Road of Bones Read online

  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 ‘marc
hing 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.

  p. 358 ‘A man with an’ Ibid.

  p. 359 ‘He was a man who’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 359 ‘There is one thing’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 359 ‘This is the first’ NA, WO 172/5045, War Diary of the 1st Assam Regiment.

  p. 360 ‘it was for all’ Robert Street, A Brummie in Burma (Barny Books, 1997), p. 58.

  p. 360 ‘We scraped out’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 360 ‘Some of them were’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 360 ‘I said, “You know”’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 361 ‘It took about a’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 361 ‘used to sleep in’ NA, WO 203/4637, ‘Personal narratives of Kohima and Imphal Battles.’

  p. 361 ‘all eager to get’ E. B. Stanley Clark and A. T. Tillot, From Kent to Kohima (Gale and Polden, 1951), pp. 130–131.

  p. 361 ‘Officially he shot four’ NA, WO 203/4637.

  p. 361 ‘the abrupt dismissal’ NA, WO 203/4637, ‘Personal narratives of Kohima and Imphal Battles.’

  p. 362 ‘walked round and’ NA, WO 172/5045, War Diary of the 1st Assam Regiment. April 1944.

  p. 362 ‘tall, sinewy with’ Daily Mail, 1 May 1944.

  p. 363 ‘Perched 5,000 feet up’ Ibid.

  p. 363 ‘unless they are willing’ RMAA, Pawsey Papers, Charles Pawsey, miscellaneous correspondence.

  p. 363 ‘They are very gentle’ NA, WO 203/4637, interview with Charles Pawsey, ‘Observer with 14th Army.’

  p. 363 ‘Sir I am still’ Ibid.

  p. 364 ‘every day to see’ RMAA, Pawsey Papers, Narrative of Krusischi Pashkar, Kohima Village.

  p. 364 ‘We were taken’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 364 ‘When they had done’ Ursula Graham Bower, Naga Path (John Murray, 1952), p. 200.

  p. 364 ‘an excuse to let’ Ursula Graham Bower, interview with Professor Alan MacFarlane, Cambridge University.

  p. 364 ‘lots of offices going’ Ibid.

  p. 365 ‘Don’t worry sir’ IWM, file no. 10520 P104, Account of the Operations of 5 Brigade, April – May 1944, Brigadier V. S. F. Hawkins.

  p. 365 ‘John Grover’ IWM, Swinson Papers, file no. NRA 28568, diary of General Montagu North Stopford, 18 May 1944.

  p. 366 ‘In view of the lack’ 33 Indian Corps Account of Operations, vol. 1, 1 April–22 June 1944, p. 14.

  p. 366 ‘messing up’ IWM, Swinson Papers, file no. NRA 28568, diary of Lieutenant General Montagu North Stopford.

  p. 366 ‘Washington supports’ Ibid.

  p. 366 ‘why he must not’ Ibid.

  p. 366 ‘Later in the evening’ Ibid.

  p. 366 ‘hopelessly sticky and seems’ Ibid.

  p. 367 ‘which he did not’ IWM, Swinson Papers, file no. NRA 28568, diary of Lieutenant General Montagu North Stopford.

  p. 367 ‘the unavoidable arrival’ Field Marshal Lord Slim, Defeat into Victory (Cassell, 1956), p. 318.

  p. 367 ‘Thoroughly satisfactory’ Ibid.

  p. 367 ‘a sideline in melancholy’ Slim, Defeat into Victory, p. 200.

  p. 378 ‘Our stand at Kohima’ NA, CAB 65/42/14, Meeting of War Cabinet, 24 April 1944.

  p. 369 ‘could feel the stress’ Winston Churchill, The Second World War, vol. 5: Closing The Ring (The Reprint Society, 1960 edition), p. 440.

  p. 369 ‘Let nothing go’ Cited in ibid.

  p. 369 ‘must be filled’ Ibid.

  p. 369 ‘I don’t think any’ Lieutenant General Sir Henry Pownall, Chief of Staff – The Diaries of Lt.-General Sir Henry Pownall – edited by Brian Bond (Leo Cooper, 1974), p 165.

  Twenty-three: The Trials of Victory and Defeat

  p. 370 ‘You did a good job’ Anonymous soldier quoted in Dohkoku – Burma Campaign for a Newly Recruited Soldier, Retsu Division, 138 Regiment (Amarume Museum, 1992).

  p. 370 ‘Thank you for your’ Ibid.

  p. 370 ‘You don’t know my’ Ibid.

  p. 371 ‘For this I could’ NDL, interview with official historian, February 1964.

  p. 371 ‘Across the valley’ NA, WO 203/4637, account of 14th Army Observer, Kohima, 24 April 1944.

  p. 371 ‘It all changed’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 372 ‘Unfortunately these tactics’ NA, WO 203/6324, Lieutenant Colonel Iwaichi Fujiwara, ‘15th Army Impressions of Allied tactics and equipment.’

  p. 372 ‘I said to myself’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 372 ‘Its appearance had’ Lieutenant General Kotuku Sato, handwritten memoir, for Retsu Division War Veterans Association.

  p. 372 ‘so the enemy can’t’ ‘Biruma Sensen’ (Recollections of 58th Infantry Regiment), cited in Louis Allen, Burma: The Longest War (J. M. Dent, 1984), p. 405.

  p. 373 ‘both Right and Left’ Notebook of Major Yamaguchi, Discovered at Milestone 87, HQ of 31 Division Infantry Group, May 1944. .

  p. 373 ‘as formidable a position’ Field Marshal Lord Slim, Defeat into Victory (Cassell, 1956), p. 317.

  p. 373 ‘Let someone else go’ George L. Senior, Royal Army Medical Corps, personal memoir.

  p. 374 ‘He was restless’ Ibid.

  p. 374 ‘was always a surprise’ Gordon Graham. The Trees are All Young on Garrison Hill (Kohima Educational Trust, 2005), p. 51.

  p. 374 ‘Come with me’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 375 ‘We dashed on them’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 375 ‘I killed somebody’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 375 ‘One man got shot’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 375 ‘It was very heavy’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 375 ‘Please come and stop’ Tokuo Seki, Burma War Chronicle (1991), pp. 88–9.

  p. 375 ‘In his trench’ Ibid.

  p. 376 ‘I saw all dead’ IWM, Oral History Project, file no. 19596, interview with Yanagi Satoru.

  p. 376 ‘Mr Ito who worked’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 377 ‘born in snowy Niigata’ IWM, Swinson papers, file no. NRA 28568, Yukihiko Imai, To and From Kohima (1953).

  p. 377 ‘They were so hungry’ Ibid.

  p. 377 ‘How could he be’ Manabu Wada, Drifting Down the Chindwin: A Story of Survival (Burma Campaign Fellowship Group).

  p. 377 ‘From this point on’ NA, WO 203/4637, ‘Personal Narratives of Kohima and Imphal Battles.’

  p. 377 ‘Slim was very insistent’ IWM, Swinson Papers, file no. NRA 28568, memorandum of General John Grover.

  p. 378 ‘raised the men’s spirits’ R. King-Clark, The Battle of Kohima 1944 – The Narrative of the 2nd Battalion The Manchester Regiment (Fleur de Lys Publishing, Cheshire, 1995), p. 36.

  p. 378 ‘As each man had’ George Gordon, Royal Corps of Signals, personal memoir.

  p. 378 ‘You drag your legs’ Captain Horner, cited in John Colvin, Not Ordinary Men (Pen and Sword, 1994), p. 174.

  p. 379 ‘round staring eyes’ George Gordon, personal memoir.

  p. 379 ‘we had hardly fired’ Ibid.

  p. 379 ‘Then the “Holy Boys” shouted’ NA, WO 203/4637, ‘Personal Narratives of Kohima and Imphal Battles.’

  p. 379 ‘The shouted orders’ Ibid.

  p. 380 In one action ar
ound Figures as of 6 May cited in Leslie Edwards, Kohima: The Furthest Battle (History Press, 2009), p. 301.

  p. 380 ‘Looking at the corpses’ Gordon Graham. The Trees are All Young on Garrison Hill (Kohima Educational Trust, 2005), p. 47.

  p. 380 ‘look at the great’ Arthur Swinson, Kohima (Arrow Books, 1966), p. 218.

  p. 381 ‘from both a political’ IWM, file no. 10520 P104, Account of the Operations of 5 Brigade, British 2nd Division, April – June 1944, Brigadier V. S. F. Hawkins.

  p. 381 ‘[There were] thousands’ Ibid.

  p. 381 ‘We not only overlooked’ Ibid.

  p. 381 ‘watching a dozen’ Michael Lowry, Fighting Through to Kohima (Pen and Sword, 2003), p. 211.

  p. 381 ‘closest thing to a snowball’ Ibid., p. 226.

  p. 381 ‘did a fair amount’ Ibid., p. 228.

  p. 381 ‘In cold sweated’ Ibid.

  p. 382 ‘I, for one’ Ibid., p. 238.

  p. 382 ‘As the days passed’ John Shipster, Mist on the Rice Fields (Pen and Sword, 2000), p. 55.

  p. 382 ‘to respect the dead’ Ibid.

  p. 382 ‘Draw near with faith’ ‘Militiaman’ [anon.], Six for the King (Peace Brothers, 1984), p. 197.

  p. 383 ‘That shows you what’ Interviewed for this book.

  p. 383 ‘the occupants must’ Memorandum of General John Grover.

  p. 383 ‘It got among about’ NA, WO 203/4637, interview with BBC correspondent Richard Sharpe in ‘Personal Narratives of the Kohima and Imphal battles.’

  p. 383 ‘The gun couldn’t fire’ Ibid.

  p. 384 ‘very much impressed’ IWM, Swinson Papers, file no. NRA 28568, diary of Major General John Grover.

  p. 384 ‘part of a force’ John McCann, Return to Kohima (privately published, 1993), pp. 410–12.

  p. 384 ‘frightened of shadows’ Swinson, Kohima, p. 278.

  p. 385 ‘The impression was gained’ IWM, Swinson Papers, file no. NRA 28568, letter from David Young, second-in-command Signals, 161 Indian Brigade, to Arthur Swinson, 26 September 1966.

  p. 385 ‘we could get no men’ BBC People’s War, Deryck ‘Dick’ Reynolds.

  p. 385 ‘General Messervy’ David Young letter to Arthur Swinson.

  p. 386 the Captain became Captain Bob Allen, Cameron Highlanders.

  p. 386 ‘He was loyal to’ ‘On the Silence of General Grover.’ Gordon Graham. ‘Dekho!’ Winter 2009.