Another Man's War
Page 33
‘widespread distress and suffering’: Penderel Moon, ed., Wavell: The Viceroy’s Journal (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 35.
Calcutta in those last weeks of 1943: For more information on the experience of British officers commanding West African troops in Calcutta during the Bengal famine, see Moss, A Piece of War, p. 90; and Clark, Good Second Class, p. 77.
‘but in many small outposts’: Cookson, With Africans in Arakan.
‘Dis not a better Kismuss’: Bull, Palm Oil Chop, p. 101.
5. Black men held the gate
‘All hail…black men held the gate’: Cookson, De Bello Kaladano, verse 44.
‘we would be like microbes’: Clark, Good Second Class, p. 79.
‘Our troops were either exhausted’: Private papers of General Noel Irwin, Imperial War Museum documents no. 10516.
If the West African division could take the valley: Slim, Defeat Into Victory, p. 223.
‘They were small men’: Hamilton, War Bush, p. 64.
Good juju: John Rayment Temporary Gentlemen (Maidstone: George Mann, 2003), p. 53.
‘Not a few men, who have survived the worst’: Anthony Irwin, Burmese Outpost (London: Collins, 1945), p. 140.
the airdrops to include kola nuts: Bull, Palm Oil Chop, p. 89.
‘capable of operating for months’: Hamilton, War Bush, p. 28.
‘Can’t somebody help me?’: John Cattanach, The Jeep Track: The Story of the 81st West African Division Fighting on the Arakan Front in Burma (London & New York: Regency Press, 1990), p. 48.
‘He good man’: Clark, Good Second Class, p. 84.
‘They would let us move forward’: Ibid., p. 84.
‘at a loss to understand…paradoxical wish’: Carfrae, Chindit Column, p. 118.
‘they didn’t spare our people’: Plaut, Africa and the Second World War.
‘When we found the sort of thing they were doing’: Christopher Somerville, Our War: British Commonwealth and the Second World War (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998), p. 223.
‘Only way you can identify them’: Ibid., p. 230.
‘The soldiers knew who had these powers’: Ibid., p. 231.
‘they were fighting against cannibals’: Plaut, Africa and the Second World War.
‘the Jap was farther down the human scale’: George MacDonald Fraser, Quartered Safe Out Here: A Recollection of the War in Burma (London: Harville, 1992), p. 125.
‘This may seem quick work’: Irwin, Burmese Outpost, p. 140.
‘part of an insect horde’: Frank Owen, ‘General Bill Slim’, Phoenix: South East Asia Command Magazine, 1945, reproduced at the Burma Star Association, http://www.burmastar.org.uk/slim.htm.
‘minute compared to the misery’: Rayment, Temporary Gentlemen, p. 99.
‘quarter was neither asked’: Slim, Defeat Into Victory, p. 188.
‘dangerous vermin’: Carfrae, Chindit Column, p. 180.
‘They scared the Japs’: Jack Osborne, interview, 5 May 2011.
‘the Japanese consider [the Africans]’: Hamilton, War Bush, p. 346.
6. Full of loneliness
‘The jungle is eerie…full of loneliness’: Private Papers of General Noel Irwin, Imperial War Museum documents no. 10516.
‘great dash’: Slim, Defeat Into Victory, p. 224.
‘the whole area was turning into a graveyard’: Irwin, Burmese Outpost, p. 109.
‘It was a victory’: Ibid., p. 127.
huts full of personal belongings: Terrell, Civilians in Uniform, p. 126.
‘They showed none of the joyous symptoms’: Cookson, With Africans in Arakan.
‘An isolated whale-back hump’: Hamilton, War Bush, p. 88.
‘Burmese’: The Buddhists living in the Arakan, today called Rakhine State, are in fact a distinct people with their own dialect, although they share a religion and bear a resemblance to many other Burmese.
‘Salaam aleikum’: Hamilton, War Bush, p. 88.
‘among the shells and bullets there had been no pride’: Waruhiu Itote, ‘Mau Mau’ General (East African Publishing House, 1967), p. 27.
‘colour and other racial differences signified little’: Carfrae, Chindit Column, p. 168.
‘difficult to see how you could not like men’: John Hamilton, Rhodes House collection of officers’ papers. RHL, MSS.Afr.s 1734 (168).
‘was judged on his merits’: Slim, Defeat Into Victory, p. 195.
‘the percentage of Africans possessing consciences’: Shaw, The March Out, p. 92.
‘found themselves in a forbidding country’: Carfrae, Chindit Column, p. 168.
‘I never for one moment questioned’: Clark, Good Second Class, p. 85.
Mairong: The village’s name has been changed to protect the identity of those who live there.
7. Juju on the River Kaladan
‘Some of the Africans think there is a juju on the River Kaladan’: Captain Stephen De Glanville was a civilian affairs officer, attempting to restore some sort of administration in those parts of the Arakan that were controlled by the British. Some of his letters are in the Public Records Office in Kew. PRO WO 203/209.
‘a disaster’: Major General Woolner’s Report, Rhodes House collection of officers’ papers, RHL, MSS.Afr.s 1734 (403), July 1944.
‘grave dilemma’: Ibid.
‘had been too quick for us’: Ibid.
‘not only a dud’: A private letter of Major General Woolner, RHL, MSS.Afr.s 1734 (403), 1960.
arrived safely back at Paletwa: The War Diary of the 7/16 Punjab Regiment is in the Public Record Office. PRO WO 172/5000, War Diary 7/16 Punjab Regt.
‘Every unit and sub-unit’: Slim, Defeat Into Victory, p. 143.
‘unable to understand why their long and victorious advance’: Major General Woolner’s Report, RHL, MSS.Afr.s 1734 (403), July 1944.
‘a dramatic change came over the situation’: Major General Woolner’s Report, RHL, MSS.Afr.s 1734 (403), March 1944.
‘A completely erroneous impression’: Major General Woolner’s Report, RHL, MSS.Afr.s 1734 (403), July 1944.
‘impossible to express’: Ibid.
a dialect of Bengali: The Muslims in the Kaladan Valley are today usually called Rohingyas and speak a language derived from the Chittagonian dialect of Bengali, with Urdu and Arabic influences. I use words and phrases (transliterated into the Roman alphabet) exactly as Isaac told them to me some sixty-seven years after he first learnt them. My intention was to catch the essence of his memory, rather than to provide a translation into a precise Rohingya word or phrase.
‘He just disappeared’: The quote from Richard Brown’s sister comes to me from George Fraser, another Aberdeen veteran of the Burma campaign. Fraser’s mother was a friend of Miss Brown and a neighbour on Great Western Road. When Fraser returned from the war, he met Miss Brown, and recalls that she frequently lamented the loss of her brother. I spoke to George Fraser in February 2013, when he was ninety-three years old. All my efforts to trace any living descendants of Richard Brown have, so far, been in vain.
the War Office issued a death certificate: Captain Richard Brown’s Army Record, Army Personnel Centre, Historical Disclosures.
‘After twelve days hunger’: A three-page report written by David Kargbo, and approved by Isaac Fadoyebo, after their rescue (see Chapter 10 for more details), is in the papers of Richard Ryder, an intelligence officer with the Sierra Leone regiment, in Rhodes House. RHL, MSS.Afr.s 1734, R. Ryder.
8. Cover me, Lord
‘Let this world…Cover me, Lord’: Ralph Nixon Currey and Ronald V. Gibson, ed., Poems from India, by Members of the Forces (Oxford: G. Cumberlege, Oxford University Press, 1945), p. 27.
the capture of Imphal’s huge airfields: For a discussion of the Japanese objectives at Imphal, see Julian Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Burma 1942–1945 (London: Pan Macmillan, 2012), p. 142.
‘change the course of the World War’: Slim, Defeat Into Victory, p. 285.
‘I was sa
ved from the consequences’: Ibid., p. 308.
‘Glossy black scalps’: John Nunneley, Tales from the King’s African Rifles: A Last Flourish of Empire (London: Cassell, 2001), p. 127.
‘For three weeks you are not taking off’: Somerville, Our War, p. 222.
‘a soggy, bloody mess’: Moss, A Piece of War, p. 122.
annual rate of malaria: Slim, Defeat Into Victory, p. 177.
‘dashing and brilliant’: National Army Museum Archive, newspapers on the Burma campaign, accession no. 2007-10-09.
The Chindit campaigns: The term ‘chindit’ is a corruption of the Burmese word chinthe, a mythical beast, half-lion and half-dragon, that guards Buddhist temples. It was the emblem of the Chindit units.
‘When the sick and wounded were so exhausted’: Quoted in Julian Thompson, The Imperial War Museum Book of War Behind Enemy Lines: Special Forces in Action, 1940–45 (London: Pan Macmillan, 1999), p. 237.
‘Rain was absorbed by…packs’: Carfrae, Chindit Column, p. 142.
‘We didn’t even keep a record’: Jack Osborne, interview, 5 May 2011.
‘the sun wholly deserting us’: Carfrae, Chindit Column, p. 165.
9. Loyalty and patience
‘I have come to love and respect these Mussulmen…loyalty and patience’: Irwin, Burmese Outpost, p. 23.
At night, the village was quiet: Inspiration for the sounds of a Muslim village in the Arakan at night comes from Irwin, Burmese Outpost, p. 55.
‘They stripped him’: Ibid., p. 148.
‘Dobama! Dobama!’: Izumiya Tatsuro, The Minami Organ transl. by Tun Aung Chain (Rangoon: Translation and Publications Department, Higher Education Department, 1981), p. 125.
‘over exploiters and blood suckers’: Typescript by an unnamed Arakanese on the Japanese occupation, from the Clague Papers. Sir John Clague (1882–1958) was a civil servant involved in the British administration of Burma during the war (he was based in India after the Japanese invasion). His papers, held in the British Library, include letters sent to him from Burmese contacts, describing life under the Japanese. Clague Papers MDD Eur E252/44 F143.
‘information of our every movement’: John Smyth, Before the Dawn (London: Cassell, 1957), p. 139.
The majority ethnic Bamar: ‘Burman’ is most often used as an ethnic term that refers specifically to the Bamar people. ‘Burmese’ is most often used as a general political term, denoting the nationality of all people who come from Burma, regardless of ethnicity. But, in order to avoid any confusion for the general reader, I have tended to use ‘Bamar’ instead of ‘Burman’ here.
Indians outnumbered Burmese: Nalini Ranjan Chakravarti, The Indian Minority in Burma (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 19.
Indian landlords…and Indian shopkeepers and traders: Mira Kamdar, Motiba’s Tattoos: A Granddaughter’s Journey into Her Indian Family’s Past (New York: Public Affairs, 2000), p. 86.
to learn not only English, but also Hindi: Derek Tonkin, ‘A Fresh Perspective on the Muslims of Myanmar’, http://www.networkmyanmar.org/images/stories/PDF14/The-Muslims-of-Myanmar.pdf, July 2013.
Tens of thousands of Indians died: Thant Myint-U, The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma (London: Faber and Faber, 2007), p. 226.
‘Akyab reads Indian…newspapers’: C.M. Enriquez, A Burmese Wonderland: A Tale of Travel and Upper and Lower Burma (Calcutta: Thacker Spink and Co., 1922), p. 58.
‘Whilst it lasted it was a pretty bloody affair’: Irwin, Burmese Outpost, p. 23.
‘If they see a British soldier lying wounded’: Ibid., p. 36.
‘A considerable number were massacred’: Peter Murray, ‘The British Military Administration of North Arakan 1942–43’, p. 7, http://www.networkmyanmar.com/images/stories/PDF13/peter-murray-1980.pdf.
‘large numbers of Mohamedans bent on loot’: This letter, marked ‘Secret’, is in the Public Record Office in Kew, part of a collection of documents from officials involved in trying to restore administration in those parts of the Arakan that were controlled by the British. PRO WO 203/309, Arakan Administration, 16 July 1943, Letter to Colonel Lindop.
‘related lively stories of their adventures’: This letter is by an informer for the British, writing to General Irwin, who led the failed Arakan offensive of 1942–43. It can be found in Irwin’s papers in the Imperial War Museum. Zainuddin, ‘Confidential Account of My Experiences prior to and during the Re-occupation of the Kyauktaw Area by the British’, Private Papers of General Noel Irwin, Imperial War Museum documents no. 10516.
‘the Indians in the Kaladan’: This letter is part of the collection of documents from officials involved in trying to restore British administration in the Arakan. It can be found in the Public Record Office in Kew. PRO WO 203/309, Arakan Administration, Letter from Major P. Burnside, 2 March 1944.
the nous to further strengthen their bond with Shuyiman: In analysing Shuyiman’s motivations, I have had to resort to some conjecture. This is based on a conversation with his family, extensive conversations with Isaac, and my own reading of the situation in the Kaladan Valley in 1944, as laid out in this chapter. I believe that Shuyiman helped Isaac and David for four reasons: because he felt pity for them; because he wanted the British to win the war; because he hoped to be rewarded; and because he had a (mistaken) feeling of religious solidarity. I would imagine that the relative importance of each of these reasons varied over time, but together they provided Shuyiman and Khatoun with sufficient incentive, and courage, to take the extraordinary risks that they did.
accounts of how Muslim families went to great lengths: Peter Haining, The Banzai Hunters (London: Conway, 2007), p. 144.
‘I am glad for the people who died’: Khin Myo Chit, Three Years Under the Japs (Rangoon: self-published, 1945), p. 1.
‘This was regarded by the Burmese people as the greatest humiliation’: Ibid., p. 4.
‘the British sucked Burman blood’: Quoted in Piers Brendon, The Decline and Fall of the British Empire (London: Jonathan Cape, 2007), p. 433.
‘The people here are very poor’: Dorman-Smith Papers, E251/23, Oriental and India Office Collection, British Library. Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith (1899–1977) was Governor of Burma for a troubled period, during 1941–46. After the Japanese invasion, he was in exile in Simla, India, from where he received intelligence reports, such as this letter, on the situation in Burma.
‘ “Go on Aung San” ’: Slim, Defeat Into Victory, p. 518.
10. Home again
‘The most famous ballad…“Home Again” ’: D.F. Mackenzie, ‘Songs of the “Happy Warriors”’, Victory, 23 July 1945, p. 10.
‘In the month of December the 6’: From the report written by David Kargbo, and approved by Isaac Fadoyebo, after their rescue, in the papers of Richard Ryder, an intelligence officer with the Sierra Leone regiment, in Rhodes House. RHL, MSS, Afr.s 1734, R. Ryder.
During the screenings in the cinema: Ernest Lanning’s papers in the Rhodes House collection of officers’ papers. RHL, MSS.Afr.s 1734 (258) Ernest Lanning.
‘more letters from their friends’: The Emir of Katsina quoted in Sierra Leone Daily Mail, 8 March 1945.
‘Oh my African brother, do not forget’: David Kargbo/Isaac Fadoyebo report in Richard Ryder’s papers, Rhodes House. RHL, MSS.Afr.s 1734, R. Ryder.
‘despite the Jap mortar fire’: van Straubenzee, Desert, Jungle and Dale, p. 80.
‘I estimate that about 98 percent’: F.S.V. Donnison, British Military Administration in the Far East, 1943–46 (HMSO, 1956), p. 107.
‘the battle that might have been fought’: General Oliver Leese quoted in Hamilton, War Bush, p. 243.
the historic city of Mrauk U: Mrauk U was then known by its Burmese name of Myohaung. It has since reverted to its Arakanese, or Rakhine, name.
‘forgotten flank’: John Hamilton, Rhodes House collection of officers’ papers. RHL MSS.Afr.s 1743 (168).
‘Only Indian, American and English troops’: Original letter in David Killingray�
��s papers in the Rhodes House Collection. RHL, MSS.Afr.s 1734 (243), and quoted in Killingray, Fighting for Britain, p. 210.
‘went in anonymously’: Sidney Butterworth writing in 1957, quoted in Hamilton, War Bush, p. 21.