Place names: Many place names have changed since Burma gained independence in 1948. The ones used in this book were those that were customary during the period described in my father’s manuscript.
Major General Orde Wingate DSO (and two Bars) was a British officer famed for his eccentricity. His belief in the establishment of ‘deep penetration’ operations behind enemy lines resulted in the formation of the famous ‘Chindits’, who first saw action in late 1942. Wingate died in a plane crash on 24 March 1944 when his aircraft flew into a jungle-clad hill in present day Manipur, northeast India. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Virgina, USA.
In 1941 Henry Courtney Brocklehurst, commander of SSDII, was actually too old at 54 to be on active service but, through family connections, he had managed to persuade the War Office of his capabilities. He had served in the Royal Flying Corps in WWI and had spent the interwar years as a big game hunter in Africa and China, being the first Westerner to bag a giant panda and bring back its skin.
The attack by members of SSDII on two locations inside Thai territory near Chiang Rai, on gun emplacements manned by combined Japanese/Thai forces, is disputed by the British government to this day. However, it is mentioned in Burma: The Longest War 1941–1945 by Louis Allen (J.M. Dent, 1984). Allen repeatedly asked the government for confirmation, but did not receive any. It is likely that my father was the only eyewitness to these raids, as those others selected by Brocklehurst to go with him died attempting to escape into India later that year (1942). My father is very specific, and points out the route they took back to Taunggyi via Mong Hsat and Kentaung.
Bombing raids by Japanese aircraft killed and injured many civilians in and around the town of Taunggyi, which was one of the largest in central Burma. Lighting fires to guide bombers, and other such actions by fifth-columnists who supported the Japanese, were widely reported in the press at the time.
Colonel Brocklehurst received instructions to blow up installations at Heiho Aerodrome and other facilities to hinder or slow the advance of the Japanese towards Mandalay. The aerodrome itself was located in central Burma and would have been of great use to the Japanese airforce for raids on India if left intact.
Taunggyi was a centre for the British military and civilian administration, hence the large amount of currency held there and given over to the protection of Colonel Brocklehurst, whose instructions were to get it back to India to prevent it falling into Japanese hands.
Fred said when interviewed by the Birmingham Mail in 1979, ‘I helped to bury sacks of gold coins, with 2,000 coins in each sack, in a graveyard. They could still be there.’ As well as that there were gold chalices from the church, and also bank notes, most of which were burnt. When he returned to Britain, Fred informed the War Office of his part in burying the treasure. ‘The answer I got was that they had no knowledge of any money being buried. I know there were 2,000 rupees in each sack because an officer and myself had the task of counting them.’ Fred also wrote to the Burmese Govt, but received no reply. At the time of writing, it is not known whether the treasure has been retrieved.
My father recounts in this chapter that as they made their way northwards they came across a small group of mounted Indian troops. These were possibly the remnants of the final British Empire cavalry charge which took place on 21 March 1942, when a sixty-strong patrol of the Burma Frontier Force encountered Japanese infantry near to Toungoo Airfield, located south of Taunggyi. Led by Captain Arthur Sandeman of the Central Indian Horse (21st King George V’s Own Horse), they charged in the old style with sabres drawn. Most were killed, including Captain Sandeman.
The town of Mogok is still famous for ruby-mining, and Gokteik Gorge nearby has an old viaduct railway bridge which in 1942 was of strategic importance. After the closure of the Bush Warfare School, Calvert was sent with twenty-two men from the school and a few hundred men seperated from their units to guard the Gokteik Viaduct. The Allied C-in-C, General Wavell, believed that Calvert would use his initiative and demolish it, despite orders to the contrary from the civil administration to keep it intact. But for reasons known only to himself, Calvert retreated from the viaduct without destroying it. He later stated that it was one of the biggest mistakes of his military career.
It is at this point in my father’s story, when the men split into four groups, that basically SSDII ceases to exist as a cohesive fighting force. The dates for this are a little confusing, as two of the survivors suggest it was May 15th, whereas another suggests the end of the month. From research, the groups initially, on separation, appear to have been as follows:
Lieutenant Colonel Henry Courtney Brocklehurst, 135896, 10th Royal Hussars
Captain William Lancaster, 104108, York & Lancs Regt
Captain (Dr) A.R. Banajee, ABRO
Corporal Wilfred Isgar, 5182058, Gloucestershire Regt
Lance Corporal Charles Edwards, 1896442, RE
Private Thomas Morgan, 4977740, Sherwood Foresters
Private Cornec, 5498109, Hampshire Regt
Private Francis Cawsey, 5499203, Somerset Light Infantry
Signalman Jewan Singh, 8079, Taunggyi Wireless Station
Captain Dennis Brown, 108389, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI)
CSM Arthur Richardson, 5281845, 17/21st Lancers
Lance Corporal George Amey, 7910219, RAC
Gunner R. Couldrey, 830703, RA
Trooper Arthur Lockington, 324447, RAC
Trooper Donald Sharp, 323789, RAC
Naik Mohammed Ismail, Kentung Wireless Station
Sergeant John Friend, 7912265, The Queens Bays
Corporal Robert ‘Jock’ Johnson, 2931826, Queens Own Cameron Highlanders
Lance Corporal Frederick Charles Goode, 5108868, DCLI
Lance Corporal Alexander Ballantyne, 2934334, Queens Own Cameron Highlanders
Lance Corporal William Bland, 5571603, Seaforth Highlanders
Private Harry ‘Ginger’ Hancock, 4748143, York & Lancs Regt
Trooper William Smith, 7909151, RAC
Private Leonard Lacey, 5669104 Somerset Light Infantry (met up with this group shortly after the separation of the members of the unit at the river)
Two Indian soldiers (Gurmukh Singh, Sarwan Singh)
RSM McAteer, 6976837, Royal Irish Fusiliers
CQMS Reginald Gillingham, 543209 RAC
Corporal Murray, 6976274, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
Lance Corporal Richard Homans, 5948673, Beds & Herts Regt
Trooper Lewis Scanes, 321274, 1st Royal Dragoon Guards
Three Indian Sepoys
The groups would occassionally meet up again in the jungle, and the men would change groups as they saw fit.
The construction of the Burma Road commenced in 1937 and was completed in 1938. It took some 200,000 Burmese and Chinese labourers to build. It is 717 miles (1,154 km) in length and starts in the town of Lashio, Burma, running through mountainous terrain to terminate in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China. It played a big role in the early years of its existence, before Japan was at war with Britain, as the British used it to transport materials to China in assisting Chiang Kai-shek’s forces against Japanese occupation of China.
My father describes in this chapter being surrounded by jackals as they crossed a plain at night. These were golden jackals, or Burmese ‘wolves.’ The Burmese wolf (Canis aureus) is found across the Indian subcontinent and ventures into habitable areas to scavenge for food. It is very common in the evergreen forests of Burma and Thailand and, where food is scarce, attacks cattle and other domesticated animals.
My father credited Father McGovern with giving him the strength to survive during his later time of incarceration. Father McGovern was of the Jesuit Order and there was a large group of such Jesuit missionaries in the border areas. I have attempted to identify him, alas without success, despite contact with the Jesuit Fathers in Hong Kong and Penang, Malaysia.
From the description of the symptoms given to my father it would appear that Johnson died from dysentery, or as my father says ‘the squirts’. Amoebic dysentery is an infection of the bowel caused by an amoeba which causes the victim to have very bad diarrhoea and if untreated can lead to death. The causes are dirty food or water. A large majority of deaths in the POW camps in Asia were from this type of disease where food rations were of poor quality and the water was from polluted wells or rivers in or near the POW camps.
Fort Sima, very close to the Burmese/Yunnan border, was established by British forces during the Burma wars of the nineteenth century. From a historical point it is of interest as a Victoria Cross was won there on 6 January 1893 during the Kachin Expedition. While an attack was in progress by local forces on the British garrison within the fort, Owen Pennefather Lloyd, then a Surgeon Major in the Army Medical Service (later the RAMC), went with an Indian NCO to the assistance of the commanding officer who was wounded outside the perimeter of the fort. Surgeon Major Lloyd stayed with the officer while the NCO went back to fetch further help in carrying the wounded man back into the fort, where he died of his wounds. The enemy were within 10 to 15 paces during this time, keeping up heavy fire, and Surgeon Major Lloyd was wounded while returning to the fort. Lloyd later achieved the rank of Major General and was knighted. He died in St. Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex on 5 July 1941. His VC is displayed at the Army Medical Services Museum, Aldershot, England.
Sadon (formerly Fort Harrison) was a typical hill station, established by European colonials as a cool retreat from the heat of the plains in the summer months.
The McRaes had been resident in the area for some time before the Japanese invasion.
Sumprabum, some twenty miles from Sadon, was occupied by Indian troops throughout the war and would have been the nearest allied base for my father to reach from the hill station.
Edith Cavell (born 1865) was a nurse who is famed for saving the lives of Allied and German soldiers alike in WWI. After helping 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium she was arrested by the Germans and executed by firing squad in 1915.
Dha which can also be spelled ‘dah’ or ‘dhaw’ is a Burmese word for knife. Kachin dha is a long bladed knife, about 18 inches long. Shan dha is also similar in design with handles made from hard wood and covered in rattan or sometimes with metal bands.
Kin-Maung is a fairly common name in Burma to this day, and efforts to identify Nita and her father have been unsuccessful.
Beriberi is a Singhalese word meaning ‘I can’t, I can’t’. The disease is brought on by lack of vitamin B1, and causes the victim to be confused, have less mental awareness, and suffer, like Lacey, severe swelling of the legs or other extremities. It is fatal if untreated.
Myitkyina was at that time the northernmost HQ for Japanese forces in Burma and the location of the Kempeitai whose role was infamous throughout occupied territories in the Far East. Like the rest of the Japanese armed services, the Kempeitai were indoctrinated in the ‘Bushido Military Code,’ which called for Japanese troops to die rather than suffer the shame of surrender. The five codes of bushido were righteousness, courage, humanity, propriety and sincerity. However, it is apparent that humanity went out of the window. The Chinese were especially picked out as being sub-human. Japanese brutality also applied to prisoners of war, who were thought to have lost all honour in surrendering and were thus treated with great cruelty. The Kempeitai regularly searched POWs for diaries kept by them and administered brutal beatings on anyone caught keeping one. Pilfering was usually punished by execution.
Mr Kin-Maung, the father of Nita, was reported by my father to have been tried and convicted of war crimes in 1946/7 (see Chapter 20). I have, however, been unable to locate any transcript of the trial.
Mandalay was the old royal capital of Burma and is located on the Irrawaddy River. The railway line runs from Myitkyina to Mandalay and the station of Wunto (Wonetho) is approximately halfway between the two cities in the state of Sagaing.
The royal palace in Mandalay was converted into a fort and renamed Fort Dufferin in 1885 (after the then Viceroy of India). There was a major battle for the town, with stubborn resistance from Japanese defenders, but the fort subsequently fell to Allied Forces on 20 March 1945, led by General William Slim and his 14th Army.
Rangoon Central Jail (also known by the Japanese as Malay VI Camp in POW records) was built by the British and completed in the late 1930s. It was built in the shape of a wheel with the central water tower as its focal point and ‘spokes’ emanating from it as the prison cell blocks. It was known for its brutal regime.
The senior POW commanding officer at Rangoon Central Jail was Brigadier Hobson, assisted by two Royal Army Medical Corps officers, Colonel K.P. MacKenzie and Major R. Ramsay. The two medical officers were assisted by other POWs. Medical equipment was handmade and medicines either pilfered while prisoners were on outside work details, or produced through herbal gardens within the compound by the prisoners themselves under the guidance of the MOs.
The American aircrew that had been badly burned as a result of a forced landing were brought into Rangoon Jail on 15 November 1943. They were taken heavily bandaged to the solitary block where they remained for five days without medical attention. The crew consisted of: Major Werner (unhurt), who had managed to pull out his crew from the burning wreckage, with the exception of the rear gunner who died in the aircraft; 1st Lieutenant John C. Kelley; 2nd Lieutenant Thomas P. Hogan; S/Sgt Thomas E. Hopes; S/Sgt. Francis B. Jordan; T/Sgt. Urvan A. Aubuchon; and T/Sgt. Francis M. Daly. It was only after five days that Colonel MacKenzie and Major Ramsay were allowed to examine them, but they were instructed by the Japanese Commandant not to speak with them. MacKenzie requested that the men be taken to the Japanese-run Rangoon Hospital, but this was refused by the Camp Commandant. A second request that the men be allowed to be brought into the main compound was agreed upon. Of the crew, one, believed to be Lieutenant Hogan, was not moved due to his extremely poor condition and he died the next day. Of the remaining crew only Major Werner and Sergeant Daly survived and lived to return to the USA. The other crew members died of their injuries, despite the efforts of both MOs.
On the 11 May 1946 the sole surviving senior Japanese Imperial Army officer from Rangoon Central Jail, IKEDA Kumejiro, Sergeant Major, was formally charged with committing a war crime, namely the ill treatment resulting in the deaths of Lieutenant Kelley, T/Sgt. Hopes, S/Sgt. Jordan, Lieutenant Hogan and T.Sgt. Aubuchon, American prisoners of war in Rangoon Central Jail. The trial commenced on 21 June 1946 and concluded on 25 June 1946 with a ‘Not Guilty’ verdict. (Kew WO235/930 refers)
During my research into Rangoon Jail, I was supplied with a copy of the ‘Death List’ from Block 3. Sheet 2. This document was compiled by Captain Brown who had been with my father in Mytkyina and given the responsibility by the Senior British POW to record such deaths in the Block. The record was headed with Army No. Rank, Name, Unit, Date of death, Cause of death and finally Remarks. It was noted that on the second entry for that page and out of sequence by date was that of an individual, with no army number recorded, name of Lacey. Unit is recorded as SLI (Somerset Light Infantry), date of death is given as 15.9.42, the cause of death as Malaria and in the remarks column, MY (Mytkyina). This could only be Leonard Lacey, Unit is correct and location of death and date. It can only be assumed that either my father or Captain Brown noted these details down to ensure Lacey was recorded somewhere. On the same page, and the last entry, is recorded the death of 35305336, S/Sgt Hopes T.E., Unit recorded as 493HB Sqn. USAC (United States Air Corp) 14.11.43 of burns.
The cholera outbreak is well recorded in the 1954 book Operation Rangoon Jail by Colonel MacKenzie. A record was kept by a POW officer on those who died and were cremated inside the jail. Those named are on the Rangoon War Cemetery Memorial stone, which is located within Rangoon City.
At great risk to himself my father kept a diary on his person during the ‘forced march,’ as it was the belief that at some stage the POWs would be executed before the arrival of Allied troops. He had not kept a diary at any time before this.
Group Captain Ronald Duckenfield died on 5 December 2010, aged 93. In 1942 he was appointed to command 615 Squadron, flying Hurricanes from Jessore, India. On 27 December 1942 he was leading a flight of eight Hurricanes to attack the airfield of Magwe, Burma. Over the airfield his engine failed, and he was forced to crash land in a creek 200 miles behind enemy lines. He was captured and taken to Rangoon Central Jail. While incarcerated, he taught himself Japanese and produced a Japanese/English dictionary. He retired from the RAF in 1969, after which he joined Rolls-Royce and was appointed to the position of Marketing Manager for Japan.
Brigadier Hobson is buried in Rangoon War Graves Cemetery.
General William ‘Bill’ Slim was born in Birmingham on 6 August 1891. He joined the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and served in the First World War where he saw action in Gallipoli. A very highly respected officer, he led the Allied Forces in the defeat of the Imperial Japanese army at both Kohima and Imphal in 1944. These defeats for the Japanese ended the belief that the Japanese were invincible in the jungle environment of Burma. His belief in support drops from the air gave considerable advantage to the troops on the ground. Slim died on 14 December 1970, a hero to the solders of the ‘Forgotten Army’ and members of the Burma Star Association.
‘Return of Former Japanese Prisoners’ www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0WkG_fgMec shows a large group of American & British prisoners from Rangoon Central Jail that were force marched from Rangoon to Pegu, Burma then abandoned by the Japanese. My father can be seen among them (left of screen, just behind the officer, in bush hat, grinning, at about 6 minutes and 54 seconds).
From my own researches, the fate of the men of SSDII who separated on the banks of the Irrawaddy was as follows:
Of Colonel Brocklehurst’s group, only Private Cornec and Signalman Jewan Singh survived to reach India. Lieutenant Colonel Brocklehurst and Captain Lancaster drowned when the raft they had built capsized in a fast-following unknown river. All the others perished of disease, exhaustion or starvation.
Of Captain Brown’s group, only Captain Brown and Lance Corporal George Amey survived, the former being incarcerated in Rangoon Central Jail and the latter reaching India. All the others perished of disease, exhaustion or starvation.
Of Sergeant Friend’s group, only Sergeant Friend, my father and Lance Corporal William Bland survived. Friend made his way to Kunming with the assistance of missionaries. Bland made his way to Kunming with the help of guerilla bands. All the others perished of disease, exhaustion or starvation.
Of Sergeant McAteer’s group, all were killed in an ambush by Japanese troops, except for Corporal Murray, who escaped to reach India.
Operation Rangoon Jail, by Colonel K.P. Mackenzie, R.A.M.C (Christopher Johnson, 1954)
The Long Trek, by John Friend (Muller, 1957)
Burma: The Longest War 1941–1945, by Louis Allen (J. M. Dent, 1984)
All Hell on the Irrawaddy, by John ‘Tim’ Finnerty (Anchor Publications, 1985)
The Middle East Commandos, by Charles Messenger (William Kimber, 1988)
Return via Rangoon, by Philip Stibbe (Leo Cooper, 1994)