VJ Day: Remembering an individual's experience of war

To commemorate the eightieth anniversary of VJ Day – and the end of the Second World War – we republish a commentary penned by Major Arthur V Marment, the father of one of Charles Stanley’s Private Client Directors, Charles Marment. He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) and Bar, a British gallantry award for acts of exemplary bravery during active operations against the enemy on land. A bar is awarded for a subsequent act of gallantry that would merit the MC. The bar is a silver piece with a crown that is worn on the ribbon of the Military Cross. This contribution was submitted to the People's War team in Wales and is added to our website with his permission.

When the end of the Burma war came, it came very suddenly. I, personally, didn’t hear. 

We were up to our thighs in water on the Arakan, down on the Satang River, and of course there were no communications from Rangoon. There was a railway track from Rangoon that was meant to go to Mandalay. But what had happened in the campaign was that one of the divisional commanders blew the bridge over the Satang River, leaving a division the wrong side of the bridge. 

We had taken a place which really was the gateway into China and had gone back to Yen and Yong to finish the clearing and then made my way down to the Satang. I knew our Gurkha battalion was holding one end of the bridge and was beginning to get into difficulties because it was being shelled from the other side all the time and we had sent down four field guns from our artillery battalion – and they’d kept up some defence work. 

The only way down to the bridge was to get on the railway and make your way down. This was highly dangerous because you could be ambushed either side of this narrow-gauge railway. Our engineers had got some wheels and put them on a jeep – and we had one jeep you could go down on the rails. But you had to pretty careful – and we were going to have to attack the Jap position our side of the bridge before we could start to cross in any number – or get away for that matter.

The last officer casualty

We put in an attack down the railway – and it was a very rough show indeed. With my best friend, one of the company commanders, we attacked and didn’t do badly. That night, though – when everyone went to sleep – we were all living off the ground on bamboo bashers, houses, and he was in there and that night the Jap sprayed his basher with machine gun bullets – and one hit him in the head and alas that finished him. I tried to get him back to the hospital, but I knew he had no hope at all. He was the last British officer to be killed in the Burma war.

The purpose of the attack was to be able to spike the gun, because two of our guns had been captured. The 4th, 8th Ghurkhas did well and that tidied up that. Then, of course, we heard about the Armistice – my intelligence officer heard on the radio the war was at an end. And when I heard about it everybody was warned very quickly – and I sent my bugler out to the front area near the bridge to blow a ceasefire – and, of course, the troops knew any movement at all and you shot – you didn’t wait for anything. Then there was great rejoicing. It was a great relief.

In the meantime, a prisoner of war cage had been built in our area – before we were there and we were told to send a company up the road to Mandalay where they were crossing the road the whole time. They were going from east to west as fast as they could go. 

We were told to take the Sikh company up to take the prisoners and bring them back to this cage, which we did. And, of course, I got food ready for them and when I gave them the food and the hot water – they were in a dreadful state – the first thing they did was they washed and fed, and they thought the food we gave them was enough to last a month and it was only for a day. Their relief was tremendous. They settled well into the cage. 

An uncertain end to fighting

The next day there was to be an attack on the Pagoda – the church – and the Jap major was brought up to my company commander and was told to go to them and tell them the war was over, because we knew they wouldn’t believe it. Only a week before, they had come right through our position and village – just walked through! Well, the Jap Major was pushed out in front of the company – and bless my soul if the Japanese didn’t fire on them. And when he managed to get nearer them and to tell them the war was over, he gave the Commander there a good slapping on the spot! Soon after that my company brought the whole lot down to the cage and we stuffed them all in there.

One of the other things I did, I said to my quartermaster, “the war is over we’ll have a great party as fast as we can. I know there are some very good prawns in the Satang River – go across the river and get some - it’s free now”. He did that, but while he was collecting them the other side of the bridge they really hadn’t been told the war was over and he just got back to us with the prawns in time!