JD (c/o BB):-
They were flying down the river, the Irrawaddy, they both bought it. The japs used to string wires across the river.
I'm sure that came as a surprise! Given the woeful Japanese supply system, presumably these wires were obtained locally (cut down power lines?). They would have had to be reasonably substantial to achieve the required outcome, so rigging them up across that wide river would have been no mere feat. I wonder if it was corroborated or merely conjecture? Flying at ultra low height along a river lined with enemy troops would be very unwise anyway I would have thought, wires or no wires!
Jackie Coogan would of course have been quite a celebrity in those days, though less so today perhaps. He played the kid in Chaplin's film, The Kid. Interestingly, and a lot of people don't know this (well OK, me!), he was also Uncle Fester in The Adams Family.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Coogan
For the last month of the war we were on one eighth rations, one pint of water per day per man, all except the Americans.
No change there then. I wonder if they shared out their excess rations. As the man standing in line for a job as a desperado in Blazing Saddles was asked (when seen to be chewing gum), "I hope that you've brought enough for everyone?". He was of course shot dead when it was found that was not the case.
Good to have you and John Dunbar back again, BB!