When I was a boy, my father told me his first-ever flight was in a Dakota while he was with the 14th Army, but he didn't explain the circumstances. Only by going through his army papers have I been able to surmise the reason for the flight.
In March 1944 while serving in the artillery with 23 Indian Division at Shenam near Imphal, he contracted typhus and was hospitalised in, from what I can gather, Calcutta, several hundred miles south-west – where he remained for two weeks. With a high fever, I doubt he remembered the RAF evacuation flight out of the line, but probably the return trip to Imphal (or Palel airfield) in April.
Like so many he rarely talked about his two-plus years in the Imphal/Shenam region, but surprised us one year with the story of how he'd been placed in the 'not expected to survive the night' room in the hospital.
Needless to say he pulled through; the others in the room did not. Then it was back by Dakota to the mountains of the 'Shenam Saddle' in time for the big scraps with the Japanese, who were intent on surrounding Imphal.
Many lives were saved by the RAF Dakota units based at Imphal, not just with casevacs but also with supply drops over the jungles.