VJ Day Commemoration

[Danny42C]

For a variety of reasons I came late to the laptop today, have just read through the moving entries so far, and feel very fortunate and humble. For I was one of those who Came Back - many did not.

First let me congratulate Wander00 for opening his Thread with the haunting words of the Kohima Epitaph, nothing else could have been more fitting.

The Battles of Imphal and Kohima started in early'44. My Squadron (110) moved up to Khumbirgram in Assam in mid-October'43: we were operating over the Naga "hills" (some of which run up to 10,000+ ft), and may well have overflown Kohima and Imphal several times on our sorties to the Chindwin river area - but of course, they weren't as famous then as they were going to be very soon.

At the end of the year, the RAF Vengeance Squadrons had to provide a "transfusion" of operational crews to form a complete RAF Flight to bring 8 Squadron (IAF) up to strength and into action. "Stew" Mobsby and I were one of the "lucky" ones. So we had to leave Assam, for 8 Sqdn were destined for the Arakan (300+ miles to the South). In this way we missed the action at Imphal and Kohima, but were busy with our own battle.

I can add footnotes to many of the Posts so far - specifically:

FODPlod (#2),

Once they got to India, all the passenger space on the ship that brought them out would have been immediately crammed with troops whose "demob numbers" were coming up, and with others who'd done their 3-year stint out there, and naturally thought they had priority over the new arrivals.

These then had to "wait their turn" (and in some cases this was a long time). I was affected in this way: many aircrew officer "reinforcements" were stuck in Bombay "on the beach". At my little unit 400 miles down south, the Army could provide any number of tents with pleasant sea views, a good Mess, all facilities and I could even give them a bit of flying.

(VV "conversion": show him the cockpit in the morning, take him for a ride in the back in the afternoon [he had a plug-in stick, rudder bar and a throttle, but nothing else], let him play with it for a bit to get the feel of it, then I would take it back and land). Voilą - a Vengeance pilot ! ("It's all yours now, mate").

I then farmed out all my routine office work on to these supernumeraries, so it was a satisfactory arrangement all round.

Clockwork Mouse (#4),

Thankfully, I never had to endure the horrors of WWII Japanese imprisonment, but we knew all about it. One photograph sticks bright in my memory. A captured RAF Sgt Pilot, blindfold, kneels in quiet resignation as a Japanese officer, sword in hand, "addresses" his captive's neck as a golfer might "address" a ball with his driver.

It was thought at the time that this photograph was a Japanese "plant" (to destroy morale - but it had the opposite effect). But independent witness from later (ex) prisoners who had been present confirmed the fact of the execution.

ICM (#5),

Your: "my understanding is that men went home on due dates, in accordance with the rules of the time".

Considering that it had been "sprung" on us so unexpectedly, most people at the time thought that the "Demob Scheme" worked as well as could have been expected in the circumstances.

Of course, all forms of transport had to be mobilised for the task of bringing back the troops from abroad, with priority given to former Japanese prisoners.

Tankertrashnav (#7),

I would have consoled your Chindit with the assurance that his friend appreciated this last act of kindness and would have thanked him for it, if he could. Your man had nothing on his conscience, and the best thing to do was to forget it - if he could.

Chugalug (#11) and others,

I can only commiserate with you on a loss which you had to share with many, and no doubt you must often have thought, down the years, of the "what might have beens, if" which came to your mind.

Now I shall raise a glass to the dead of all wars (Requiescant in Pace), to their sad and grieving families and to all those still living who wear the Burma Star.

Truly: We Will Remember Them.

Danny.