Chapter 35

Our night training on the island paid great dividends. We headed inland through the jungle for about an hour and a half. We kept the river to our right and stayed well away from it. It was the one guaranteed place where we would encounter signs of human life. We wanted to meet no-one. The Burmese wouldn’t necessarily be our friends. They would see us like the Javanese did, as yet another invader out to rule their country or strip it of its assets. We eventually stopped and took a compass bearing from a high ridge. The sea was visible and even in the little bit of moonlight it was possible to see the difference in colour of the water where the Ye delta opened out into the Andaman Sea. This was the point where McDonald would remain. He had line of sight but more importantly line of radio signal out to sea. Wilf then told everyone that we would be breaking into two teams. My team would head almost due north and examine the coastal layout up to five miles inland as we went. Because of potential fishing villages along our route Wilf said that we may need to lay up during the day. We were to push as far north as we could for twenty-four hours and then make our return journey covering areas we hadn’t seen. That should have us back in time to meet the rafts from the sub. His team would head east until they reached the railway and then follow that before returning. There was a strong likelihood that there would be many Japanese along the railway line, so how far they got was going to be anybody’s guess. He did say that his team would return when he thought they had enough information. If we were back and he hadn’t returned we were to make it back to the sub. McDonald would stay for up to three more nights before getting on the sub. It all sounded good in theory but the jungle and landforms were unknown. Just where the Japanese were was a complete unknown, but Wilf stressed that no chances were to be taken; better to be a day late than letting the Japanese know we were around.

As I watched his team leave, I noticed for the first time since I had met him a slight uneasiness as if his confidence was struggling to remain at the fore. It was still way ahead of mine and that is probably why my team had the easiest and quickest task. I looked around and McDonald had already vanished. I hoped we could find the bastard when we returned.

It wasn’t a walk in the park, unless you are in an overgrown one on a really humid night that is. My team headed north. The object was to find animal tracks, large animal tracks that would provide easier access through the jungle. Keeping to the ridge however, that was unlikely though, so we carefully headed down into the lowlands beyond. There were wild elephants in Burma, but more often than not humans had domesticated those around and that meant the tracks that these carved through the jungle were actually more dangerous to us. On the lower areas, deer and wild buffalo lived and the vegetation was much sparser. We could follow the trails of these as they moved through the undergrowth but where these lived so did carnivores. That meant that we had to be wary of more dangerous predators. Not your everyday family park. Occasionally we’d come across a human trail that led from one village to another. In the dark night, no sane villager ventured out, but we were careful to only use these for short distances, not knowing if a village would be just around the corner. It all depended on which way the wind was blowing. There was a distinctive smell of a village that would make your nostrils flinch, but only if you were right on it if the wind was behind you.

All through the night we made slow and careful progress. The terrain was difficult as it rose steeply in parts; in the flat areas it was almost swamp-like. It was hard to see how a mass of troops landing on the coast here and moving inland could make quick progress. They could be quickly pinned down by artillery or picked off by aircraft. Maybe further north would be better and so we pushed on until the dawn broke. I wished I had my boots as my tek leks weren’t the best footwear for where we were travelling and already most of us had bound them to our feet with vines. I thought that these more than anything else may limit the distance we travelled.

Daylight gave us more opportunity to see what we had been travelling through. Somewhere we needed to find fresh water. We had sipped slowly from our water bottles but the humidity just drew the liquid from our bodies and so it needed to be replenished. We were in luck however, because we heard voices nearby. We had stopped just off a walking track. Everyone hit the ground and began to quietly cover themselves with dead foliage from the forest floor. I crept slowly forward and looked down from the high side above the walking track. Two men were carrying water in buckets on either end of a long pole across their shoulders. One carried a very old rifle cum shotgun for protection of the pair. His eyes looked furtively around but luckily never upwards. This told me that water was nearby, but also so were predators. Once they disappeared from view and the sounds of their voices faded, I signalled to the others to move quietly down to the track and we went in the opposite direction that the men had come from.

I have never seen a creature as magnificent as the one that as at the small rockpool. We were downwind and our silent movement had not disturbed it. I signalled everyone to halt and lower themselves down. I’m not sure how many of them had seen it but I’m sure that they had smelt it. The pungent smell of cat drifted down towards us. The villagers were right to carry a weapon, although given its antiquity, I wondered whether they were more in danger by firing it than from their target. The area around the pool had become silent as the other animals waited for their unwelcome visitor to leave. I could see the fluid muscles rippling in its body. I couldn’t believe it was so big. They had never seemed so big in stories I had read. Its tail swished gently to and fro as it lapped at the water. It looked like just an overgrown domestic cat until it turned towards us almost as if it had a sixth sense we were there, and then it snarled a warning. The huge incisors sent a shiver through my body. Finally, it rose gently and padded languidly off into the scrub, melting away like Wilf used to do, its stripes blending in perfectly with the shadowy light of the early morning in the jungle.

We kept well clear of the village and rested up on a ridge so that we could look down on the valleys and flatlands that extended to the sea. This was our main morning break and we used up a healthy part of our rations. Most of the men slept. I was craving for a cigarette but ever since Wilf had been on the scene none were allowed. He said they made people cough a sound that could be easily heard by the enemy. The glow of the lit end would also alert the enemy and the smell lingered in places long after you were gone and always in your clothes. He said that not smoking would save someone’s life one day. Right now, it wouldn’t have saved his. I was ready to kill for a smoke.

The fact that there were large predators was really a boon so long as we didn’t meet one. The local Burmese would be able to explain away the raucous nature of the primates and birds and then their unnatural silence simply by assuming that there was a large cat in the area. I wasn’t sure of their religion and whether they worshipped such creatures, but they certainly wouldn’t go and hunt them in the creatures’ own territory. Even we, with our modern rifles and grenades, weren’t that brave…. or stupid. Looking down on the village where the men had taken the water, I could see an open expanse that looked like it had a cereal crop such as rice. Further to the coast was another village where long boats were drawn up on the sand. Between the two stretched a narrow bath amidst the swampy land. I assumed that water had to be taken from higher up such as at that pool because the water on the flatlands would have been tainted from the salt from the sea. A thin winding channel made its way down the valley and out to enter the sea where the other fishing village was. It looked idyllic. There were no signs of the Japanese anywhere. The only road out from the inland village looked like a deep rutted one where, probably, large wheeled wagons pulled by buffalo were the only means of transport. There were no signs of elephants either. Obviously, the ground was too soft for them. We would have to push further inland if we were to see any. I spoke to Tremblay who had also been eyeing off the area. He was using the scope on his rifle at the same time I was using my binoculars and he confirmed my own assessment. This was no place to bring in a landing force.

We rose and moved inland and further north, a lot more aware of our surroundings but also of the fact we might readily be seen. It was slow progress and by the end of the day we had found very similar country wherever we went. The Japanese had not moved this close to the coast with pretty good reason. From an invaders point of view, the ground was of little benefit in occupying. The people lived a subsistence life and probably didn’t grow enough to warrant exploitation. To maintain a force here would have been nigh on impossible and for no real gain. Patrol boats and ships in the Andaman Sea would have been all that was needed to maintain control. We had our main rest before heading back as evening closed in. There was really no point in going closer to the coast as what we had seen already had told us all we needed to know. Going nearer to the coast would have exposed us to more risk of being seen by the Burmese. I figured it was better that we all got back undiscovered and intact so that our message could be passed on.

It was a full days’ hike back and apart from being beset by leeches at one point, we were pretty much left alone by the wildlife around us. We all took turns walking point so the load was shared. Doing it for too long, you tend to lose concentration or anticipate things or see things that are not there. It is the most dangerous position on patrol particularly in unfamiliar territory. Our imaginations played havoc as we remembered what we had seen at that rockpool. However, we saw nothing, no predators, no Burmese and no Japanese. I guess the monsoonal rain that swept in on us on the second day was the main reason, although luck must have played its part. I hoped Wilf’s team was just as fortunate.