Read Road of Bones Online

Authors: Fergal Keane

Road of Bones (82 page)

p. 320 ‘fire from a long’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 321 ‘To see them roaring’
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), ch. 15 ‘Operation Thursday and the Victory at Imphal’.

p. 321 ‘We bombed in sections’
Jack Morton, ‘Sojourn in the Royal Airforce’ .

p. 321 ‘When we landed’
Ibid.

p. 322 ‘We carried packed lunches’
IWM, file no. 02/49, Derek Thirlwell, ‘The Early Days of 194 Squadron Royal Air Force’.

p. 322 ‘Fatty’s’ parties after’
Ibid.

p. 322 ‘would somebody please
Ibid.

p. 323 ‘Almost every night’
BBC People’s War, Eric Forsdyke.

p. 323 ‘In the best of weather’
Second Lieutenant J. D. Broughel, 1st Transport Group, 13th Transport Squadron US Army, ‘Over the Hump’ .

p. 323 ‘Knowing that the leading’
Into the Wildest Blue Yonder: Memoirs of 1st Lt. John Walker Russell, US Army Air Corps’, CBI Theatre of World War II.

p. 324 ‘I took the normal spin’
IWM, file no. 02/49, Deryck Groockock, ‘Supply Dropping’, cited in Derek Thirlwell, ‘The Early Days of 194 Squadron Royal Air Force’.

p. 325 ‘remember looking down’
Thirlwell, ‘The Early Days of 194 Squadron Royal Air Force’.

p. 325 ‘often we would end up’
Flight Sergeant J. V. Bell, 31 Squadron, cited in Jon Latimer,
Burma: The Forgotten War
(John Murray, 2004), p. 268.

p. 325 ‘the Japanese Air Command’
NA, AIR 2/5665. Operations of Bengal Command, 15 November–17 December 1943 and Third Tactical Air Force, 18 December–1 June 1944.

p. 326 ‘gave the enemy’
NA, WO 203/6324, Interrogation of Lieutenant Colonel Iwaichi Fujiwara.

p. 326 ‘fighting on because’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 326 ‘How could we escape’
IWM, Swinson Papers, file no. NRA 28568, letter from Keizo Moto to Arthur Swinson, 15 March 1967 [approximate date].

p. 326 ‘When I first entered’
Interviewed for this book.

Twenty-one: The Last Hill

p. 328 ‘They smelled like’
Private Mark Lambert, Royal Welch Fusiliers, interviewed for this book.

p. 328 ‘The company clerk’
IWM, Oral History Project, file no. 25696, interview with Frank Infanti.

p. 329 ‘Laverty’s relationship with’
NAM, Colvin Papers, file no. 9412-118-1-91, Letter from Captain Peter Steyn, Assam Regiment, to John Colvin, 20 November 1992.

p. 329 ‘[He] regarded the Jap’
RMAA, Pawsey Papers, Captain McLachlan, ‘The Kohima Box.’

p. 329 ‘Why don’t you come’
Cited in C. E. Lucas Phillips,
Springboard to
Victory
(Heinemann, 1966), p. 189.

p. 329 ‘Sorry the missus isn’t’
Ibid.

p. 329 ‘Fatigue was the greatest’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 330 ‘We heard all this’
IWM, Oral History Project, file no. 20461, interview with Ivan Daunt.

p. 330 On another night
BBC People’s War, Charlie West.

p. 330 ‘This day he said’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 331 ‘Although badly injured’
Robert Street,
The Siege of Kohima: The
Battle for Burma
(Barny Books, 2006), p. 99.

p. 331 ‘No soldier is brave’
IWM, Oral History Project, file no. 2927, interview with Len Brown.

p. 331 ‘Day after day’
IWM, Oral History Project, file no. 19090, interview with Harry Smith.

p. 331 ‘They had lived’
Peter Steyn,
History of the Assam Regiment, vol. 1:
1941–47
(Orient Longmans, 1959), p. 100.

p. 332 ‘A man who had watched’
Ibid.

p. 332 ‘They will not be’
Cited in Lucas Phillips,
Springboard to Victory
, p. 200.

p. 332 ‘Returning to my slit’
Ibid., p. 201.

p. 332 ‘I had an argument’
IWM, Oral History Project, file no. 20769, interview with Bert Harwood.

p. 333 ‘Up until that time’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 333 ‘They were easy targets’
IWM, Oral History Project, file no. 21102, interview with Leslie Crouch.

p. 335 ‘to avoid the casualties’
Richards Papers, ‘Kohima Siege’, typed memorandum.

p. 335 ‘We soon came to’
NA, WO 172/5045, Major Albert Calistan, Kohima, April 1944.

p. 336 ‘You know damn well’
Cited in Arthur Campbell,
The Siege
(Allen and Unwin, 1956), p. 165.

p. 336 ‘I also spoke to’
Hugh Richards, ‘Kohima Siege’, typed memorandum.

p. 336 ‘This was the fourth’
NA, WO 172/4884, War Diary, 4th battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment.

p. 337 ‘We had many disappointments’
Richards Papers, Speech to Assam Regiment Regimental Dinner, 29 September 1962.

p. 337 ‘It was actions like’
Street,
The Siege of Kohima
, p. 80.

p. 337 ‘They were made of’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 338 ‘You had to go’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 338 ‘lack of security’
IWM, Swinson Papers, file no. NRA 28568, diary of Major General John Grover.

p. 338 ‘country is very big’
IWM, Swinson Papers, file no. NRA 28568, letter of General Sir John Grover to Arthur Swinson.

p. 338 ‘seemed we had not’
IWM, file no. 8092 99/21/1, Captain John Howard.

p. 339 ‘progress was at times’
Field Marshal Lord Slim,
Defeat into Victory
(Cassell, 1956), p. 317.

p. 339 ‘I expect to hear’
IWM, Swinson Papers, file no. NRA 28568, diary of Lieutenant General Montangu North Stopford.

p. 340 ‘Had the Japs attacked’
RMAA, Pawsey Papers, Charles Pawesey, narrative of siege.

p. 340 ‘created panic’
Ibid.

p. 340 ‘unarmed civilian in the’
K. Brahma Singh,
The Assam Rifles in
World War II
(unpublished manuscript.), p. 15.

p. 341 ‘You mustn’t let’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 341 ‘We kept our heads’
Lieutenant John Faulkner, handwritten memoir.

p. 241 ‘Luck was with us’
IWM, file no. 4587 81/16/1, diary of Private Harold Norman.

p. 341 ‘dimly flitted shapes’
Ibid.

p. 341 ‘Suddenly I heard’
Ibid.

p. 342 ‘talking away as if’
Ibid.

p. 342 ‘[Private] Steel had fired’
Ibid.

p. 343 ‘There was more scuffling’
Ibid.

p. 343 ‘I began to feel’
Street,
The Siege of Kohima
, p. 99.

p. 343 ‘had proved their’
E. B. Stanley Clark and A. T. Tillot,
From Kent to
Kohima
(Gale and Polden, 1951), p. 124.

p. 343 ‘It was a most terrifying’
IWM, file no. 4587 81/16/1, diary of Private Harold Norman.

p. 344 ‘Many of the wounded’
IWM, Oral History Project, file no. 17537, interview with Donald Easten.

p. 344 ‘Are you infantry?’
Cited in Lucas Phillips,
Springboard to Victory
, p. 101.

p. 345 ‘Each time they fired’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 345 ‘We kept hearing’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 346 ‘No. In a way’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 346 ‘How my own H.Q.’
Hugh Richards, ‘Kohima Siege’, typed memorandum.

p. 346 ‘The officers just came’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 346 ‘many were the anxious’
Steyn,
History of the Assam Regiment, vol. 1: 1941–47
, p. 100.

p. 346 ‘I was wounded but’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 346 ‘which meant general dogsbody’
IWM, Oral History Project, file no. 25449, interview with Thomas Jackson.

p. 347 ‘I jumped in’
Ibid.

p. 347 ‘We were clearly getting’
Ibid.

p. 347 ‘one of those chaps’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 348 ‘A company sergeant’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 348 ‘enough stray men’
NAM, Colvin Papers, file no. 9412-118-1-55, narrative of Captain Tom Hogg.

p. 348 ‘There was no mention’
NAM, Colvin Papers, file no. 9412-118-1-55, Letter from Thomas Hogg to John Colvin, 12 April 1993.

p. 348 ‘half his jaw’
Campbell,
The Siege
, p. 201.

p. 350 ‘Stood and watched’
IWM, Swinson Papers, file no. NRA28568, diary of Captain Arthur Swinson.

p. 350 ‘ramming bombs down’
Lieutenant John Faulkner, handwritten memoir.

p. 351 ‘It was a marvellous’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 351 They looked horrified’
Ibid.

p. 351 ‘I was taken down’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 351 ‘and if they were’
Diary of Private Harold Norman.

p. 352 ‘I saw trunks without’
Ibid.

p. 352 ‘I said it must be held’
Hugh Richards, ‘Kohima Siege’, typed memorandum.

p. 353 ‘Div artillery put down’
Ibid.

p. 353 ‘with blood curdling yells’
Lieutenant John Faulkner, handwritten memoir.

p. 353 ‘We collected all’
Diary of Private Harold Norman.

p. 353 ‘nice clean new uniforms’
Interview with Harry Smith.

p. 354 ‘He said, “I’m taking over”’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 354 ‘But you don’t talk’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 354 ‘He was ladling it’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 354 ‘They were a sight’
IWM, 10520 P 104, The Operations of the 5 Infantry Brigade, 2 Division in Assam, 30 March–12 May 1944, Brigadier V. S. F. Hawkins.

p. 354 ‘the stench of festering’
IWM, Swinson Papers, NRA 28568, Major John Nettlefield, Memorandum to Arthur Swinson.

p. 355 ‘littered with their dead’
Ibid.

p. 355 ‘He didn’t know’
Street,
The Siege of Kohima
, p. 107.

p. 355 ‘dead beat’
Lieutenant Colonel Harold Grimshaw, CO 1/1 Punjab Regiment cited in Lucas Phillips,
Springboard to Victory
, p. 216.

p. 355 ‘Some were falling’
IWM, Swinson Papers, file no. NRA 28568, diary of Captain Arthur Swinson.

p. 356 ‘marching and doubling’
NA, WO 172/5045, Major Albert Calistan, Kohima, April 1944.

p. 356 ‘although very tired’
Ibid.

p. 356 ‘They cut these drums’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 356 ‘We slept through the’
Street,
The Siege of Kohima
, p. 110.

p. 356 ‘In a strange way’
Ibid.

Twenty-two: Attrition

p. 357 ‘unlimited supplies’
IWM, file no. 4587 81/16/1, diary of Private Harold Norman.

p. 357 ‘listening to the cries’
Harry Smith,
Memories of a Hostile Place
(privately published).

p. 358 ‘Our lads have not’
Ibid.

p. 358 ‘You don’t know’
Interviewed for this book.

p. 358 I have never seen’
Letter of Lieutenant Bruce Hayllar to his parents, Dimapur, 20 April 1944.

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