NEVER FORGOTTEN
PRINCE Charles yesterday made a solemn promise to the heroes of the Forgotten War and vowed they will always be remembered.
And, as he led the tributes on the 75th anniversary of VJ Day, he told our indebted nation: “Without them, the war could not have been won.”
More than 71,000 British and Commonwealth servicemen lost their lives in the brutal conflict with Japan, which raged on for three months after the war in Europe had ended.
Tens of thousands taken prisoner endured unthinkable suffering as they were beaten, starved and tortured. And 12,000 of them died in captivity. The Prince of Wales, who led the nation in a two-minute silence said: “All too often those who served in the Far East have been labelled ‘ the forgotten army’, in a forgotten war.
“Many of the soldiers, nurses and other personnel felt anger and disappointment at how they were treated when they finally returned home from a war which, from the public’s point of view, had ended on May 8, 1945.”
Speaking during a ceremony at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffs, he added: “Today, in this hallowed place, and in the presence of all those gathered here, or in their homes, or wherever they may be, let us affirm that they and the surviving veterans are not forgotten.
“Rather, you are respected, thanked and cherished with all our hearts and for all time.”
Victory over the Japanese came after four years of the most ferocious warfare.
In the campaigns in the Far East, Britain lost almost 30,000 heroes.
One who survived was Albert “Les” Wills. At the time he was a shy 17-year-old who had left his job as a farmhand to sign up.
He was serving as a boy seaman on board HMS Indefatigable as the Allies prepared to storm the Japanese island of Okinawa on Easter Sunday, 1945.
Albert was locked in a turret when a kamikaze pilot evaded his guns and smashed into the aircraft carrier at 350mph.
Eight men died instantly as hot metal shards were sent flying through the air. A huge blaze erupted but Albert, just 40ft away from the point of impact,
escaped harm. Now 93, he was at the ceremony and shared his memories with the Sunday Mirror.
He said: “We were on the first Royal Navy ship to be hit by a kamikaze pilot. It was unthinkable to us that they would use their planes as guided bombs.
“I can remember the chaos, the sounds and the smell of cordite. It was terrifying. We were just ill-prepared for
Japanese rules. We didn’t know enough about them. They were nothing like what we had faced in Europe. “They didn’t have any fear.” The Japanese were as relentless as they were fearless. Mr Wills and his crewmates were under fire for seven weeks, with attacks lasting as long as half a day.
But he stayed in the Navy until the age of 30 and rose to the rank of petty officer.
The great-grandfather of Sutton Coldfield, Staffs, said: “I served with the bravest and most tenacious young men you could ever meet. This country owes them a great debt.”
The Prince of Wales, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, and veteran Darbara Singh Bhullar, 97, laid wreaths on a section of the Burma railway line, brought back to the UK in the 1980s.
It is said that at least one life was lost for every sleeper laid along the 230-mile track. Some 16,000 Allied prisoners were killed toiling on the railway, along with 100,000 local labourers.
The PoWs were forced to work in searing heat on meagre rice rations. Hundreds were beaten to death. Many others succumbed to dysentery, cholera and malaria.
Around 40 veterans looked on from benches dotted around the memorial
It was unthinkable that they would use their planes as bombs ALBERT WILLS SURVIVED EARLY KAMIKAZE STRIKE
to maintain social distancing as Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivered The Exhortation during the service.
He laid a wreath at the Sumatra Railway memorial. Seven hundred PoWs and 25,000 slaves lost their lives building that 140-mile track.
Jane Elgey, 91, of Market Weighton, North Yorks, was just 12 years old when she was incarcerated in Sumatran PoW camps. She had been with her mum, sister, three brothers and grandmother on a British ship, fleeing the Fall of Singapore in 1942, when it was captured.
Jane, the only PoW at yesterday’s ceremony, said: “If you obeyed orders you got on with them, but some people were bolshy and they didn’t like it.
“We were always hungry – we would ration a bowl of rice so that we had three meals. When we complained that the rice had weevils in it, we were told that was the meat.”
When the survivors of the Far East conflict finally came home, they were told not to speak about their experiences – and relatives told not to ask.
Sid Pidgeon, 99, of Beckenham, Kent, who served in the Royal Army Service Corps in Burma, said: “I don’t think people have ever really understood exactly what happened on the other side of the world. I think people were so involved in what happened in Europe, it just passed them by.”
Around the rest of Britain more wreaths were laid and tributes paid.
Fundrai sing hero Captain Sir Tom Moore, 100, called on the nation to “stop, think and be thankful for the ultimate sacrifices made” on VJ Day.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer paid tribute to “the wartime generation, who, through the horrors of conflict, showed us the spirit and determination that we need to always remember and always be grateful for”.
The RAF’s Red Arrows performed a flypast in Belfast but, sadly, those scheduled for Cardiff, Edinburgh and London were cancelled because of heavy rain. Large screens in UK cities featured montages of Far East veterans, including the Duke of Edinburgh, who was on a warship in Tokyo Bay when Japan surrendered.
And the Queen paid tribute too.
In a statement she said: “Prince Philip and I join many around the world in sending our grateful thanks to the men and women from across the Commonwealth, and Allied nations, who fought so valiantly to secure the freedoms we cherish today.
“May the memory of their sacrifice and bravery remain with us always.”
I don’t think many people ever actually understood what really happened
SID PIDGEON VETERAN OF THE BURMA CAMPAIGN