October 23 2006

October 18 2006

BRIGADIER GENERAL ROBERT SCOTT

Fighter pilot with the Flying Tigers who flew alongside the RAF 
against the Japanese and became known as the ‘one man air force’

Brigadier General Robert Scott, who has died aged 97, became 
an “ace” fighter pilot flying alongside RAF squadrons in Burma against
 the Japanese in 1942, an experience that he recorded in his classic
 wartime memoir God is my Co-Pilot: a film of the same name starring
 Dennis Morgan as Scott, was released in 1945.

Scott was a flying instructor in California when the Japanese attacked Pearl 
Harbor in December 1941. He immediately volunteered for active duty but, 
at the age of 34, he was deemed too old

Eventually, falsely claiming that he had flown a B-17 bomber, he managed 
to be assigned to a bomber force due to make a top-secret raid on Tokyo.  
When the operation was cancelled he was in Karachi and was soon appointed
operations officer for the Assam-Burma-China Ferry Command, flying supplies
 across the Himalayas to, amongst others, General Claire Chennault and his 
American Volunteer Group (AVG), better known as the “Flying Tigers” who
 operated in support of Nationalist Chinese forces.

Scott struck up a close friendship with Chennault, and persuaded him to lend 
him a P40 Warhawk fighter, supposedly to protect the ferry route from attack. 
Scott operated over northern Burma and in the defence of Rangoon, the vital 
 port for supplies to China. In this fighter, which he called Old Exterminator, he 
carried out many ground-attack sorties against the advancing Japanese army 
and was soon in combat with enemy fighters: within a few weeks he had 
destroyed eight.

After the Japanese had occupied Burma, Scott and his pilots continued the fight in 
western China. The RAF air commander was full of praise for the AVG pilots, 
commenting: “Their gallantry in action won the admiration of both services.

When the Flying Tigers were disbanded in July 1942 and absorbed into the
USAAF Scott was appointed to command them with the 23rd Fighter Group 
of the China Air Task Force. By February 1943 he had been credited with 
destroying 13 aircraft -  the authorities would not confirm a further nine probables 
because his aircraft did not carry a gun camera. His successes made him one
of the first US air ‘aces’ of the war. The enemy placed a reward on Scott’s head 
and he became known as the “one-man air force”. After flying 388 combat 
missions, he returned to the United States.

Robert Lee Scott was born on April 12 1908 at Waynesboro, Georgia and was 
educated at Macon Lanier High School before entering the US Military Academy 
at West Point.  After graduating as an army lieutenant in 1932 he toured Europe
 and Asia on a motorcycle before embarking on his pilot training in Texas

He gained valuable experience flying the airmail with the US Army Air Corps, then 
spent three years with fighters in Panama before becoming a flying instructor in 
California

After his service in China in 1942-43, Scott toured the United States to help sell 
war bonds before becoming the deputy for operations at the School of Applied 
Tactics at Orlando, Florida.  He returned to China in 1944 to fly rocket-firing fighter-bombers in attacks on rail yards and re-supply lines. The next year he went
 to Okinawa to fly similar operations against enemy shipping and remained there
 until the end of the war.  Scott was awarded two Silver Stars, three DFCs and 
three Air Medals

After the war he commanded the first jet-flying school, at Williams Field. Arizona, 
before assuming command in 1950 of the 36th Fighter Bomber Wing, flying F-84
Thunderjets from Fürstenfeldbruck in southern Germany.  In 1953 he entered the
 National War College in Washington, and on graduating was promoted to brigadier
 general and made Director of Information, working directly for the Secretary of the 
Air Force. His often outspoken style did not endear him to the Washington 
bureaucracy, and in October 1956 he returned to flying fighters when he took command 
of Luke Air Force Base in Arizona 

In the years after the war, Scott had been a strong advocate of making the air force
 a separate and independent service: he considered inter-service rivalries both 
needless and irritating.

In October 1957 Scott retired, becoming a prolific writer on aviation subjects:
 his books included The Day I Owned the Sky and Flying Tiger: Chennault of 
China.  He also lectured widely.  In 1980, at the age of 72, he spent 93 days
walking and riding a camel along the entire 2000-rnile length of the Great Wall 
of China.

In 1986 Scott returned to Georgia, which he described as a homecoming, and 
immediately became involved in the building and establishment of the Museum
of Aviation at Robins Air Base, south of Atlanta.  He continued to fly, and on his
88th birthday he flew in a F-15 Eagle fighter and a year later in the B-1 Lancer 
bomber.  Scott remained very active until the end of his life.  In 1996, at the age 
at 88, he ran with the Olympic torch along a section of Georgia Highway 247 
named in his honour.  For many years he worked regularly at the air museum.

Robert Scott, who died on 27^th February  2006, married Catherine Rix Green in 
1934: she died in 1972 and their daughter survives him.
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October 18 2006
      Major 'Trof' Trofimov

This item was taken from the Obituaries section Daily Telegraph of May 29 2006  

and thanks to Robin and Maxine Humphries we now have a photograph of the

Brave Major 'Trof' Trofimov

SOE officer who led Karen fighters against the Japanese in Burma and a Jedburgh team in France. 

Major "Trof" Trofimov, who has died aged 84, was awarded the MC in Burma in 1945 
and the Croix de Guerre while serving with the Jedburgh Special Forces in France.

In February 1945 Trofimov, then a captain, was dropped by Dakota into dense jungle
 in the Karen mountains of Burma. He landed with a crash among the trees, took a step forward in the darkness and pitched 30 feet into a ravine.

He crawled back up and found that he had lost his torch. There was no sign of his five comrades, and it was days before they were re-united.

Trofimov, who was serving with Force 136, was charged with building up a unit 
comprising Karen volunteers to harass the retreating Japanese.

Once he had equipped and trained them, they planted booby traps, set ambushes, 
mined roads and blew up bridges. Trofimov's group of about 100 men caused 
havoc among the enemy, and a price was put on his head.

In April he and Major R A Critchley led an attack on a strong Japanese garrison 
at Papun. The Japanese had been forewarned, and Trofimov's force, most of whom
 had never seen action, came under devastating machine-gun fire. Some Karens 
took to their heels, but many held firm.

Trofimov found himself pinned down under the weight of fire, but he had some 
home-made bombs and he quickly armed these and threw them. He rallied the 
survivors and led them out. He was awarded an immediate MC for his part in the battle.

"Trof" Trofimov died on May 6 while attending a Jedburgh reunion

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August 6 2006

     Stephen Brookes returns to Burma after 60 years

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July 9 2006

   A  message from Khine about 2006 photos

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November 13 2005

We are indebted to Khine for passing on this interesting comments on the "ROAD"
and the way it is looked at today.

The Stilwell Road   
sometimes known as Ledo Road

Strategic Memory Lane 
(November 2005)

It is known as the “Road to Nowhere” or “Ghost Road,” but there are hopes that political and 
strategic problems can be sidetracked to resurrect the World War II-era Ledo Road, running 
between India and China through Burma.

Scores of trucks driving along a double-track, all-weather road from India to China must seem
 like a scene from a futuristic or sci-fi movie. But it is neither. It is the past. In 1945, a convoy 
of 113 vehicles traveled from Ledo, in India’s Assam State, to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan
 Province, in southern China. It took 24 days to cover the 1,726 km route.

This long haul initiated the short lifespan of the Ledo Road—or the Stilwell Road as it is also 
known, in honor of its builder, Gen Joseph W Stilwell, commander of US Forces in the 
China-Burma-India theater of World War II, and chief of staff to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, 
Supreme Allied Commander in China.

The road was one of the greatest engineering projects of the time. Built by one of the most 
international labor forces of all skin colors, under the supervision of American engineers and 
under the fire of Japanese snipers, it was operational for only 10 months. Then the war was over.

It had been built to provide supplies for the Allied forces in China and north Burma after the 
Japanese occupation of Burma in 1942 had cut off the earlier line of war supplies shipped by 
rail from Rangoon to Lashio, and then on to Kunming along the Burma Road. The construction 
of a new line of communication from the railhead town of Ledo in India, via Myitkyina, to join 
the Burma Road near the Chinese border, began in the same year. The road was formally 
completed in May 1945, and served to haul an estimated 34,000-50,000 tons of ammunition, 
guns and food to China during its brief operation.

Today, the Ledo Road is called “a road to nowhere” and a “ghost road,” and embarking on it 
can be a nail-biting venture. The poorly paved road and infrequent public bus service terminate 
at Nampong, the administrative center and the base of the paramilitary Assam Rifles, who 
enjoy wide powers in India’s northeastern border areas. Whether the local commander allows 
further passage depends partly on the position of military operations against the insurgent 
United Liberation Front of Assam. The remaining 11.5 km to the border make a barely passable
 route for a good four-wheel drive. The border at Pangsau (Hell) Pass is not open for crossing 
except for locals on market days in Nampong, although a kind Burmese army commander 
may allow visiting the Lake of No Return, a few kilometers inside Burma. “Some activities” 
have been recently reported on the 140-km section of the road beyond Pangsau Pass that
 was earlier thought to no longer exist.

Burma obviously has a say in the big question—if and when the Ledo Road is fully reopened. 
The road runs 1,033 km through Burma, only 61 km in India, and in China comprising 632 km 
of the historic “communication” line. But Burma has been publicly reluctant to proceed in any 
talks about reopening the road. The parts of the Ledo Road passing through areas of Kachin 
State, where the SPDC does not have full control, are generally believed to be the reason. 
The Burmese director of border trade said last year at the international conference on regional 
cooperation in Assam that the project was so huge that more time to study its feasibility was
required.

India and China have sometimes made calls to reopen the Ledo Road. They have come from 
a visiting delegation from the Yunnan Provincial Chamber of Commerce at an international 
trade fair in Guwahati, the capital of Assam; from the Federation of Indian Export Organizations 
in Calcutta; and increasingly from a number of individual politicians and members of state 
governments in India’s northeast, especially from Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Academics 
have also raised the issue. A handful of people are upbeat about the tourism prospects—
of driving air-con jeeps across the mountains and through jungles and exotic places from 
India to China.

China appears to be the most prepared. It has already greatly upgraded its section of the 
Burma Road, built in 1937-38, into a modern, partly six-lane mountain highway.

Indian paranoia about a flood of cheap Chinese products has increasingly given way to seeing 
the benefits, particularly for its isolated northeast, from the potential trade and the opening up 
of its eastern borders. However, while its “look east” policy is in full swing, Indian enthusiasm 
about reopening the Ledo Road should not be overestimated.

“It is true that a number of individual politicians of the northeast, especially from Assam and 
Arunachal are pressing for the re-opening of the Stilwell Road, but one should not exaggerate 
it. It has not entered public consciousness and debates in any significant sense. Official 
India’s ambivalence about China is a big hurdle,” Sanjib Baruah, a visiting professor at the 
Center for Policy Research, New Delhi, commented to The Irrawaddy. The Ledo Road is not 
a part of India’s present “look east” policy.
A Singpho community leader in Miao, a small village in Arunachal Pradesh near Ledo Road, 
said: “Yes, there would be trade. Chinese goods are cheap but of poor quality. From Burma,
 people would buy cloth and medicine. Burmese herbal medicine is highly appreciated here.
 But the Indian government talks more than it does. The Chinese government does. It develops
 all border areas.”

At the local market in Nampong, everything—vegetables, household items, food—is in big 
demand by Burmese villagers, according to an Assam Rifles major, who takes credit for allowing 
a local market to operate for the benefit of both sides. “Most people in Nampong are Naga. 
They have relatives on the other side,” he said.

The 25,000 Kachin (Singpho) living in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh wish that they were not
 so isolated from their brethren in Kachin State and China. The community leader in Miao, 
pointing towards Pangsau Pass, 78 km from his village, said: “Kachin State is so close. But 
it is so difficult to get there. We need a road. If a road were built, many people could travel 
and trade.” The Kachin community in India was worried about “losing culture.” The Kachin 
traditional manau festivals are held in India, as they are in Kachin areas in China and Burma. 
Occasionally, Kachin dancers from Burma walk for 15 days across mountains to attend.

However, the question of reopening the historical Ledo Road is not about connecting the 
Kachin in China, Burma and India, whose areas the road largely crosses. It is about geopolitics 
and the movement of goods, not people. And the green light has to come from Rangoon, 
with political will from China and India.

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November 12 2005

AUSSIE DEKHO

The following is taken from the December 2005 edition of the "AUSSIE DEKHO" WHICH IS THE JOURNAL OF THE NEW SOUTH WALES, BURMA STAR ASSOCIATION



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Below is page seven 

The Demise of our oldest Branch Member

The funeral of Major Gerard “Joe” Kenay took place at the Northern Suburbs  Crematorium on 18th August 2005. His time as a Tea Planter in Darjeeling and his war time exploits are recalled here in a tribute paid to his colourful life. Seen here, in the early thirties, leading out his team, as Captain of his University’s First Eleven

I was fortunate in getting hold of a copy of Joe’s memoirs that make for 
interesting & often amusing reading. Here are one or two short snippets, 
taken at random from his memoirs that illustrate his sense of humour, 
his tenacity, resourcefulness and concern for others.

The Cow’s Tale

I found we had an addition. to the signal section, a cow had attached itself 
to our column. 16 Brigade in its long march south had acquired it some time 
before. Was it for milk on the hoof or as an insurance against starvation? 
 l must frankly say that it was a great blessing to me; the marching for the 
next few days was absolute hell, against the grain of the country. Straight 
up hills,the path almost perpendicular for 4,000 feet or so and then down 
again, only. to have a repeat time and time again. I used to hang on to that 
poor cow’s tail when the going got steep and it never appeared to mind. 
After we joined up with the White City columns at Naungpong the cow 
disappeared.

His blackest Day

Next morning we left for Pankankyang, it was a 16 mile trip but fortunately 
for me all down hill.1 had a high temperature when we set off in the morning 
and it was not long before 1 found myself on my own. The column always 
stopped for 10 minutes every hour but 1 was not able to catch up until the 
column had stopped for the night. No one had noticed 1 was missing and 1 
kept quiet. The fever had gone by next morning.That lone walk was easily my blackest day.

Keeping up Appearances

We were not able to bivvy that night as the Japs were close by and kept fi ring 
on the column. We slept in column formation. That was the only time 1 missed 
out on my daily shave. I was one of the few who did not wear a beard.1 think 
Calvert and Rome also  shaved regularly.

Woops! A dropped catch.

We waited a long time for Stilwell’s Chinese to join us at Mogaung. The only sure way
 to make them advance was to drop supplies away ahead of them. 1 remember a 
supply drop as they were reaching Mogaung. One of their soldiers was so eager to 
get his hands on a bag of rice that was being free dropped that he tried to catch it. 
You can guess the result! His fellow soldiers nearby were highly amused.

Praise for the US Pilots

The Americans really looked after their own. In the early days when we were running 
out of ammunition, Mitchell Bomber landed and unloaded a consignment of goodies 
for their men. At the time,this did not go down too well with the garrison who were 
screaming out for ammunition but what a job those fellows did in the campaign, with 
their L5’s and P5 Vs. Without them there would have been no future for us men on
 the ground.

The Luck of the Irish

We were now into May and the Monsoon would not be long delayed.A column or so 
of 16 Brigade together with their Brigade commander Fergusson arrived in 
Broadway for evacuation. They had marched in from Ledo,had done a spot of 
fighting and were now worn out. ln my eagerness to meet up with their signal 
officer Moon 1 took a short cut to where they were camped and suddenly discovered
 that there were booby traps in all directions. Luck was with me and 1 was able to 
extract myself.

l met up with a young officer by name Srnylie....I often wonder if he finally reached
India unscathed, because the 319 were heavily involved in the Blackpool fiasco and afterwards...

Not exactly Gourmet.

During our march up from Broadway we experienced diffi culties due to the monsoon of getting regular supplies from the air. We were going through 
Kachin country and at one village a buffalo was purchased. I obviously had 
not reached the starving stage  because I just could not bring myself to eat my portion, so gave it to try Gurkha orderly  and he had no scruples. I made do 
with bits of vegetation from the jungle,not appetising  but at least filling.

As Signals Offi cer to Brigadier Mike Calvert.

It was at Lamai that 1 was fi nally introduced to Calvert. lt was here 1 reached 35, 
Calvert himself was only 31.

Fifty odd years later, Joe meets up again with Brigadier Calvert on a Pilgrimage to Mogaung in Burma. (See Aussie Dekho March 2004)

above is all of  Aussie Dekho! DECEMBER 2005 Edition Page 7  
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The search for what really happened to his uncle W/O Arthur Roland Williams RAAF
from page ten

Warrant officer Arthur Roland Williams RAAF

Missing believed killed.
Those who receive this kind of information must always wonder what really happened. One such person is Ivor Smith who lives at Gosford East NSW. For a number ofyears Ivor has been trying to discover what really happened to his uncle: Warrant Offi cer Arthur Roland Williams RAAF, who was a member of the crew of nine on Liberator BZ938 of 159 Squadron, reported missing in Burma on 31/01/45
He appears to be the only Australian crew member (RAAF), the others presumably were in the RAF. Detailed and intensive enquiries were undertaken in relation to this aircraft because of the subsequent War Crimes trial of six of the Japanese involved in the murders of four members of the crew, namely that of Woodbridge (George Cross), Bellingham, Snelling and Woodage.
Their fate was detailed in the last issue of the Aussie Dekho under the title “Courageous Airmen Defy Japanese Captors” Of the other members two were sent to Rangoon jail as Prisoners’ of War.

Three members also were reported Missing, believed killed. Among these three was Ivor’s uncle, Warrant Offi cer Arthur Williams. Because there is no known grave for the three missing airmen, Ivor’s uncle and the two other missing members are commemorated on a memorial erected in Singapore to the memory of those who lost their lives serving in the Far East.

A report made by an RAF offi cer as early as 5th January 1946 gives details of a visit to Letpanbin, the site of the crashed Liberator B938, stating map coordinates

and condition of the area. He believed the aircraft crashed into the ground, probably exploded and burnt out. The only marks of identifi cation were one undercarriage leg and probably part of the fl aps. It was also believed that a portion of the wreckage was removed by the Japanese.
From more detailed information given by headmen at Letpanbin it was stated that one of the crew members was dead in the aircraft. (Could this possibly have been Ivor’s uncle? - Editor)

That seemed to be the end of the matter, but Ivor was not to give up. For about twelve years he corresponded with Matthew Poole of Maryland in the United States, who was also involved in trying to get further information about a missing relative, a wireless operator/air gunner, shot down over Rangoon in February 1944. As both cases were similar they were able to exchange relative information. It was through this association that Ivor was fi rst introduced to Khine who also lived in Maryland. He learned about her part in the China Burma India Expeditions.

Accordingly, Ivor decided to get in touch with Khine & Clayton, leader of the expedition, who agreed to undertake the discovery of the missing aircraft aka “Wattowitch”, in which Ivor’s Uncle, W/O Arthur Williams, was part of the crew.

Here is an abridged version of Khine’s latest report:

Khine’s Report - CBI Expeditions It so happened in October 2004, my partner, Clayton and I were about to leave for Thailand to trek the Death Railway in Kanchanaburi and to continue our journey towards Burma. So I told Ivor I would try to locate the crash site providing that he would give me further information. I was sent a folder containing a lot of information but most importantly, the approximate location of BZ938. The crash site happened to be at a small village called “Letpanbin” near the town of Pyapone. When we arrived in Rangoon after our trek along the Death Railway, we stayed at a hotel called “Guest Care hotel” located near the Shwedagon Pagoda. As Clayton and I were having breakfast one morning in their main dining room discussing about our trip to Letpanbin via Pyapone, the receptionist, Ma Zaw came towards us and started to take interest in our conversation. She said she had overheard about our visit to Pyapone and wanted us to know that her uncle, who is a retired schoolteacher there, might be able to assist us. We were quite dumbfounded. She then made calls to her uncle, informing him about our arrival. We took off the next day from Rangoon to Pyapone in a rental car. The road that led us to Pyapone went through several townships at the outskirts of Rangoon, where both sides of the road were covered with rice fields. The condition of the road, generally speaking, was not too bad. It took us close to 3 hours to arrive at the meeting point in Pyapone, which happened to be Ma Zaw’s uncle’s home. He and his wife were waiting for us and immediately invited us for lunch.

According to U Khin Maung Lay, the retired schoolteacher, “Letpanbin” where BZ938 had crashed was located about one and a half hours from Pyapone. During the dry season from December to March, there is a truck route navigable from Pyapone to Letpanbin but since we were there in October, (the Delta region had heavy rainfall during the Monsoon), we were advised to rent a boat from Pyapone on the Rangoon River to reach this little village called “Letpanbin”.

When we reached Letpanbin, we were led to the village Headman’s house where we explained about our reconaissance trip. He was quite astonished to listen to our story and asked us why we wanted to fi nd something that happened 60 years ago. The Headman told us that Clayton was the fi rst “white man” who had visited their village since the end of Second World War.

After showing him some of the black and white photos of the crash site, the Headman told us that we should meet with the owner of the rice fi eld, a farmer named Ko Hla where he thought BZ938 had crashed. Ko Hla was quite amused, seeing city folk fighting their way in the mud, while he crossed the muddy ditches with hardly any effort at all.  As we walked towards the site, my mind wondered back to 31st January 1945 when the crew members bailed out from the plane and walked towards Letpanbin village. So I asked Ko Hla if he had heard anything about this B-24. He said that he remembered hearing stories from his grandparents, how they could not grow rice in the field due to the amount of gasoline absorbed by the ground and that they could light a match and the area would burn. (From an early document it was revealed that the petrol load consisted of 2,980 gallons that would give a normal endurance of 21 hours) He also told us that he saw “bullets in the ground” several years ago, which suggested there being a strong evidence of a crash.

I was somewhat disappointed that I could not see any hard evidence of the crash site: such as metal scrap or anything that suggested this was the site - as it was covered with water. But the GPS reading that Clayton took on the spot coincided quite closely with the original GPS reading of the crash site. Yet, I still was not pleased; as opposed to Clayton who was quite encouraged that the remains of the BZ938 were just below the surface. He said that with some minimal excavation, we would be able to establish the perimeter of the crash site. Plus, he explained that we were standing on a flat fi eld, which has not been subjected to erosion or significant fi lling. But since it has been almost 60 years, any significant debris was almost

certainly hauled to the village as usable material. That was confi rmed by Ko Hla who claimed that some villagers had old aluminum cups and plates made from the body parts of the plane.

Without any delay, we took several photos of the site and fi nally made our way back to Rangoon late that day via Pyapone. Ko Hla did not want us to cross the muddy ditches anymore so he led us by a different route. He took us back to Letpanbin in a small boat, slowly paddling along the muddy canals.

We gave our report about our findings to Ivor after we returned to the U.S.

Personally, I was disappointed not being able to give them a more concrete evidence of the crash site. Ivor and I, however, still keep in touch. As Ivor is now aged 77, he wishes to pay his last respects to his uncle and the crew members at the crash site of Wottowitch. I’d like to make this happen for Ivor and for the other family members of the Wottowitch crew. It would take one more trip for me during the dry season to see the crash site of BZ938, when the entire ground is dry. Geographical location and the poor telecommunication system in Burma have hindered me from making further progress. I have tried to call U Khin Maung Lay in Pyapone from the U.S. but have been unsuccessful. So I have sent am few emails to the “Guest Care” hotel in Rangoon, to the attention of Ma Zaw, the receptionist. I hope that she will call her uncle on our behalf to let him know that we are still interested to visit Letpanbin. I feel that I have an obligation towards Ivor, even though I do not know him personally. I also believe that every crash site has a worth while “human” story to tell.. I sincerely hope eventually to give Ivor some
final results as a closure to the case.  
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Aussie Dekho! DECEMBER 2005 Edition Page 11

.(Top) A shoot from the original famous Cherry Tree used as a sniper’s
 post by the Japs was replanted & bore fruit in 1990.

(above) Presenting BSA (NSW) Banner to 29th Assam Rifl es in JCO’s 
Mess at Assam Rifl e Range

(Top) Upkeep of the “Tennis Court” An icon that saw so much 
close quarter fighting for 64 days.

(Above) After hard day on the Imphal Plain, George relaxes with 
some creature comforts from local maidens.

Japanese Memorial marks           “Uncle Bill’s” HQ in Imphal where he ate,                The Kohima Stone with Epitaph. the spot after which they                          drank, and planned his strategy
advanced no further

The Tiddim Road Axis where many                           Here lies The “Gunga Din” of the XIV Army.. 
   battles were fought and many VC's won                        A symbol for all those who fought 
                                                                                                       & died in the Indian Army

and now we come to Kohima

Japs caught by surprise

George saluting the Cameron Memorial, which he found in a Naga village, hidden amongst the houses, pigs & chickens. This is where the Cameron Highlanders, wearing sand shoes, crept on a Japanese HQ during the night. Close by, the locals have erected a long pole, topped off with a scimitar of Buffalo horns - an Angami Naga tribute to bravery & valour. George is seen here wearing a Naga coat, presented to him by Lt. General M Pillai, Colonel of Assam Regiment. Born 26 days after their raising, George is their senior son, & treated accordingly - viz. Like a three star General! George continues to maintain a close interest in the welfare of Gurkhas and their dependents.

The KOHIMA Epitaph 
A great deal has been said, quoted and written about the Epitaph that we use and refer to as the Kohima Epitaph. The version that we use reads as follows:

When you go home Tell them of us and say 
For your tomorrow We gave our today.

There are, however, slight variants of this. The original inscription on the Kohima epitaph read “their tomorrow” not “your tomorrow”. This was amended on the plaque in 1963. The original version composed by J M Edmonds read

“When you go home, tell them of us, 
and say For your tomorrows 
these gave their today.

It is thought that Edmond’s rendering of the Epitaph was probably influenced by

the original Greek written by Simonides of Cos (c.536-469 BC ) on the Cenotaph of Thermopylae. I have translated a very literal word for word translation of the Greek that has little linguistic connection with the text composed by Edmonds, though there is a similar sentiment:
O xein (O, stranger!) aggellein (tell) LakedaimonioiV (the Spartans) oti thde (that here) keimeqa (we lie) toiVv v v keinwn rhmasi (with their words) peiqomenoi [obeying]

Here are some possible paraphrases of the original Greek text:

Oh foreigner, tell the Spartans that here we lie, 
obeying those words. Go, tell the Spartans, 
thou who passest by, 
That here obedient to their laws we lie

Stranger, bring the message to the Spartans 
that here we remain, obedient to their laws.

Editor of Aussie Dekho says:

I am grateful to George Mackenzie for giving me some 
detailed valuable information of his own that I have 
summarised and used in this article.

Sincere Thanks to the Aussie Dekho Ron Boulton 
from Editor www.Koi-Hai.com
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October 26 2005

This news cutting was kindly sent in by Ali Zaman about the 
"Young Travellers" paying their respects--thanks Ali

TRIBUTES PAID TO WORLD WAR ll 
                      MARTYRS

From Our Correspondent

IMPHAL, Oct 21--The sound of gunshots and war planes land­ing 
and taking off echoed at the historic Imphal war cemetery on 
Thursday when a 41 member team of Royal British Legion paid
 floral tributes to the martyrs World War 11 here.

The team comprised 17 World War veterans who fought gallant 
battles to defend Manipur The eld­erly war veterans are accompanied 
by their friends and relatives:  

A heart- touching ceremony with a guard of honour by the troops of 
22 Maratha Light Infantry was also conducted under the aegis of 
Assam Rifles as war veterans laid floral wreath at the cemetery

The Commander of 9 Sector Brig VK Pillay also accompanied the war 
veterans as the troops of 4 Assam Rifles provided the be­fitting touch 
to the ceremony. Among the veterans is 94-year­old war 
veteran Lt Col Richard McCaig who is the eldest of the lot and 
had served in Indian Army for ten years and fought many battles 
against invading Japanese Army in Manipur.

While interacting with this reporter, he said those who wish to have 
war in this new era should dealt with properly. He, however, did not 
regret the war in his time although he expressed  unhappiness over 
the demise of four of his colleague British officers. Similarly 91 year 
old Hilda Martin Smith who served the British troops as a military 
nurse during World War 11 in Manipur was intears to recall that 
seventy percent of the heroes in the war cemetery breathed the last 
in her presence.

“Those days were an unforgettable experience in my life” Hilda Martin 
Smith who is accompanied by her daughter Melissa Cherry, said 
“I can’t believe Imphal has now become such a big city”

The British Team paid floral tributes also to Indian world heroes 
at the Indian War cemetery
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Myanmar to reopen sectional wartime highway linking India, China

Source: Xinhua, June 15, 2005   http://english.people.com.cn/200506/15/eng20050615_190392.html

Myanmar (Burma) will reopen by next year its section of a wartime highway linking neighboring India and China after renovation to help facilitate trade between those two countries, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.

The 1,300-kilometer-long Ledo or Stilwell Highway, a strategic supply route between India and China via Myanmar's border town of Myitkyina in the northernmost Kachin state, was built during World War II by Chinese and American troops.

The highway extends as Ledo (northeastern India)-Myitkyina ( northern Myanmar)-Kunming (southwestern China).

The reopening of the Myanmar section of the highway, which will lead to the most convenient land route between China and India as well as to turn Southeast Asia into a key trading hub, was discussed by the Myanmar Ministry of Commerce and the India- Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the representatives of which visited Yangon last May, the 7-Day News quoted the federation's officials as saying.

The current trading route to ship most of India's exports to China, by contrast, is as long as 6,000 kilometers through the Malacca Strait and the Indian Ocean before reaching China's eastern coast.

The Ledo highway was built by Chinese troops and the Allied Forces of the United States in 1945 to transport logistic supplies to the beleaguered Chinese army when the Yunnan-Myanmar road, a crucial lifeline in China's war of resistance against Japanese aggression, was cut off by Japanese troops in 1942.

It was later renamed the Stilwell Road after General Joseph Stilwell, commander of the allied forces in Southeast Asia who commanded the US forces in the China-Myanmar-India theater in World War II.

The road starts in Ledo (India) and divides in two routes at Myitkyina in Myanmar. The southern route runs through Bhamo and Namkham in Myanmar reaches Wanding in China, while the northern route passes Myanmar's Kambaiti, China's Houqiao and Tengchong, before connecting with the Yunnan-Myanmar road.

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STILWELL ROAD SIGN
This picture was sent in by Jim Beven as a memory tickler for old Koi Hais

The little boy in front is Richard "Rick" Beven, and his mother 
the late Jean Beven is to the far right of the photo.

Through the Jungle of Death
A boy's escape from Wartime Burma
by Stephen Brookes

Thanks to the good offices of Alan Lane and Larry Brown,  here is a heartfelt message from Steve the author, whose wife Maggie has sorted his e-mail and the rest of the technical stuff which enables Steve and I quote  "to enable me to talk to the world. Fantastic! I have finally joined the 21st.century!  

This is Steve's message 

December 22 2004

This is the start of the Book
Forgotten Frontier
 published  in 1945 and written by
Geoffrey Tyson

It gives an account of the task facing the Indian Tea Association at the time –there will be more to follow

Please read on
TO WHAT GREEN HELL

When it is finally written the full story of world war Number Two must inevitably include some account of the great movements of civilian populations, inextricably entangled with current military operations, which occurred during the years when Axis striking power was at its height. The hurried trek across France in the face of Hitler's triumphant armies, no less than the subsequent invasion and occupation of something like four hundred thousand square miles of Russia , produced mass movements of civilian population which were carried out under conditions of which as yet we have very little accurate knowledge. But, without drawing too freely on the imagination, we can conjure up a reasonably true picture of the scene.   Less known, perhaps, to the world at large is the epilogue to the loss of Burma, a story compounded of the same dark tragedy that stalked the mainland of Europe with the added difference that for thousands of British, Indian, Burman and other refugees, many of them mixed descent, escape from a ruthless and cunning enemy involved them in a struggle with the forces of Nature which must be one of the epics in the annals of human endurance.  By the time they began the journey across the border mountains to India they had for the most part placed themselves out of reach of the Japanese terror.       Few, however, can have realised the ordeal that lay ahead, an ordeal that was only partially mitigated by the relief columns that thrust out from several points along the Indian border, across hundreds of miles of wild, unknown and forbidding country-a veritable No Man's Land which, for a few inclement monsoon months, the swirling tide of war made for these children of the Empire an inhospitable refuge.            Many perished on the journey; but without the large scale relief that was organised from India's eastern border few, except the early parties who made their way under more favourable weather and ground conditions, would have survived.

This book is written from the standpoint of one of the chief relief agencies, whose work, by general acknowledgment, contri­buted very largely to the success of the evacuation as a whole.  I use the word `standpoint' deliberately, because whilst the succeeding pages are an endeavour to place on record a comprehensive account of the relief operations carried out by the Indian, Tea Association, it will be necessary to digress from time to time^, to look at other parts of the several lifelines which were thrown out to the retreating victims of the Japanese occupation of Burma .

A more ambitious piece of writing would, no doubt; attempt a full length, co-ordinated narrative of the whole vast undertaking for which the Government of India made itself either directly or indirectly responsible. I have been privilege'; to see many of the official records of the time, and I hope that in due course they will be made available to the general public, for they constitute a record of which, in spite of some mistakes and errors of judgment, the authorities have good reason to be proud. But a book which would provide a satisfactory conspectus of all that happened in connection with Eastern Frontier projects and relief in the critical period of 1942 is beyond the compass of my present task, which is directly chiefly to placing on record the role of the Indian tea industry as a whole, and particularly that part played by its planter members, upon whom to a large extent fell the actual execution of this magnificent errand of mercy.        Their work lay literally in the valley of the shadow ; and if I may borrow a famous epitaph in which Edmund Blunden has immortalised the men who fought in the battle of the Somme, what the planters of Assam did day after day, week after week, and month after month 'will never be excelled in honour, unselfishness and love.' There are many more to whom these words apply with equal truth.

            The men of the tea industry, who worked in the camps and on the roads, know full well that these others gave themselves unsparingly to the job in hand, and it is no wish of theirs that even by implication, such outstanding devotion to their fellows should go unhonoured and unsung.          But in writing a story of the kind I now essay, an author must set himself certain severely practical limits.            To attempt to traverse all the ground which the various relief organisations in fact covered would almost certainly have bogged me down, and just as surely, as were some of the hapless victims whose vicissitudes and triumphs form the contents of succeeding chapters.           I have, therefore, confined myself to that part of the great trek over which the Indian tea industry exercised a bene­ficent and merciful supervision.     It is not the whole of the grim odyssey, but a big enough part of it to justify a volume to itself.

To understand the problem which confronted the authorities in India in the spring of 1942, it is necessary to take the reader back a bit, and to recapitulate events which now seem remote, b_ut which are really set in the relatively recent past. We may take as our point of departure February loth, 1942, the date on _which the partial evacuation of Rangoon was begun. Events, and the enemy, had moved quickly since the Japanese had invad­ed the Tenasserim districts of Burma early in December.      We know now that, hard pressed as we were on every front of a global war, and with a vast garrison tied up in Malaya, our re­sources for the defence of Burma were probably inadequate from the beginning of a campaign which, as time went on, necessarily partook of the nature of a defensive and delaying action. At that moment, however, we had some reason to hope, and believe, that if not the whole, at least the northern part of the country, might be held against the enemy.

     On the other hand, the dis­location by air raids of the life of the capital city, and the rapid advance of the enemy's forces from the south, had created a profound psychological effect, particularly upon the million Indian citizens living mainly in the districts of Central and Lower Burma . Their position, indeed the position of Indians in all parts of Burma , has never been fully appreciated except by those who have had prolonged and intimate contact with the Indian community. Up to the time of the Japanese occupation they constituted an important enclave in the country's economic life, their industry and attention to business constituting a source of wealth out of all proportion to their numbers.    

The Burmans have always regarded the Indian in their midst with envy, amounting sometimes to resentment ; nor in times of political or social tension has the Indian felt himself entirely at home in Burma, even though he and his forefathers may have been resi­dent there for several generations. Minority problems are not entirely confined to Europe , and the presence of a prosperous Indian community has always constituted Burma 's minority problem number one. In the circumstances that prevailed in January and February 1942 it was but natural that the first impulse to leave the country, which was by then partially occupied by the enemy, should be felt by the Indian minority.                                 Whilst there was still time many thousands left by sea for Calcutta and Chittagong , but with the progressive deterioration of dock facili­ties at Rangoon and its subsequent fall, further evacuation by sea became impossible.

Thereafter some refugees, mostly In­dians, essayed the journey to India by the southern coastal belt, following the line between the mountains and the sea entering India via Cox Bazaar and Chittagong, passing over country which was later to become the scene of a good deal of bloody fighting between ourselves and the Japs.                                                    

These refugees suffered a good deal of privation, a heavy incidence of disease and consequently a high death rate. This particular exodus forms no part of story, for such succour as they received was from purely official sources ; but their, misfortunes were a precursor of bigger thing, to come, and one may be permitted to speculate whether ill lessons of the occasion were fully assimilated by those in authority in India and Burma who were soon to be faced with the necessity of making plans upon the success of which thousands of lives were to depend.                                                     For soon after the sea routes were finally close and this one ill-starred land attempt to leave the country ha proceeded on its way, there began the great trek northward an unnumbered multitude. The great majority were India seeking escape to their own country, by means of little known Iand routes into Assam .                But not all were so disposed, and a considerable percentage of the vast concourse that made its way northwards were men and women of all communities who anticipated that, at some point or another, the Japanese armies would be contained and that part of Burma would be held and the invasion brought to a standstill.  I am not in a position to state whether this expectation was ever seriously encouraged by the civil or military authorities on the spot, but for many it undoubt­edly kept alive the flame of hope which was to flicker so tremu­lously on many occasions before the end of the long, or the last, journey was reached.

Movement inside Burma itself was conditioned by the fact that the country's main means of communications-road, river and rail-all run from south to north ; and after the limited possibilities of the one exiguous east-west land route via the Arakan had been finally exhausted, refugees in their thousands were driven northward in the wake of the swirling tide of battle, the fortunes of which continued to go steadily against the Allied armies. The focal points towards which this great concentra­tion of humanity advanced in a swelling stream were the towns of Mandalay , Kalewa, Bhamo and Myitkyina in Upper Burma , all of which at varying dates in May 1942 fell into enemy hands.

By the middle of May 1942 the Japanese were in control of all these jumping off places, and soon every gap in the frontier belt of hills which looked like offering an escape to India became a refugee route, even those in the far north-east which were known to be hazardous in the extreme. But, in order to reach these points of dubious vantage to make the main journey across some hundreds of miles of no man's land into India , considerable trials had first to be overcome in Burma itself.         Over this first section of the long pilgrimage the Indian refugees, for the most part poor, ignorant and defenceless, seem to have suffered most.   A number of writers, who saw their plight at first hand, have testified to their pitiable condition.         Mr. O. D. Gallagher in his highly con­troversial Retreat In The East describes how thousands of people without money or influence trekked the long road north, suffering great hardships-the small wage-earning Indian particularly, for not only was he short of every necessity, but he lived in fear, sometimes rightly, often wrongly, that he would be set upon, by the Burmese. All had the same blind hope of reaching their homeland, India . Many got there, despite all.

" I saw one such caravan numbering about 4,000 men, women and children. They could move only a few miles a day as their pace was regulated by that of the oxen who pulled their cumbersome carts.            I have seen refugees in Spain , China and France , but none to compare with these people . . . . They said the Burmese were too cowardly to attack them by day, but sneaked round the edges of the caravan under cover of the night, and silently slew with knives those unlucky enough to be remote from the main body. They then plundered the carts of the slain.

" They searched among their crowded members for someone who could speak English, and produced a man who had been a tailor. Through him they enquired about the best road to take to India.They had about 1,200 miles to walk They were so anxious to find someone to take an interest in them and their plight."

In Red Moon Rising George Rodger, a first class cameraman, journeying from north to south says

So much for the general conditions in which the Indian refugees travelled to the outposts from which the supreme bid for safety was to be made.    By the time the last stage of the journey began many were already very near to mental and physical exhaustion. But they were not all. I asked an Indian Army officer, who served in a forward relief camp organised the Indian Tea Association from May to July, and to whom I am indebted for much background information, for an analysis of the national and social groups of refugees who passed through his hands. The tragic and motley crowd consisted of British a Indian subjects, comprising Britons, Gurkhas, mixed Indian stragglers from the Army in Burma, South-Indians, Ooriya , Anglo-Indians and Anglo-Burmans as well as some Italians, Pole,  Germans, Swedes, Jamaicans, West Indian negroes, Chinese troops and even one Red Indian.    These latter categories were not' numerically important, but they serve to illustrate the truly catholic nature of the mission in which the Indian tea industry ultimately found itself engaged.

All the authorities on the subject, as well as participants in the relief operations on the Indian side of the frontier, are agreed that one of the continuing handicaps in the situation was the absence of reliable information from Burma as to the scope and extent of the refugee problem. The lack of even the most approximate statistics imposed a very serious limitation on all kinds of forward planning.     I shall have occasion to refer to this matter again.

            I mention it at this early stage in the narrative because, even now, estimates vary very considerably as to the precise state of affairs in Upper Burma by the time the exodus northward had come to a halt, and the refugees began to turn west to India .          I have briefly tried to show how the bulk of the lower class Indian refugees fared in the first lap of the journey inside Burma itself. In order, however, to get the picture into proper focus it is necessary to go back on our tracks a little, in order to see how and in what circumstances Indians of other classes, and the great mixed population referred to above, essayed a journey which was to prove a most exacting test of the physical and moral qualities of those who undertook it.       By the beginning of May 1942 everyone: who intended to leave Burma had already gone, or had headed north for Mandalay and Myitkyina.            Those who failed to get away in the early stages of the exodus had follow­ed, from south to north, the two chief congested lines of communi­cation whose principal road, rail and river routes ran roughly along the lines of the Irrawaddy and Sittang valleys.        Mandalay had fallen to Japanese forces on May ist.           Up to this date the Chindwin Valley had been the main route to Manipur and safety, and the small town of Kalewa on that river had been the collecting centre of refugees hoping to use the Tamu route into Imphal. On May i2th Kalewa was abandoned, and soon afterwards Bhamo and Myitkyina fell to the enemy. But for those in the extreme north it was hoped to arrange a mass air evacuation to India before the monsoon rains finally broke, and in this expecta­tion thousands of refugees concentrated on Myitkyina.      

As to a large part, they consisted of men and women who had stayed at subordinate posts in the civil and administrative life of Burma to the last possible moment. Many of them, in fact, represented the backbone of such resistance as the civil government of the country had been able to offer against the advancing enemy. The resources of the small town of Myitkyina itself were quite inadequate to the tremendous influx of refugees of all communi­ties from Lower Burma .       Every available nook and corner was occupied by waiting men, women and children, and those who were unable to find shelter of the ordinary kind were put into camps or housed in schools and other public buildings, whilst other groups lived in the jungles on the outskirts of the town. For many it was a grim curtain raiser to greater hardships to come, as they waited anxiously for a plane to take them on to what they hoped would be the last lap of their journey. The devil was indeed hard on the tails of the hindmost ; and it is one of the ironies of the Burma campaign of 1942 that those who stayed to the last at their posts, in support of the civil and mili­tary authorities, stood the poorest chance of getting away to India and, if they were successful in so doing, only reached safety by battling their way through conditons such as the earlier refu­gees never experienced.           As long as the Douglas transports were able to run to and from India they crammed as many as 75 into each machine, but even at this dangerous rate of transportation the situation in Myitkyina could not be appreciably relieved, unless many more aircraft were made available and the proposi­tion tackled in a big way. I have been told that a mass air evacuation of Myitkyina was planned for May 15th, but there is no record in support of this.

     Myitkyina aerodrome was bombed twice on May 6th and put out of action, and on May 7th it was evacuated.     Just as the first party was ready to leave on that date Myitkyina was again bombed.  On this occasion the town, as well as the aerodrome, was the target and vicious fires swept the place. The Japs entered on May 8th. A further decisive calamity was the breaking of the monsoon several days before due date. From that moment evacuation by air was severely curtailed, and finally petered out. Facing up to the new and

almost desperate situation, the authorities were obliged to tell: the hapless congregation that their only hope lay in making their: way to India on foot.     The effect of this last injunction can be better imagined than described.      Virtually the end of any organised government in Burma, it was a shattering blow to thousands of already sorely tried children of the Raj, many of whom, be it said, who had spurned earlier chances to get away as long as there was a job of work to be done in defence of the country.

Looking back objectively on those last fateful days in Upper Burma, it is a reasonable assumption that the vast majority of the refugees, who were to pass through the Indian Tea Association's relief organisation in the next few months, had already been sub­jected to a profound physical and psychological strain before they, began the last, and more arduous, stage of the journey to India.' The trek to Upper Burma in the van of a hostile army, sporadic enemy bombing, the frequent difficulty of finding food and shelter and the climatic conditions of the fag end of the hot wea­ther combined to create conditions that were a challenge to the stoutest heart and a tax on the strongest physique. It was at the end of such an experience that they had to bring themselves to face the sternest test of all.

     Reading the diaries, letters and other personal documents that have been placed at my disposal for the purposes of writing this book, I have sometimes wondered whether, having regard to the purely humanitarian aspect of the matter, such an evacuation as was to ensue presents many ad­vantages over 'staying put', even in the presence of such an unpredictable and barbarous foe as the Jap.   And yet, on second thoughts, I realise that had I been in the same predicament and faced with the same choice, I would have made the same decision as did these leaderless, and almost lost, thousands. The prac­tically universal ignorance of the distance and the rigours of the journey to India was, in a sense, a blessing in disguise; for it served to provide the kind of hopefulness that is an asset at the beginning of a hazardous journey. But there is no doubt that both in mind and in body many of them were ill-prepared for what was to come.      To take only one simple example, of what I mean many of the refugees who reached Upper Burma were really only prepared to be flown out of the country.     

Before reaching a place like Myitkyina, from where they had expected evacuation by air, they had already discarded most of their useful clothing, retaining their most expensive kit on their backs and such things as papers, jewelry and money which could be conveniently taken by plane.           By the time they found that evacuation by air was impossible there was nothing in the shape of blankets, boots or other necessary articles to be bought in the bazaars of Upper Burma , and they started to foot it to India in the expensive, but not necessarily utilitarian, clothing they had chosen for the pro­mised air trip. That is the reason why many women ultimately arrived in such flimsy garments, and not a few were found dead at lonely spots in the Naga country, clad in the fine evening gowns which in happier times they had purchased in London , Calcutta or Rangoon .   In the proper sense of the words, it was quite impossible to integrate and organise the great bulk of the refugees who came over the northern land routes.    Even if there had been time, it is doubtful if stores and equipment in the necessary quan­tities were available for the purpose in Upper Burma, and as I have said before, in the mass, the refugees were leaderless and largely without guidance, at least until they reached the outposts of the Indian relief organisation which had been thrown as far as possible across the no-man's land of the Indo-Burma border of  that time.                  

The big concentration of refugees at Myitkyina, and other places, broke up into small parties for the journey, and human nature being what it is these parties automatically threw up their own leader or leaders ; though it is doubtful if the latter were as important to the success of the enterprise as the odd member of a party who could cook decently. Those parties which included a man or a woman whose cooking, however pri­mitive, was also wholesome and clean came through best and with least demoralisation.     For, as we shall see, malnutrition was the basis of almost all the illness which was to take such a heavy toll in death and suffering of those who had now turned faces to the Indian horizon.
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December 17th 2004

STILLWELL ROAD
DILEMMA

This is an article from the Assam Tribune kindly forwarded by Gordon Simpson and we thank him

A very interesting piece of history plus the interpretations and up to date commercial comments by a former
 Deputy Commissioner --H.N.Das

Lord Louis Mountbatten, as the Supreme Commander of the South East Asia Command (1943-45),

submitted a detailed "Report to the Combined Chiefs of Staff' of the Allied Army at the end of the Second World War. In this valuable chronicle of those times he has left behind nuggets of information about Assam and the neighbouring countries. It is replete with maps, charts, annexures and appendixes 1

I got hold of this book in November, 1967, when I was at Dhubri as Deputy Commissioner of the erstwhile united Goalpara district. Then I plodded through the nearly 300 pages of this double column small print book at the instance of late SK Banerjee, the then Commissioner of North Bengal Division, stationed at Jalpaiguri. My early childhood memories of wartime Guwahati came zooming

back to me. One of the scenes fixed in my mind was that of the handsome, dignified and uniformed Mountbatten striding imperially into the Arya Natya Hall (presently AMSA house) at Sukleswar, Guwahati. This place was then used by the Allied Army. Our headmaster late Bhairab Chandra Adhikary had thoughtfully lined up the children near the windows of our now demolished primary school building, which was next to the Hall, so that we could have a full view of the momentous event. We had then heard that Mountbatten used to pass through Guwahati quite often. That probably is the reason why his knowledge about this area was so deep. During his last visit to Guwahati in 1947, when he was Viceroy of ' India , Mountbatten addressed a public meeting in the Judge's Field. He spoke quite deprecatingly of Burma and said that Burma will never be a great country.

In the present book Mountbatten has written as follows: "On the 27th January (1945), the Ledo Road was opened. 38 Chinese Division of NCAC established contact with Chinese Army Group of the Yunnan Force on the old Burma Road at Mong Yu, on the Burma side of the frontier about 20 miles south of Wanting. On the following day, the first American Chinese convoy from India , led by Brigadier-General Pick, crossed the frontier with appropriate rejoicings." The map shows Wanting, on the Chinese side, to be 483 miles from Ledo. On the Burmese side the farthest post of Namhkan was 444 miles from Ledo. The last post on the Indian side was Loglai, 51 miles from Ledo, which connected the nearest post of Tazaplug Ga on the Burmese side which was 80 miles from Ledo. The most important place on this road in Burma , Myitkyina, which was a Railway, Road and Pipeline junction and a big market, was 253 miles from Ledo.

Mountbatten had a running fight with his American Deputy, the redoubtable 'vneager Joe', whose real name was General JW Stilwell. Both of them were great soldiers. But they had different ideas and points of view. Anecdotes and incidents regarding their differences of opinion cover many pages of the book. Mountbatten had personally aired his complaint against Stilwell to the US leaders. In the book Mountbatten notes with dismay that his Deputy used to communicate with Washington directly "'without informing me of the fact."

Stilwell held several simultaneous appointments including that of Chief of Staff to Generalissimo Chiang Kei Shek, the supreme leader and President of China .. This relationship also soured. As observed by historian John Keegan in his book on 'the Second World War" Stilwell

"displayed an impatience with the Chinese that was exceeded in degree only by his rudeness towards the British with whom he was co-operating." Keegan further notes that Chiang had ultimately "tired of Stilwell's lecturing" and that "the vitriolic Stilwell, who had definitely fallen out in turn with the British, the Chinese and ultimately President Roosevelt" had to be removed by Roosevelt on October 18,1944 .

But both Mountbatten and Chiang were magnanimous and broad-minded

enough to appreciate Stilwell's contributions. Mountbatten records in his

book as follows: "The Generalissimo christened the road the " Stilwell Road ," as a compliment to the man who had the courage and the skill to push through the project and who until three months previously had commanded the forces that had carried it out."

It is relevant to note that the enigmatic Chiang had vehemently opposed US President Roosevelt's proposal to put Stilwell "in direct command of all Chinese troops, both Nationalist and Communists" because he felt that it would be an insult to China . What is surprising is that on that occasion Mao Zedong had supported Roosevelt and declared that by this behaviour of refusing the American proposal Chiang: had "forfeited his position as leader of the war of resistance against Japan ". This is really puzzling. But Mao probably wanted to see, an end to Chiang's corruption. He must have hoped that Stilwell would stop corruption in the Chinese Army at least.

The Stilwell Road is a marvel of engineering excellence. It was built at such a huge expense because it was important for the Allied powers to win the war against Japan . By making direct supplies possible to China it assisted in the war effort. in that theatre also As mentioned, by Mountbatten the Americans were "thinking solely in terms of China and of Northern Burma as a supply route to China ." They were "primarily interested" in the "permanent security of the Ledo Road ." For that purpose they ordered the "pushing ahead with opening the land route into China as fast as possible." The Americans believed that the "main advantage" of the Stilwell Road lay "not in the actual tonnage the road would carry, but in greatly increased supplies of petrol (gasoline) which the pipe line, running parallel with the road, would bring to the China-based air forces." The map shows three pipelines. One US pipeline ran from Calcutta (then) to Tinsukia and then on to Mogaung near Myitkyina. The second US pipeline ran from Chittagong to Dimapur and Tinsukia. These two then jointly ran from Tinsukia to Bhamo in Burma and to Chanyi and Luliang beyond Kunming in China . The British pipeline ran from Chittagong to Dimapur and then to Tamu on the Burma border. What a configuration? And the effort and the expenses?

Chiang and his wife Sung Li had convinced Stilwell to build the road so that the petrol pipelines could be played and protected. China needed the petrol for the Allied airborne forces operating against the Japanese from airfields in Assam , Burma and Yunnan . When Sung Li died at the age of 106 at New York on the night of October 23, 2003 , I happened to be in Taipei . From talks with Chinese friends and the newspaper reports in the next couple of days I realised how important Sung Li and Chiang were for Chinese and world history. Sung Li inspired Chiang all through his chequered career. Sung Li was one of the most powerful women of all times. Born to one of the richest families of Shanghai she was a rang beauty in her youth both in China and in the USA , where she had her education. Michael Calvert notes in his memorable biography of Field Marshal William Joseph Slim that she "had great influence in the United States " and that she "hated the British." Slim had campaigned simultaneously with Mountbatten against the Japanese General Renya Mutaguchi's army and conquered Burma jointly. After Chiang won the war against Japan he had to retreat to Taiwan in 1949 when China was taken over by the People's Liberation Army of Mao. But he and Sung Li together built up Taiwan as one of the richest countries in the world. It has a per capita income which is seven times that of India .

I got my first opportunity to travel on the Stilwell Road only after I joined at Dibrugarh as the Deputy Commissioner of the earstwhile united Lakhimpur district in late 1969.,It is then that I realised what an engineering feat that the Allied Army accomplished in building the road. But the scenery was breathtaking The  flora-was exquisite- I had never seen such beauty and variety.in orchids anywhere... else, not even in the North East of Thailand where thousands of Americans go to see orchids in the hills near Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Nong Khai

Long before Stilwell built the road there was some path linking China 's Yunnan province and Assam . In the Comprehensive History of Assam,.edited by late HK Borpujori, it has been recorded as follows: "It appears that there had been an old route from south-western Yunnan to Assam . The Tais possessed knowledge of the topography through which the route passed and also of the Brahmaputra.valley.." In_ any case the Tais (Ahoms) came to Assam crossing the Patkai range of mountains from an area on the Burma-China border.

There is a recent move to re-open the nearly 1,800 kms, long Stilwell Road . On the Chinese side it is now a Super Expressway stretching 1,150 kms. On the Myanmarese ( Burma ) side out of 525 kms the road is reportedly bad only for 160 kms, which can be repaired and rebuilt. On the Indian side, 71 kms from l.edo in Assam to Pheng Sau in Aruanchal Pradesh, are covered by a National Highway . Only a small portion from Pheng Sau to the Myonmarese border will need complete rebuilding.

It is true that international trade can be fostered if the road is reopened. But it will be necessary to ensure that India will gain from such trade. I have toured extensively across China during September ­October, 2002. I have seen what tremendous economic development is taking place in that country. One believe how China is being transformed into an economic superpower has to see to. In 1990 India and China had the same per capita income. In 2002 China ’s per capita income became double that of India . It is going further ahead. Can India compete with that country? Already smuggled Chinese goods abound in the markets of the North Eastern states. These appear to be low-priced and of better quality.

Then there is the question of insurgency. The jungles on both sides of the Stilwell Road provide excellent hideouts for the Naga, Manipuri and Assamese insurgents. A super highway will provide easier passage not only to the insurgents but also to the drug mafia from the nearby golden triangle.

All these questions will need deeper and detailed examination before any final decision is taken.  

H.N.Das
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