2nd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment

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THE ATTACK ON KIN-U VILLAGE
By
Lieut. C. Besly, M.C., B.A.
Page 6

 

of the three possible routes, that through the village was the only one that was almost certain to lead to disaster. The first of these incidents was that I noticed a sudden increase of enemy activity around the White House. The second was that our own artillery started to fire on the far East of the village. Many of these shells fell close to us, and we were in danger from shrapnel. So we found ourselves ignominiously sheltering under the bellies of those self-same dragons that had glared at us all day long. Our position was slightly ludicrous. Despite the prevailing gloom I am happy to say that that incurable optimist Mr. Tommy Atkins* found time for a laugh over this situation. This shell-fire was very useful to me; I knew that the gunners would only fire at places where enemy had been located. Conversely, as the guns were having a thorough strafe it was reasonable to suppose that where they did not fire, there were no enemy. So by watching their fire I was able to map out a safe route Eastwards.

....This convinced me that our best bet was to go round the South of the village. I knew that it was going to be a dark night, so I took compass-bearings in daylight, told those near me what I intended to do, and waited anxiously for nightfall.

....As soon as it was dark (about 6 p.m.) I told two men to take a blanket off the pack of one of the dead Japs. These two then crept down to where Pte. Elwell was lying and, with the assistance of the two men who had sat with Elwell all the afternoon, put him on the blanket and carried him back to me. Then, compass in hand, I set off crawling, with the remainder of the party following behind me in a single file.

....There were seventeen of us all told. Seven were wounded, of whom five could crawl. One fit man was carrying Pte. Haney pick-a-back, and four men were carrying Elwell in the blanket. So, if we were surprised, there were only five fit men available to defend the seventeen of us. I knew it was essential to leave the Pagoda, but at heart I felt extremely doubtful about our prospects of getting out alive. I was quite convinced that once we bumped the Japs, or attracted their attention it was all up for us. We were so vulnerable, and so immobile that any Jap force could make rings round us and polish us off. My Sten-gun was useless, and I found that I was not strong enough to crawl with the Bren-gun, especially with a compass in my hand. So I left the gun, and kept as my only weapon a single grenade. It had been common talk in our Officers' Mess that, if we were wounded, none of us would allow ourselves to be taken prisoner by the Japs. If capture became inevitable I was resolved to use this grenade on myself. Whether I should have had sufficient resolution to do this I shall never know, but that was the state of my mind.

....We were all relieved to get away from the Pagoda. It was a particularly dark night, there being neither stars nor moon. Even though we were in open paddy-fields there was little danger of being seen as long as we kept low. I told everybody to crawl, except the four men carrying Elwell, who had to stand up and chance it. Unfortunately Elwell, being wounded in the chest could not stop moaning, and I was afraid that this would give us away. I did not have much pain in my leg and I found that I could crawl better than I expected, though I felt very tired. Crawling is slow and tedious work, but we covered the first few hundred yards without incident, and everything seemed to be going well.

....I was anxious to collect the whole party of men together in one place, partly because I wanted to find out exactly who I had with me, and partly for the sake of those men who had spent the day on their own in little holes outside the Pagoda, and whose spirits were lower than the others'. It would be a risk having everybody together in a bunch, but I thought it would be worth it because of the benefit to morale which would result. Moreover, it now began to rain, which made the outlook even more dismal than it was before. So after we had covered nearly half a mile I selected a clump of trees which I thought would be a suitable place in which we could have a rest. I then sent forward two men— Pte. Lees with the injured shoulder, and another, and another man— to investigate. They went ahead till they

*Mr. Tommy Atkins. Slang for a common soldier in the British Army, often just called Tommy.

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