15th August 1945

Dad with his grandson Stephen

Today has been an emotional day for me. I must admit to shedding several tears this morning as I watched the VJDay 75 broadcast at the National Memorial Arboretum. I am sure dad was looking down and pleased to see the 14th Army finally getting some recognition.  Like so many, he rarely mentioned what he experienced in Burma. After over three years away from home fighting in that ferocious campaign - it was not surprising.

Dad in his slouch hat

This week I have been posting what dad's regiment was doing 75 years ago. They were based at Taunggyi and involved in the Battle of The Breakout. The Japanese were still in the hills in the Namhkok area. The day before, 4th Field Royal Artillery had organised various fire plans (coordinated artillery fire) against the enemy, but two reconnaissance parties had been ambushed. Now, there were no reports of returned fire. At16:00 hours the regiment’s diary records that all guns are to be employed and ‘F Troop’ to stay in position. The remaining three troops organised a new fire plan, including a feint attack to secure Pengsu Bridge. 

But at 17:00 hours everything changed. The 4th Field RA Diary says that all operations for the 16th August 1945 have been canceled following a message from 17 Division that all provocative firing will cease:

“All troops ordered to remain in present locations and to maintain full defensive measures. Harassing Fire on Japs terminated”.

The following two days, 16th and 17th July 1945 were declared holidays. The 4th Field RA Diary has for the 16th of July:


“08:00 hours: Air Op sent on a mission to drop surrender pamphlets on HWETAK, NAMHKOK LM, HKWELU LR, HSI-HSENG LR, SAMKA LR.
10:00 hrs: Capt. E.W. Knight RA appointed Prisoner of War
Commander. Full arrangements being made to accommodate 1500 prisoners of war in TAUNGGYI.

11:00 hours: Regiment Fired ROYAL SALUTE of 21 Guns to mark the conclusion of hostilities in World War II.” 

Dad didn’t get home till November 1946. How this young lad from Tooting in London faced what he did for his country fills me with pride. I have been researching his military career for two years and hope to publish a book soon. He will never be FORGOTTEN.

14th August 1945

VJ Day is commemorated tomorrow. Blink and you might miss it. This week I have been looking back daily at my father’s experiences with 'the forgotten army' 75 years ago. At this time dad was with the 4th Field Royal Artillery around the area of Taunggyi and involved in the Battle of the Breakout. His regiment was stopping the escaping Japanese around the Shan Hills. But the enemy is still putting up a fight. Particularly in the hills above the villages of Namhkok and Hopong. So a fire plan (coordinated artillery fire) had been organised against these locations.

On August 14the 1945 the diary has:

“08:00 hours: Harassing fire continued against three locations.‘F’ Troop 14/66 Battery moved forward to 804148 to a permanently defended area in order that H.F. could be continued by night as well as by day”.

Later that day, a regimental reconnaissance party was ambushed  by the Japanese in the hills above the village of Pengsu. There were no casualties, but they were unable to proceed. So at 23:30 hours, F Troop of 4th Field RA organised a fire-plan at Mile Stone 9, supported by 1 Sikh LI.  Another fire-plan was coordinated from the south-west. 

But the Japanese continue to cause problems and another reconnaissance mission by 4th Field RA, this time from the north, also had to be abandoned, due to ambush. More tomorrow.

13th August 1945

This Saturday is VJ Day. To commemorate this, I am looking back at my father’s experiences with the 5th Indian Division in Burma 75 years ago. On this day August 13th 1945, dad’s regiment are based at Taunggyi and involved in The Battle of the Breakout. The ‘Forgotten Army’ are stopping the escaping Japanese around the Irrawaddy Valley and the Shan Hills east of Meiktila. Dad’s regiment is instructed to 'destroy all enemy'. On the 11th  August 1945, news had reached his regiment of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. But the Japanese are still fighting back. In the 4th Field Royal Artillery Diary it has:

“ D Troop 522 Battery moved out to support 1 Sikh operating against LOMG KA LR. The road is known to be bad; in parts nothing better than a bullock cart track, but owing to insufficient troops, JAPS cannot be dislodged from hills around LOMG KA”.

A reconnaissance patrol returned to headquarters at Taunggyi at 13:45 hrs, and reported that the village of Namhkok (see map) now contained 300 Japanese soldiers. At 16:00 hrs ‘D Troop’ reported that the road was impassable after Mile Stone 4 and all their guns had to be winched back three miles! The troops were finally in position at 23:00 hrs. But night patrols reported that the hills around Hopong and the Namhkok Road were still held by the Japanese. More tomorrow.

12th August 1945

As we approach VJ Day on the 15th August, It’s time to share some research into my father’s experiences with the ‘Forgotten’ 14th Army in Burma 75 years ago. I hope to publish a book soon.

On 12th August 1945, the 4th Field RA Diary shows that news had just reached them of a possible Japanese surrender. But it stresses, ‘It is fully realised that if the Japanese do surrender, it must be a week or so before the forward troops are informed, therefore there will be no relaxation of effort either in offence or defence”.

Dad’s regiment are providing patrols, around the village of Pang Peng. After days the village is now reported clear, apart from a Japanese Observation Post discovered a mile outside the village - it was assumed to have been put there to avoid British artillery shelling...More tomorrow.

The Fairy Coffins at Arthur's Seat

On June 25th 1836, three boys searching for rabbit warrens on a rocky peak known as Arthur's Seat near Edinburgh, came upon some thin sheets of slate covering a small cave. Inside they discovered 17 tiny coffins containing intricately carved wooden figures. 

They soon became known as the 'Fairy Coffins'. 

Accounts vary considerably on this remarkable discovery and no sources are given. The London Times of July 20th, 1836 has this:

" ...the coffins were miniature wooden figures. They were dressed differently in both style and material. There were two tiers of eight coffins each, and a third one begun, with one coffin. The extraordinary datum, which especially made history here: That the coffins had been deposited singly, in the little cave, and at intervals of many years. In the first tier, the coffins were quite decayed, and the wrappings had moldered away. In the second tier, the effects of age had not advanced so far. And the top coffin was quite recent looking".

US academic Professor Samuel Menefee and Allen Simpson the former principal curator of the National Museums of Scotland, suggest that all were placed in the niche after 1830, about five years before the boys discovered them.

But who placed them there? And why?  Simpson suggests that they may be an attempt to provide a decent symbolic burial for the victims of murderers William Burke and William Hare, who had sold 17 corpses to local doctor Robert Knox in 1828 for use in anatomy lessons. But 12 of Burke and Hare’s victims were women and the occupants of the coffins are all dressed as men. Furthermore, the eyes of the figures are open, not closed like a corpse.

The little figures are made of white wood, but the coffins are carved from Scottish pine. Each figure is dressed in plain cotton clothes that have been stitched and glued around them. Analysis has revealed that they were not the work of a carpenter or woodcarver, but judging from the knife marks and materials used, they were likely to be the work of an amateur using the tools of the trade of a leatherworker or cobbler. Also, the coffins, 95mm in length, come in two styles, one square, one rounded, which suggests that either there were two makers at work, or that their creator changed and/or refined their style as they were being made over a period of time. 

Fewer than half of the coffins survived because it was believed that the boys 'pelted them at each other' in fun, not realising their potential importance. Those that survived became part of a collection kept by Robert Frazier, a jeweller, who displayed them in his private museum. On his death they were auctioned as, ' the celebrated Lilliputian coffins found on Arthur's Seat, 1836,' and sold for just over £4.

In 1901 Christina Couper of Dumfriesshire generously gave a set of eight coffins to the National Museum of Scotland, where they have remained until this day. Speculation has continued to grow about their purpose. Many have suggested that they were 'ritualistic offerings,' highlighting the fact that Arthur's Seat has long been associated with the supernatural, with one of its springs being quoted in one of the earliest recorded witch trials (1572). The Scotsman on 16 July 1836 has:

 “Our own opinion would be – had we not some years ago abjured witchcraft and demonology – that there are still some of the weird sisters hovering about Mushat’s Cairn or the Windy Gowl, who retain their ancient power to work the spells of death by entombing the likenesses of those they wish to destroy.”

Shortly after, The Edinburgh Evening Post claimed the coffins represented:
"An ancient custom which prevailed in Saxony, of burying in effigy departed friends who had died in a distant land." 

The Caledonian Mercury added:
"We have also heard of another superstition which exists among some sailors in this country, that they enjoined their wives on parting to give them “Christian burial” in an effigy if they happened [to be lost at sea]."

The mystery of these coffins continues to this day.