The Forgotten Army

Veterans whose Herculean efforts in the Far East did not get the plaudits they so deserved

- BY PAUL ROUTLEDGE

THEY called themselves the Forgotten Army because their heroic exploits against the Japanese in the jungles of the Far East went largely unreported.

The desperate battles fought in Burma and Malaya were very far from home, against an enemy often unseen, and without any links to family or newspapers.

Pitted against crack Japanese divisions sent to invade India, heroes of the 14th Army of British and Commonwealth troops served for the duration of the war.

Their unique sacrifice — and that of Allied prisoners of war, subjected to abuse, torture and death — only became widely known after Emperor Hirohito's surrender exactly 80 years ago.

The sad story began directly after Pearl Harbor, when the Japanese Imperial Army swept through South East Asia, capturing Hong Kong in December 1941, then Malaya the following month.

Singapore fell in February 1942 - the biggest British military humiliation of the century — and Burma in May.

The fightback began in 1943, but it was not until early the following year that the Eastern Army - renamed the 14th at the insistence of a tough new leader, Lieutenant-General William Slim - managed to turn the tide with the defence of Arakan in Burma.

Supported by secret, behind-the-lines operations by the Chindits guerillas under Major Gen Orde Wingate, and supplied for the first time by air, the 14th repelled ferocious suicide attacks at Kohima and Imphal, names justly glorious in Army legend.

The Japanese suffered about 85,000 casualties, chiefly from sickness and disease after their supplies ran out.