Incredible stories of the last heroes of The Forgotten Army as Britain falls silent to mark 80th anniversary of VJ Day

The Sun

3 days ago

BRITAIN will fall silent at noon today to mark VJ80 – the 80th anniversary of Victory against Japan – and the day World War Two finally ended.
King Charles and Queen Camilla will lead events to remember the five million British, Commonwealth and Allied forces who fought in the Far East.
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They called themselves The Forgotten Army because the war in Europe had been over for more than three months and the world wanted to move on.
The King, Queen and PM Sir Keir Starmer will be at a service at the National Memorial Arboretum in Burton-on-Trent, Staffs, attended by 33 VJ veterans aged between 96 and 105.
Actress Celia Imrie is presenting the national commemoration live on BBC One from 11.30am.
Here, some of the surviving veterans who will be attending services around the country tell their incredible stories so they are never again forgotten.
Men like SID MACHIN and CHARLIE RICHARDS, 104, the last British Chindits, who fought for months on end hundreds of miles behind enemy lines in the jungles of Burma.
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In a moving interview, Signaller Sid, now 100, of Christchurch, Dorset, reveals how he was sent into battle aged 20 in a glider, which crashed just after take off.
He says: 'We thought that would be the end of it but they got us on the next flight and I spent more than five months in the jungle.
'I lost a couple of mates. But you had to just accept these things. It happened, so that was it.
'We had to remove the dog tags from the boys who had died, so that you had them and you could say what happened to them, which wasn't a pleasant thing to do.
'You couldn't bury them, so you had to leave them where they were. It was just part and parcel of the situation we were in.'
World War Two veterans come together to mark the 80th anniversary of their victory
'We lost six men'
'It was a hard life, but we were young, we were fit. Well, we weren't as fit when we came back.'
After the war, father-of-five Sid worked for the GPO, and it is only in recent years that VJ Day became important.
He says: 'It brought back memories of my time in India and Burma, some good and some not so good.
The hardest thing I ever did was to tell his wife that he had been killed. I think of him every day
Charlie Richards
'VJ Day and the events around the country are important to remind others of what we went through.'
Father-of-two Charlie Richards from Kettering, Northants, served with the 7th Leicester Regiment. He was selected to join the Chindits and took part in Operation Thursday in March 1944.
He says: 'Death was an everyday occurrence. It made you wonder if it would be your shoulder that death would be tapping on next.'
Charlie lost his best friend 'Son' Johnson. He says: 'One minute he was there, the next he was gone.
'The hardest thing I ever did was tell his wife that he had been killed. I think of him every day.'
JOSEPH HAMMOND, 100, from Ghana, was one of 100,000 Africans who fought for the British Army against the Japanese.
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His testimony will be broadcast during the national commemoration.
Joseph and his battalion of Gurkhas managed to stop the Japanese from crossing the Irrawaddy River.
Sometimes we were short of food for about three to four days until a parachute would drop the food and ammunition for us
Joseph Hammond
He says: 'We followed them south. It was terrible because the Japanese were the most ferocious fighters I have ever seen.'
'We crossed the river at Maubin and lost six men there. When somebody is killed, sometimes you see that person floating on the water — the very water that we drink.
'Sometimes we were short of food for about three to four days until a parachute would drop the food and ammunition for us.'
By his own admission, KEN KNOWLES, 100, was a terrible infantryman.
A rugby league injury meant he could not hold a rifle properly, and when he threw a grenade his own side had to duck for cover.
But the Army realised he was a problem solver.
Ken, from Lancaster, served with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps and was the man who worked out how to drop the correct supplies to Allied troops deep in the jungles of India and Burma.
Until Ken had his brainwave of packing every consignment with a mixture of food, ammo, medicines and clothing — all useful to the men on the ground — soldiers fighting in the jungle and desperate for food would receive crates of useless items such as shoes or maps and notebooks.
Today he will attend a VJ Day ceremony in Preston.
Former RAF navigator DOUGLAS MARSH, 102, flew dozens of missions over Germany before being posted to India, where he flew reconnaissance and bombing missions in Burma and modern-day Bangladesh.
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Douglas, who will watch the national service at his care home in Spalding, Lincs, says: 'We were the forgotten war.
'The troops came home from Europe, but we were still fighting.'
But on the way home to Britain, he signed up to a three-month art course in Darjeeling, in the shadow of Mount Everest, where he fell in love with painting.
He says: 'The light was amazing. In the morning Everest was pink then grew white as the day progressed. Painting would become my passion.
'I loved painting Mosquito planes, but flowers were my favourite. It was very calm and peaceful.'
Douglas, who lost his sight in 2009 and had to give up his beloved pastime, adds: 'Burma was not good at all.
'I don't have good memories of my time there. But it had to be done. I was proud to serve my country.'
Royal Marine JOHN ESKDALE, 100, came within minutes of death when his ship HMS Charybdis was torpedoed and sunk.
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Later, John, from Cardiff, served in the Far East, and when the end of the war was announced he went to Japan to photograph the aftermath of the dropping of atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Royal Navy Stoker ALFRED CONWAY, 100, was on HMS Wager, sister ship to HMS Whelp, which Prince Philip served on as First Lieutenant.
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Alongside Philip, Alfred, of Skegness, Lincs, sailed to the Far East and served in Sri Lanka, Sumatra, Australia, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
In 1945, Alfred was present when Japan surrendered in Tokyo Bay.
YAVAR ABBAS, 105, of the 11th Sikh Regiment, was a combat cameraman. He documented the brutality of war, from the aftermath of Kohima where 7,000 Japanese were killed.
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He also filmed in Hiroshima after the A-bomb dropped.
Yavar, from London, says: 'A Gurkha soldier was shot next to me, dying right there. It could have been me.
'War is the real crime. If there is no war, there'll be no war crimes.'
JOHN HARLOW, 100, from Exeter, served as a telegraphist on the submarine HMS Rorqual, which laid a total of 1,214 mines and was the only mine-laying sub to survive World War Two.
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While on shore leave, John got married on August 11, 1945, and four days later he was on his honeymoon in Northumberland on VJ Day.
He says: 'People didn't celebrate VJ Day that much because it was some 8,000 miles away. I don't remember so many street parties or anything like that.
'At least we knew that on VJ Day the whole war was finally over. I am going to the national commemoration because to me that's closure.
'I'll still remember my friends, but it will be the last celebration as such. There won't be any more.
'There won't be any of us left in about five years. So it will be the final time.'
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The King's echo of George VI
By Matt Wilkinson
THE King will issue a six-minute message of support to mark VJ80.
His recorded audio address will air at 7.30am across the UK and Commonwealth and echo the broadcast made by his grandfather, King George VI, in 1945.
Recorded in the Morning Room at Clarence House earlier this month, Charles will say the service and sacrifice of those who fought and died in the Pacific and Far East 'shall never be forgotten'.
He will also honour prisoners of war, and the innocent civilians of occupied lands in the region, whose suffering 'reminds us that war's true cost extends beyond battlefields, touching every aspect of life'.
The King describes how the heroes of VJ Day 'gave us more than freedom – they left us the example of how it can and must be protected'.
And he will celebrate how victory in the Far East was achieved by nations collaborating 'across vast distances, faiths and cultural divides'.
In a message of peace coming on the same day Trump faces Putin to end Ukrainian bloodshed, the King will also say: 'In times of war and in times of peace, the greatest weapons of all are not the arms you bear but the arms you link.'
The televised service at the memorial in Staffordshire will pay tribute to all those who served in the Asia-Pacific region, including Burma Star recipients, British Indian Army veterans, former prisoners of war, and those who fought in pivotal battles including Kohima and Imphal in India.
The event, hosted by the Royal British Legion in partnership with the Government, will see the King and Queen leave floral tributes, as will other senior figures.
A national two-minute silence will conclude with an aerial display by the Red Arrows.
The service will draw to a close with a fly-past by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, before the King and Queen attend a reception with Second World War veterans.