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THE ATTACK ON KIN-U VILLAGE
By
Lieut. C. Besly, M.C., B.A.
Page 8
afraid that most
of the nine would wander about and get hopelessly lost.
....I now learnt what had happened at the
clump of trees. We had not walked into a Jap position, but all seventeen
of us had solemnly sat down beside two Japs who were cooking something
in a mess-tin over a fire. The two Japs ran at us and hit Pte.
Mason, on the head with a rifle-but. Pte.
Mason, being a young man of much energy and resources sprang up and,
assisted by the others, hit back so hard that the two Japs ran away. Fortunately
Mason was wearing a
steel helmet, so he took no harm from the blow.
....In the confusion the party got split
up. Amongst the eight of us with me there were two wounded apart from
myself:- Bache, and
Haney. I found on enquiry,
that the same man had carried Haney
all the way— a phenomenal achievement, because crawling with a man
on your back is incredibly hard work. The man who done this was none other
than old Dodd. I told
somebody else to give Dodd
a break. Yet when we reached or destination I noticed that Haney
was again being carried by Pte.
Dodd.
....Sitting close together restored some
measure of calm. We were just beginning to relax when, yet again, we were
startled by another crisis. Quite close to us we heard the unmistakable
"Bup-Bup-Bup" of a Bren-gun. This started me off on another
train of alarming thoughts. It is a cast-iron rule of Jungle discipline
that you never fire at night; partly because you hardly ever hit
what you aim at, and partly because, once firing starts amongst nervous
troops, whole battalions will sometimes loose off all their ammunition
at nothing. This burst of Bren-gun fire made me think that some of my
own men must have become "trigger-happy", and would presently
all be shooting at each other. We listened tensely for a long time but
did not hear another sound. This was comforting but very bewildering.
Then a most fortuitous thing happened. The rain stopped, the clouds rolled
away, and the stars came out. Now I knew that both L/Cpl.
Bailey and Pte. Creasey
could read the stars, because I had taught them myself. Also, at the Pagoda
I had told both these two the route I intended to take. So they at least,
and any who were with them, would probably be able to find their way back
to "B" Company.
....After we heard the firing the eight of
us had a long rest, before moving off on our compass bearing. By this
time my leg had stiffened up, and as we all felt very exhausted, we made
slow progress, and had frequent halts. These halts got longer and longer,
as the distance we crawled between halts got progressively shorter. I
have no idea how far we crawled, but I think it was well over a mile.
I had intended to go as far as the railway, but some time in the middle
of the night we reached a small road with a prominent house on it, which
seemed to be a good land-mark. By this time Pte.
Haney was in considerable pain, and I felt too weak to go much further.
So I crawled under this house (which like all Burmese houses was on stilts)
and told four fit men to find their way to Company H.Q., and fetch the
stretcher-bearers.
....The four of us under the house felt bitterly
cold, wet, and miserable. We cuddled up as best we could to keep warm
and dozed fitfully. A score of times I dreamed that the stretcher-bearers
had come, only to wake up and find that we were still huddled together
in utter loneliness under this dank smelly house. After a seeming eternity
they really did come. The Company second-in-command appeared, and promptly
took charge of affairs. He brought with him a dozen men, and three stretchers;
also cardigans, biscuits, and water-bottles full of cold tea. This sense
of relief was indescribable, and it was in a state of happy exhilaration
that I was born smoothly back to "B" Company riding luxuriously
on a stretcher.
................................... ...
....Some time later I discovered what had
happened to the other nine men of my party. Despite the general panic
at the time of
P 1 ::
P 2 :: P
3 :: P 4 :: P
5 :: P 6
:: P 7 :: P
8 :: P 9
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