Suprised no one has mentioned this I suppose that's why they are known as the "forgotten army" bit shocking to me like - unlike the european forces they had malaria, snakes and all forms of nasties to contend with including if you surrendered you were starved to death.
My Uncle was on Heavy AA guns and was one of a number of radar operators that got sent out to Singapore in October 1941. After the capitulation he was sent in a hell ship to Vietnam where he spent a year unloading ships at Saigon, then was sent to the Death Railway for the rest of the war. He suffered a number of beatings, dysentery, malaria and beri-beri. He was one of the soldiers on the list of POWs that was the central theme in the book and film The Prisoner List. The atom bombs stopped his camp being machine gunned by the Japanese - they had already had to dig the wide trenches where this was to happen and an allied landing was scheduled nearby and would have triggered the killing of prisoners only two days after the surrender. Lived to be 93 but his health and nerves never recovered.
My uncle died at Kohima or at least we think he did - nothing official still do not know what happened to him. My mother was in Hospital in early 20's and a woman from our area was in the same ward said her son had seen his body at the side of a path at Kohima. Re atom bomb saved a hell of a lot of lives
there were three generations of Paras in my family, sadly only me left,will donate the medals to the museum when the time comes
was watching captain sir tom and it said for every man lost to the enemy over 100 were lost to some sickness or other...and today we are left with loads of spoilt brats demanding instant everything and crying because some have a different opinion, gawd help us if a war breaks out.
