A Conversation with an RWF Kohima Veteran

I posted this on the RWF Pals group on Facebook this morning, but thought non FB-users may also be interested in reading it:

You know sometimes you recount military stories with mates and you finish the frightening but funny anecdote with " Tell you what, I sh** meeself"

Went to the Branch meeting at Welshpool last night. Had the privilege of having a beer with a 1st Bn veteran of the Battle of Kohima, he was a company signaller, mainly with Bravos. A closely fought battle with the Japanese that lasted many weeks, their defensive positions only metres apart. He is in his 90's but talks like a 30yr old squaddie. A few classic comments about that battle that even today makes you stop and think:

" Al; The Japs were so close to us, when they were digging in, their topsoil was landing on our heads".....He then looked me in the eyes and said "I'm not joking!"

There was that many bodies littering the battlefield which they were unable to remove, that the RAF dropped bags of lime soil without parachutes, which then dispersed on impact. Some of the enemy bodies actually formed the trench parapets on C Companies position!

He was wounded at the latrines by RAF aircraft strafing, the night before C & B Companies attack on Kukis Piquet. He said " Somebody patched me up, they then stuck me in the bottom of trench until I could be evacuated the next day, during the night the bloody japs broke into our position, I can remember watching them run past my trench.....By god I sh** meeself "( then laughed)..

A real privilege.