The cluster of Burmese villages was small, but surrounded by large paddy fields and cut off from the jungle by a road. Armed and ready for the surprise enemy attack which they expected to come from the village, the men were crossing the road into the paddy fields. About a third of the column had reached the paddy and another third were still crossing the road. Jim and his platoon waited for the order to go, but as they were about to step out of the camouflage of the jungle they heard the unmistakable drone of enemy Zeros.

There were ten of them and they were coming from the north, flying quite low, and clearly patrolling the road.

Every man, mule and horse froze where they were and not one head was lifted to see what the enemy planes were doing, knowing that a white face or movement of any sort could be spotted and they’d be wiped out in a single run by those Zeros.

There was muttering behind him as the sound of the engines died and they began to move forward. It was late afternoon and the rain had started again, pounding down on them as they crossed the road and began to follow their commanding officer through the paddy fields towards where they would split up and form smaller ambush platoons.

They reached the point where they would stay for the night, and almost before they’d had time to draw breath, snatch a mouthful of K-rations or a drink of water, the sappers were ordered to dig in. ‘Here we go again,’ moaned Ernie.

‘The faster we dig, the quicker we can eat,’ encouraged Jim, the rain battering down on his hat. ‘Come on, mate, we’re all dog-tired, so don’t waste your breath, because you’ll be getting no sympathy from anyone.’

They caught a small Japanese convoy that night, their anti-tank guns setting the leading truck on fire, the machine guns and grenades finishing the job at close range, and marking up over forty of the enemy killed.

On the second night when they’d been ordered to withdraw and move a few miles north, they had rather more to do. They mopped up a weak enemy battalion and a platoon of Japanese who’d been coming down the road before they were the target of a surprise and frankly insane attack by a Japanese company.

Jim and his men had watched in disbelief as the Japs had come at them across open paddy fields, bayonets fixed but without supporting fire. The machine guns made short work of them, but it was a shock to discover that they had no ammunition in their rifles. It seemed that rather than suffer the ignominy of surrendering, they preferred to die with their so-called ‘honour’ intact.