Chapter 14

Chapter 14

 

Burma again

I eventually tracked down the other half of my Company, or so I thought, but found that only Sandy Mills was there with most of them; the two subalterns having been left behind with the rest in Calcutta transit camp to collect the Cocos half. Mills and his detachment had done some small job, what I cannot recall, and were preparing to move to Mandalay. I do remember that we heard of V.E. day while we were eating our dinner in this outlandish place in the Burma jungle. I then had to go to Rangoon, leaving Mills to take the detachment to Mandalay. I spent only a few days in Rangoon, then flew by R.A.F. plane to Myktina ,and was met by one of our drivers and taken to our quarters in Mandalay, by which time Mills and his detachment had arrived there. I cannot remember that we did anything very important,except clear up the mess that the Japs had left and do a few repairs to the riverside wharves, but we were there only for about a month when we were ordered down to Rangoon again to be despatched back to India. Altogether it was an interesting interlude,but not of great significance for the war effort. I had seen the famous Shwe Dagon pagoda in Rangoon, and was very unimpressed, as it was filthy dirty and crowded with beggars, and while there, had also seen a cage where the Japs had kept some war prisoners in inhuman conditions, the cage being too low in which to stand up, and not long enough for lying down. I had also visited Maymo, a pre-war hill station, and found it almost totally deserted.

 

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