Road of Bones Read online

  p. 119 ‘we will achieve the objective’ Ryoichi Tobe, Edited by Brian Bond and Kyoichi Tachikawa, Tojo Hideki As A War Leader, British and Japanese Military Leadership in the Far Eastern War, 1941–1945. (Frank Cass, 2004), p 35.

  Nine: The Hour of the Warrior

  p. 121 ‘Despite their efforts’ Robert Street, A Brummie in Burma (Barny Books, 1997).

  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 a
nd 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.

  p. 168 ‘the fact you didn’t die’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 168 ‘A Japanese regiment’ Field Marshal Lord Slim, Defeat into Victory (Cassell, 1956), p. 290.

  p. 169 ‘I have never taken’ Lord Louis Mountbatten, Personal Diary of, Supreme Allied Commander South-East Asia, 1943–1946, ed. by Philip Ziegler (Collins. London, 1988), p. 78.

  p. 170 ‘feeding me like a baby’ Ibid.

  p. 170 ‘saw the urgency’ Slim, Defeat into Victory, p. 306.

  p. 170 ‘getting a division to’ Major General S. Woodburn Kirby. The War Against Japan, vol. 3: The Decisive Battles (HMSO, 1961), p. 198.

  p. 170 ‘extremely cagey on the subject’ Lieutenant General Sir Henry Pownall, Chief of Staff – The Diaries of Lt.-General Sir Henry Pownall – edited by Brian Bond (Leo Cooper, 1974), p. 150.

  p. 171 ‘plenty of troops and could’ Ibid.

  p. 171 ‘desperately worried’ Philip Ziegler, Mountbatten – the Official Biography. (Collins, 1985), p. 272.

  p. 171 ‘the stakes are pretty high’ Cited, Ibid., p. 272.

  p. 172 ‘if the Battle of Imphal’ Ibid.

  p. 172 ‘weighing off a young arse’ IWM, file no. NRA 28568, Swinson Papers, diary of General Montagu North Stopford.

  p. 172 ‘he walks around his units’ Arthur Swinson, Kohima (Arrow Books, 1966), p. 20.

  p. 172 ‘his walk was unhurried’ Ibid.

  p. 172 ‘we are going to buy’ IWM, file no. NRA 28568, Swinson papers, diary of General Montagu North Stopford.

  p. 173 ‘Had personal discussion’ IWM, file no. NRA 28568, Swinson papers, diary of Major General John Grover.

  p. 173 ‘more than concerned’ IWM, file no. NRA 28568, Swinson papers, diary of General Montagu North Stopford.

  p. 174 ‘almost everyone in it’ David Wilson, The Sum of Things (Spellmount Publishers, 2001), p. 118.

  p. 174 ‘but could frighten the life’ NAM, Colvin papers, file no. 9412-118-1-99, Letter from Brigadier A.D.R.G Wilson CBE to John Colvin, April 30 1993.

  p. 174 ‘short, lithe, very smart’ Wilson, The Sum of Things, p. 90.

  p. 174 ‘highly charged with nervous energy’ Swinson, Kohima, p. 22.

  p. 174 ‘Wherever the General’ Ibid.

  p. 175 ‘The situation in North Burma’ IWM, file no. NRA 28568, diary of General Montagu North Stopford.

  p. 176 ‘We stripped off and’ Robert Street, The Siege of Kohima: The Battle for Burma (Barny Books, 2003), p. 42.

  p. 176 ‘to sit on the back’ Ibid.

  p. 176 ‘One formation approached’ NA, WO 172/4884, War Diary, 4th battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment.

  p. 176 ‘because India at the present’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 177 ‘Immediately the engines’ Thomas Dinsdale Hogg, My Life Story (privately published, 1998).

  p. 178 ‘Then as many men’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 178 ‘There’s a guy’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 178 ‘That didn’t do much’ Street, The Siege of Kohima, p. 43.

  p. 178 ‘It was, in fact, a matter’ NA, Air 2/5665.

  Twelve: Flap

  p. 180 ‘total nonsense’ IWM, diary of Lieutenant B. K. ‘Barry’ Bowman.

  p. 181 ‘I will send you someone’ Hugh Richards, ‘How I Got to Kohima’, Firm and Forester: Journal of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment.

  p. 181 ‘This man was a truly’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 181 ‘You will be in operational’ NA, CAB 44/190.

  p. 181 ‘touching down on a’ Richards, ‘How I Got to Kohima’.

  p. 182 ‘with any visitor’ IWM, file no. 2234 92/39/1, papers of Major Walter Greenwood.

  p. 182 ‘I had been told’ Richards, ‘How I Got to Kohima’.

  p. 182 ‘Trenches had in many cases’ Richards Papers, ‘How I Came to Be at Kohima’ (private memoir).

  p. 182 ‘The[re was] constant fluctuation’ NA, CAB 44/190.

  p. 183 ‘Nobody took any notice’ IWM, Oral History Project, file no. 18283, interview with Dennis Dawson.

  p. 183 ‘motley crew of useless’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 183 ‘all sorts and services’ IWM, file no. 2234 92/39/1, papers of Major Walter Greenwood.

  p. 183 ‘It struck me that’ Richards Papers, ‘How I Came to Be at Kohima’ (private memoir).

  p. 183 ‘In spite of the deplorable’ Pieter Steyn, History of the Assam Regiment (Longman Orient, 1959), p. 85.

  p. 184 ‘a sudden plunge from’ Slim, Defeat into Victory, p. 308.

  p. 185 ‘I felt reasonably happy’ Hugh Richards, speech to Assam Regiment dinner, 29 September 1962.

  p. 185 ‘As I walked around’ Field Marshal Lord Slim, Defeat into Victory (Cassell, 1956), p. 309.

  p. 185 ‘without any attempt’ Slim, Defeat into Victory, p. 310.

  p. 186 ‘packed so tight’ IWM, Swinson Papers, file no. NRA 28568, diary of Captain Arthur Swinson.

  p. 186 ‘We were having lunch’ Ibid.

  p. 186 ‘the whole brigade’ Arthur Swinson, Kohima (Arrow Books, 1966), p. 203.

  p. 186 ‘Hallo, what are you doing’ IWM, file no. 10520 P104, Report on the activities of V Brigade, Brigadier V. S. Hawkins.


  p. 187 ‘The local situation was staggering’ Ibid.

  p. 187 ‘things began to alter’ Ibid.

  p. 187 ‘in one big flap’ IWM, file no. NRA 28568, diary of Captain Arthur Swinson.

  p. 187 ‘with their whole world’ Ibid.

  p. 187 ‘Forty-five thousand’ Slim, Defeat into Victory, p. 309.

  p. 187 ‘He didn’t like’ IWM, file no. NRA 28568, diary of Captain Arthur Swinson.

  p. 188 ‘Very, very merry’ Diary of Lieutenant Bruce Hayllar.

  p. 188 ‘We had breakfast in bed’ Letter of Lieutenant Bruce Hayllar to his parents, 31 March 1944.

  p. 188 ‘This ending is very bad’ Ibid.

  p. 188 ‘March in circle’ Diary of Lieutenant Bruce Hayllar, 1 April 1944.

  p. 189 ‘Man after man vomited’ John Hudson, Sunset in the East (Pen and Sword, 2002), p. 16.

  p. 189 ‘set like a jewel’ Ibid.

  p. 189 ‘They said “Please Miss’ Ursula Graham Bower, interview with Professor Alan MacFarlane, Cambridge University.

  p. 189 ‘I woke up one morning’ Ibid.

  p. 190 ‘After all’ Ursula Graham Bower, Naga Path (John Murray, 1952), p. 194.

  p. 190 ‘Going forward to’ Graham Bower, interview with Professor Alan MacFarlane, Cambridge University.

  p. 190 ‘Somebody caused confusion’ Graham Bower, Naga Path, p. 190.

  p. 190 A Mr Sharp of the NA, WO 172/4587.

  p. 191 ‘he was a subject of the king’ Graham Bower, interview with Alan MacFarlane.

  p. 191 ‘I can’t go on with’ IWM, file no. 67/150/1, diary of Lieutenant Colonel F. N. Betts cited in Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Burma, Sidgwick and Jackson, 2002), pp. 138–140.

  p. 191 ‘felt no compunction’ Ibid.

  p. 192 ‘[She] gave him her only food’ Graham Bower, interview with Alan MacFarlane.

  p. 192 ‘Flat out with violent’ Betts diary, p. 140.

  p. 193 ‘about 600 hundred yards’ S. Woodburn Kirby, The War Against Japan, vol. 3: The Decisive Battles (HMSO, 1961), p. 236.

  p. 193 ‘It was volcanic’ Harry Seaman, The Battle of Sangshak, Burma, March, 1944 (Leo Cooper, 1989), p. 72.

  p. 193 ‘without regard to its lack’ Louis Allen, Burma: The Longest War (J. M. Dent, 1984), p. 214.

  p. 194 ‘nothing about any offensive’ War Diary, 152nd battalion, 50th Indian Parachute Brigade, Report by Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hopkinson, Battle at Sangshak, 1944.