – one took the cargo planes, the other the fighters. The American pilots would bargain with us for a war trophy offering “a crate of whisky and a thousand rupees for a Japanese sword” At the time the latter were non-existent.
Dakota Loading
These pilots had a disturbing method of judging their load for take off. There was continual loading for air drops to forward positions and for the Chindits deep into Burma. The Canadians worked to the book and, with clipboard in hand would work out the manifest and stop more loading when the maximum weight was reached. Not so the American pilots. They would cast an eye at the tailwheel and, when it seemed sufficiently squashed, were ready to take off.
Pip-squeak and Wilfred
These were occupied and fortified peaks overlooking the road which had to be taken. The Japs had appreciated that we could get the tanks up to the ridge and we feared that they would mine the approaches. One night the company was given the task of mine-detecting and clearing. None were found and after an air strafe and bombardment the attack went in only to find the enemy had fled. The tide was beginning to turn but they continued to fight a stubborn rearguard action. Sometimes they sneaked away by night, other times they put up intense resistance.
Dash across the Paddy
One access route to the ridges and peaks lay through the flat open paddy-fields across the mouth of a wide re-entrant in the hills. The area was quite visible to the japs up in their bunkers on the peak above. They fired intermittently at anything moving and the trick was to rev up the Jeep engine, let in the clutch and go like mad for 300m or so hoping that one’s sheer speed across their vision would defy their accuracy. By and large we got away with it.
Hard Bren Carrier
The rains had not yet softened the paddy nor the hard water-retaining ridges between them. On one occasion I cadged a lift from a tracked Bren gun carrier and had to sit on top of its 1/2″ steel back panel. The driver and crew sitting on softish pads were not deterred from moving quickly. The carrier bucked about and I was thrown up and down on my “seat”. Extremely uncomfortable but I suffered no permanent damage to my posterior!
F***
By the side of another stalled carrier I heard its British Tommy driver use only one word and its variations to express his frustration – “F*** the F****ing F****ers F***ed.”
Cable Bridge
Between the road and the hills ran the river called the Imphal Turel. Not very wide but not fordable. Access bridges had to be built across using whatever materials were available.
One construction that the company undertook was a cable bridge of an unusual type. Among the stores discovered in the equipment dump at Kanglatombi nearby, was an amount of steel cable. From memory the river was about 10m wide and the cable was cut up into about 8 lengths 15m long. The ends of each were formed into a loop with bulldog clamps taken across the river, secured on the far bank and using block and tackle tensioned as taut as possible. The process was repeated for the remaining lengths spaced 30cm apart. Cross-pieces of small local logs formed the roadway which was earthed to make it look natural to the mules. Sidescreens of hessian were erected and the whole formed a successful bridge for mules and men alike.
The Chimney to 305 Fld Pk Coy
An unlikely sapper task in the middle of the battle was to attend to a chimney at IV Corps HQ which was not far away. The HQ was tented and set up tucked away under a hillside, partially dug in below ground level and camouflaged. It is quite chilly at night at an altitude of 3000 ft and, to provide reasonable working conditions for working 24 hours a day, charcoal fires had been provided. No flame and no smoke with a small chimney, all integral with the tent following the style of army tent encampments in the Northwest frontier. Some trouble had arisen with one of the stacks and who better to fix it but the nearby sappers. I cannot remember the outcome but I do recall watching the marvels of a decoding machine at work in the ops room.
Prayers
Early on I was impressed to hear that the O/C had gone to “morning prayers” at the time in the early morning known as “sparrow fart”. Later I learned that it simply meant that he had gone to brigade HQ for the daily briefing.
Surprise
A tank officer and I were detailed to go and recce for any potential route for tanks towards the Jap strong points high above us. The hillside was covered in light forest and undergrowth. There being only two of us, we were somewhat apprehensive. We spent an hour or so forcing our way through the undergrowth, but it became obvious that though the lower slopes were tankable – they all came up against a nearly vertical rock face. We had just began to return when there was a sudden rustling and movement in the bushes. We both dived for cover and grabbed our revolvers only to see a scared deer rush away from a couple of equally scared officers.
Noise
We often heard monkeys chattering away in the forest around us, but more annoying were the chicadas. These make a sound something like a grasshopper and when there are hundreds of them the chirruping is deafening. What was really off-putting was that they might be drowning the noise of something important. Then on an instant they would cease, leaving a dead quiet and a hush which was quite unnerving.
Water Point
During a slack period three of us, Terry Randall (who had made it back in the retreat from Rangoon), another officer (Holt?, Rolt?) and I swanned over to the eastern hill of the plain and discovered up the hillside the various concrete installations where the water from the hills was gathered and piped down to the town. The water tank covers and all around had been extensively booby-trapped with hand grenades all joined together with thin wire. Everything was very rusty and, not being equipped to deal with this, we left well alone.
End of Siege
Whilst slogging around another of these left hooks to the west, news came through on 22 June that the relief force coming down from Kohima had met up with our forces at milestone 109 and the siege was raised. The Japs were pulling back from the area and a new chapter of the war was about to open.
Switch to the South
Whilst we were to the north of Imphal we were aware that there was a heavy battle to the south where 17 Div (Black Cat) had stemmed the advance of elements of the Japanese 33rd Division. Other parts of that Division had been held at Palel, their 31st and 15th Divisions had been repulsed at Kohima and Imphal and 14th Army strategy changed from defensive to offensive.
Despite the monsoon it was decided to start an advance which could be largely supplied by air since the necessary technique had become highly developed and the RAF had command of the air. One line of progress would be Palel-Tamu-Kalemyo, the other Bishenpur-Tiddim.
Through Bishenipur
Our 123 Brigade was given the task of passing through 17th Div to form a firm base at Milestone 36. Little remained of Bishenpur village of Potsangbam (pots and pans). Three VCs had been won during that battle and we saw the two Jap tanks knocked out by Rifleman Guju Lama VC of the Gurkhas. Later the objective was changed to Milestone 65 and later still to Milestone 83 The battalions with whom we were operating were 2nd West Yorks, 3/9th Jats and 3/11th Punjabis. The Lee tanks were operated by the Carabineers and, augmenting the gunner’s 25 Pounders and 3.5s was a mule-borne Mountain Battery.
Tasks
Our work was somewhat changed in that more engineer stores were becoming available; the Tiddim (dirt) road was in a very poor state and despite air supply there were quite a number of vehicles, tanks and guns to get forward. The advance was made on a small front and the road was crossed by a number of streams and rivers whose bridges and culvert were damaged. Also the monsoon was still upon us. The road surface deteriorated so badly that the 4×4 vehicle got completely bogged down and even the mules found it difficult to move. In contrast to our tasks to the north of Imphal, where the advance was very, very slow, the push down to Tiddim meant helping to keep the way open for a brigade to pursue the retreating enemy.
Health
From time to time we met up with troops from our flanks and it became apparent that they had been struck by an epidemic of scrub-typhus which proved fatal in some cases. Our own health was greatly improved by the strict enforcement of anti-malarial precautions. These comprised long trousers all the time, sleeves rolled dawn at night, sleeping under mosquito nets if at all possible, anti-mosquito cream and a Mepacrin tablet a day. We all turned a faint yellow which took months to wear off once we got back home. A daily salt tablet made up for what we lost in perspiration.
Travel
Each platoon officer had a Jeep and later a trailer, a bedding roll, side arms, a pup tent and a driver batman. At times the advance was slowed by a shortage of fuel and vehicle movement was subject to restrictions which were enforced by the Military Police. We sappers were fortunate because we made a point of carrying some heavy stores in the back of the Jeep. I remember being stopped with “No vehicles past this point, SIR”. Pointing behind me, I replied that if that crate of transom clamps did not get forward quickly then no vehicles would be getting past any point at all. This ploy always worked. There was talk of getting us horses, but I think it was a legpull.
Hurricane
One morning I was making a recce away from the road and I came across a Hurricane which had ditched in the jungle. The plane was badly damaged and the dead pilot still inside. It must have been there for weeks.
Delaying Tactics
The Japs were in poor shape but were fighting a rear-guard action. We were a superior force in all respects but they could delay our advance by cratering the road at critical points and covering the obstacle with mortar and machine-gun fire. The infantry had to sweep round and deal with the opposition before we could make good the damage and the brigade move on.
Scissors
There was one incident where a crater had been blown at a very sharp bend round the nose of a hill. The scissors bridge came forward and was so heavily engaged by fire that it had to retire with its crew wounded. That morning I had come forward by cadging a lift in a Lee tank. I don’t know how the crew could operate in those conditions – it was appallingly noisy and cramped. Outside we could only communicate with them via a Heath-Robinson telephone system which you had to use under fire by crouching under the rear of the tank. The West Yorks made an encircling movement the next day, the enemy retreated, the scissors got the tanks across and we repaired the road and we all moved on again.
The Pipe
The monsoon continued to pour down and I well remember the bedraggled infantry passing by in column of route brassed off to the back teeth. One optimistic Tommy, with his bushhat and groundsheet, the only protection against the rain, was trying to light his pipe by clenching it upside down and applying a spluttering flame from a box of damp matches held underneath.
Prisoner
One day word came that a prisoner had been taken. This capture was rare and we had not until now seen a live Jap. The soldier was a sorry sight, small, in tatters, emaciated, scared stiff and bowing left, right and center, being escorted to the rear.
Flags and Swords
Along the road we came across the remains of an HQ of some sort. Our infantry had passed through to consolidate the position leaving the site open for booty-seekers. I found two Jap swords and a flag. By the time I got back to the company, word had got round and the infantry, quite properly, felt the swords were theirs as trophies for capturing the position. Phil Hatch adjudicated, they kept one, I the other and the flag.
The Mess
We set up one mess in a large dark Basha for a few days. There was the sweet smell of death around, which in the circumstances was not unusual. It was only when we were leaving that two low mounds in a dark corner were discovered to be Jap graves.
Meals
The meals, such as they were, had not improved much since Imphal but we could usually find a serving of chapatti and dhal when it was safe to light the langer fire. For a goodnight snack with the others in a mess which was only a small tent, I well remember tucking into a tin of condensed milk laced with issue of rum. American K rations arrived later – these included five cigarettes, matches, a packet of bumff and three separately-packed meals of tinned this, that and the other, which were an improvement and something of a novelty – Spam instead of corned beef!
Burma Boundary
The boundary between Manipur (India) and Burma was looked forward to with great expectation.
We did not expect a custom post or a welcoming party of Burmese, but just some sign of the significant return of the 14th Army into the country from which we had earlier retreated. In the event the crossing of the boundary was quite unremarkable – a non-event except as a moral-booster.
Mines
We were called forward to clear mines which had been spotted on a sharp bend. No vehicles had been along the stretch of road leading to the site and I was detailed to sit on the jeep bonnet with my feet on the bumper and be driven slowly along to examine the road for more mines. On arrival at the bend the jowans were dealing with the problem in true text book fashion, on their bellies and using prodders. The mines themselves were very poor, consisting of two flat primerless mines one above the other separated by an impact-type hand-grenade, and were easily dealt with.
Elephant
We had been informed that such artillery as the retreating enemy had was being drawn by an elephant, such was the condition that they had been reduced to. Sure enough, confirmation of this lay on the road to delight the heart of any rhubarb-grower!
Air Drop
We were kept supplied by air with all but the bulkiest items. Some Baily equipment came down by road but sacks of boots, petrol, ammunition, mail, etc. rained down at regular intervals. It really was a magnificent operation and good for morale but dangerous too if the drop went off-line. Much came down by parachute but sacks of flour and clothing were dropped free and could be lethal. It was extremely difficult for the air crews when the DZ (dropping zone) had to be a length of road running along a narrow ridge being the only available area not covered by jungle.
Gunfire
At one river-crossing my platoon was putting a Bailey across a stream at an open site obviously visible to the enemy and we came under desultory artillery fire. Many tanks and vehicles had already forded the stream and gone forward so it was prudent to withdraw until it was safe to continue.
Milestone 83
123 Brigade’s objective had been given as, milestone 83 which we reached on August 2nd. The average advance had been 2 miles a day. We had had no casualties except sickness and I returned to Imphal for a new posting with 305 Field Park Company.
Towards Tiddim
161 Brigade, with Fd Coy passed through us at this point but 20 Fd Coy went on to help in the major task of bridging the Manipur River.
I was told that my successor was killed by a mine shortly after he arrived.
Major Hatch was promoted to CRE of a division and I caught sight of him much later driving an amphibious Jeep.