Road of Bones (77 page)

Read Road of Bones Online

Authors: Fergal Keane

p. 122 An officer wrote that
Thomas Dinsdale Hogg,
My Life Story
(privately published, 1998).

p. 122 ‘I used gun-cotton primers’
Ibid.

p. 122 ‘This information was vital’
IWM, file no. 4370 82/15/1,
The Life and Times of General Sir Philip Christison, Bt
, pp 124–130.

p. 123 ‘Poor Moore was quite white’
Lord Louis Mountbatten,
Personal Diary of Admiral the Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander South-East Asia, 1943–1946
, ed. by Philip Ziegler (Collins, 1988), p. 53.

p. 123 Optimism is not allowed’
NA, WO 172/4884, War Diary, 4th battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment.

p. 124 ‘fat old Admiral’
Ibid.

p. 124 ‘Success on this op’
Ibid.

p. 125 ‘How do you know what’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 126 ‘We knew we was all’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 126 ‘There was a shot’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 127 ‘Before we went into Burma’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 127 ‘You would run across’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 127 ‘You were always too tired’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 127 ‘I discerned the figure’
Wally Evans, ‘John Harman, VC’,
20th – Newsletter of the 20th Bn, Royal Fusiliers
, May 1997.

p. 128 ‘Soon, I imagined what’
Ibid.

p. 128 ‘It was as if’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 128 ‘Don’t worry, Sir’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 129 ‘I am satisfied with’
Diana Keast, private papers, Letter of John Pennington Harman to Miss B. M. Harman, 20 January 1944.

p. 129 ‘To our amazement’
IWM, Oral History file no. 17955/5/3, interview with John Winstanley.

p. 129 ‘horror mixed with ingenuity’
Anthony Brett James,
Report My Signals
(Hennel Locke in association with George G. Harrap, 1948), p. 131.

p. 130 ‘They took no notice’
IWM, file no. 4370 82/15/1,
The Life and
Times of General Sir Philip Christison, Bt.
, p. 128.

p. 132 ‘we were determined’
Gian Singh,
Memories of Friends and Foes
(Cym Nedd Press, 1998).

p. 132 ‘Firstly, you get in close’
Ibid.

p. 132 ‘In any civilised war’
John Shipster,
Mist on the Rice Fields
(Pen and Sword, 2000), p. 37.

p. 132 ‘I show your photograph’
Cited in M. A. Gilani,
An Old Soldier
Remembers
(Pakistan Defence Forums, 2005).

p. 133 Over five weeks
S. Woodburn Kirby,
The War Against Japan
, vol. 3:
The Decisive Battles
(HMSO, 1961), p. 144.

p. 133 ‘This morning the ground’
Diary of Major Michael Lowry, 13/14 February 1944, pp. 134–5.

p. 133 ‘Later their hearts thrilled’
Anthony Brett James,
Ball of Fire – The
Fifth Indian Division in the Second World War
(Aldershot, Gale and Polden, 1951).

p. 133 ‘How can one fight’
IWM, file no. 4370 82/15/1, cited in
The Life and Times of General Sir Philip Christison, Bt.
, p. 129.

p. 133 By the end of December
H. L. Thompson,
The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945: New Zealanders with the Royal Airforce: Air Superiority and the Arakan Battle
(Historical Publications Branch, 1959), p. 306.

p. 134 ‘the greatest moral effect’
Raymond Callahan,
Burma 1942–1945
(Books and Bookmen, 1967), p. 133.

p. 134 ‘Two cups of tea’
NA, WO 172/4844, War Diary, 4th battalion, Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment.

p. 134 ‘so well treated’
Ibid.

p. 134 ‘It’s very difficult to see’
IWM, Oral History Project, file no. 17537, interview with Donald Easten.

p. 135 ‘We advanced quite a way’
IWM, Oral History Project, file no. 20461, interview with Ivan Daunt.

p. 135 ‘We walked into a trap’
Ibid.

p. 135 ‘was intent on winning’
Hogg,
My Life Story.

p. 137 ‘All of a sudden’
IWM, Oral History Project, file no. 20769, interview with Bert Harwood.

p. 137 ‘We went to pick up’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 137 ‘We moved through them’
Interview with Bert Harwood.

p. 137 ‘buried the sad’
Harry Smith,
Memories of a Hostile Place
(privately published).

p. 138 ‘It was most unpleasant’
IWM Oral History Project, file no. 17537, interview with Donald Easten.

Ten: Sato San

p. 142 ‘They said she was strong’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 142 ‘They were upper middle class’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 142 ‘That meeting really’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 143 ‘He was always saying’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 144 ‘It is evident that My Lord’
Dohkoku – Burma Campaign for a Newly
Recruited Soldier, Retsu Division, 138 Regiment
(Amarume Museum, 1992), p. 134.

p. 144 ‘mild environment’
Shudo Akiyama,
The Retsu Division
Commander Goes Insane
(Shueisha, Tokyo, 1973).

p. 144 ‘The number of cases’
Ibid.

p. 144 ‘In those days’
Ibid.

p. 144 ‘Burma was not the’
Ibid.

p. 145 ‘That woman got really mad’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 145 ‘“I am General Cherry”’
Akiyama,
The Retsu Division Commander Goes Insane.

p. 146 One senior officer reckoned
NA, WO 203/6324, Essays and Interrogations of Lieutenant Colonel Iwaichi Fujiwara.

p. 147 ‘In every Japanese HQ’
Ibid.

p. 147 Mutaguchi ordered his supply
NAM, Colvin Papers, file no. 9412-118-83-110, Japanese Strategy – Intelligence Bulletin No. 247.

p. 147 Throughout the period of
Figure cited in Jon Latimer,
Burma: The Forgotten War
(John Murray, 2004), pp. 188–89.

p. 147 ‘From Rangoon we went’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 148 ‘It was like he was’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 148 ‘As the Japs are so’
NA, WO 172/4585, V Force sitreps and diaries.

p. 149 ‘expressed huge concern’
NIDS: General Kotuku Sato, Analysis of Retsu Division Campaign, August 1944.

p. 149 ‘The Allied power to’
Arthur Swinson,
Four Samurai
(Hutchinson, 1968), p. 131.

p. 149 ‘He said to me’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 150 ‘I was very young’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 150 ‘When a decision was’
NA, WO 303/6320.

p. 151 ‘Any man who joins’
NAM, Colvin Papers, file no. 9412-118-83-110, Japanese Soldier’s Barrack-room Ballad, Captured at Kohima, June 1944.

p. 151 ‘The system is so well’
Ibid.

p. 151 ‘All the stories’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 151 ‘I just heard that’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 152 ‘There was no food’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 152 ‘I said I did not’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 152 ‘I thought’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 152 ‘A British soldier came’
Manabu Wada,
Drifting Down the
Chindwin: A Story of Survival
(Burma Campaign Fellowship Group).

p. 152 ‘I was displeased’
Ibid.

p. 153 ‘It was an extraordinary’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 153 ‘I had a firm resolve’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 153 ‘Most of the men’
Dohkoku – Burma Campaign for a Newly Recruited
Soldier, Retsu Division, 138 Regiment
, p. 134.

p. 154 After the meeting
Louis Allen,
Burma: The Longest War
(J. M. Dent, 1984), p. 285.

p. 154 ‘I have a special request’
Ibid.

p. 154 ‘’My orders from 15 Army’
Ibid.

p. 155 ‘They were suffering diarrhoea’
IWM, Swinson Papers, NRA 28568, Recollections of Yukihiko Imai.

p. 155 ‘My officers do everything’
Cited in Arthur James Barker,
The
March on Delhi
(Faber and Faber, 1963), p. 93.

Eleven: Into the Mountains

p. 156 ‘Visibility is practically nil’
IWM 94/26/1, diary of FHA Howe.

p. 156 ‘being cut up’ by
K. Brahma Sing,
Assam Rifles During World War II
(unpublished manuscript), p. 10.

p. 157 ‘The continued build-up’
Cited in Winston Churchill,
The Second World
War
, vol. 5:
Closing the Ring
(Reprint Society, 1960 edition), pp. 434–435.

p. 158 ‘should be strongly dealt with’
RMAS, Pawsey papers, ‘Report by Sub-Divisional Officer, P. F. Adams, for the months of January and February 1944.’

p. 158 ‘The whole disposition’
Pieter Steyn,
History of the Assam Regiment
(Longman Orient, Calcutta, 1959), p.45.

p. 158 ‘You have the prouder’
Address by Governor of Assam, Sir Robert Reid, on occasion of raising of 1 battalion, Assam Regiment, at Shillong on June 15 1941.

p. 159 ‘When I was a child’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 159 ‘physically extremely tough’
C. E. Lucas Phillips,
Springboard to
Victory
(Heinemann, 1966), p. 67.

p. 159 ‘This man was the’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 160 ‘He had already shown’
NA, WO 172/5045, War Diary, 1st battalion, Assam Regiment, Appendix A, Speech by Sir Andrew Clow, Governor of Assam, 20 August 1944.

p. 161 ‘only the laughter’
Steyn,
A History of the Assam Regiment
, p. 53.

p. 161 ‘Although the march was’
Ibid.

p. 162 ‘One after another they came’
Ursula Graham Bower,
Naga Path
(John Murray, 1952), p. 39.

p. 162 ‘The very large cat was’
Ibid.

p. 162 ‘To me it was as’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 163 ‘The time passed’
NAM, Colvin Papers, file no. 9412-118-1-85, Susumu Nishida,
Taking the Field
, pp. 209–11.

p. 163 ‘When my slow’
Ibid.

p. 163 ‘This operation will engage’
15th Army, Order of the Day, 18 February 1944.

p. 164 ‘Into the mountains’
Nishida,
Taking the Field
, pp. 209–11.

p. 164 ‘I’ll take the opportunity’
Cited in Louis Allen,
Burma: The Longest
War
(J. M. Dent, 1984), p. 232.

p. 164 ‘We didn’t talk’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 164 ‘We have got to fight’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 165 ‘I lay up all day’
Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, Gracey Papers.

p. 166 ‘From one hour after’
Ibid.

p. 167 ‘Soldiers of the company’
Kazuo Tamayama and John Nunneley,
Tales by Japanese Soldiers
(Cassell, 2000), p. 156.

p. 167 ‘as a small blister’
Geoffrey Tyson,
Forgotten Frontier
(W. H. Targett, 1945), p. 85.

p. 168 ‘Many, many times’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 168 ‘On that occasion’
Interviewed for this book.

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