FIGHTING WITH THE ‘FORGOTTEN ARMY’
“SINCE 1941 BURMA HAD BEEN A HELLISH CHARNEL HOUSE IN WHICH THE ALLIES FOUGHT”
As the guns fell silent over Europe on VE Day in May 1945, the momentous news meant virtually nothing to Allied soldiers who were fighting on the far side of the world. Campaigning in hot, humid conditions against an enemy who had no concept of surrender, the British Fourteenth Army in Burma could only wish to put down their weapons. The Imperial Japanese Army would fight to the death and in the end it would take the use of nuclear weapons on home soil to force their final capitulation.
Since 1941 Burma had been a hellish charnel house in which the Allies fought. British and Commonwealth forces had initially been forced to retreat from the country to the borders of India and China and constantly wrestled with the relentless advance of Japanese forces. Hindered by difficult terrain, disease and weather, the land campaign to retake Burma was the longest undertaken by the Western Allies in the Pacific Theatre.
However, the Allies – and particularly the Fourteenth Army – fought back with great ferocity and by 1945 they had pushed the Japanese back to the very gates of the Burmese capital. Dubbed the ‘Forgotten Army’ by the press and even their own redoubtable commander, this force was nevertheless characterised by great bravery and military success under terrible conditions. Among their number from early 1945 was a teenage British conscript called Jim Kemp who fought with the army during its final push against the Japanese. Speaking 75 years after VJ Day was finally declared, Kemp describes his experiences of jungle warfare, hand-to-hand combat and the traumatic birth of modern India.
CONSCRIPTION
Kemp was ‘called up’ for military service at the age of only 18 and initially struggled to find an appropriate home in the military, “I was conscripted into the armed forces but it was alright and I actually felt quite happy about it. I had a brief period in the Royal Navy but they didn’t really like me so they put me in the RAF. They didn’t like me too much either so they then put me into the army!”
Kemp initially joined the Essex Regiment and began his training at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. After just six weeks of
