25/4/44 - No, 11

THE TRACK

24th April.

Assam-Burma Front, April 21.

a hill above of In Bishenpur, where troops the 14th Army are now engaged with the Japanese, stands-a monument. "This road from Bishenpur to

of Lakhipur a distance 109 miles,” says the inscription "was built by

Chapforce between June and November, 1942. It was built because all who knew said it was impossible."

this in who strews Hear monument his mountain fastness lives a 'tiger the bones of his victims along the paths leading into the great wild 'hills.

No one has ever succeeded in shooting this although many have'tried.

* Before the road was built this Silchar track was Imphal s only

with of link , Lord. Curzon, the Viceroy India, was carried down it on a litter in 1890 when he visited Imphal.- Today, while not a "line of communication”, it is a track which in dry weather can accommodate not only

animal transport but also the all-prevailing jeep.

The track passed through country inhabited by Nag as and Kukis, wild tribes, people completely untouched by civilisation, who lived on mud-fish from the pools, monkeys and dogs, which before they acquired ancient muskets they shot with bows and arrows. Such was the Silchar track before the army came into the Imphal plain and decided that strategically it was necessary to make more use of this secondary exit, hut when engineers looked at the track, saw its roughness, and the great mountains through which it ran, they said

"impossible":, hut there was one man who did not believe in the impossible, and

Lt-Col. Chapman, a South African, gathered together a. little hand of British

and Anti-tank gunners and co-operated local labour from ha gas, Kukis Chins*

"with these men and gelignite Manipuri spades and picks, the Colonel said, ”1

will "build a voider track."

Among his loyal group were two old soldiers 'who on the sail-up in 1939 used to meet at hie Blue peter stable in Epsom, One was R. S.M. peter, Watson, and the other Q.M.S, Prank Cranberry, both now C.M.P’s to a division in Imphal.

/They became 2

became and have They friends, been together ever since as gunners on the track and as C,M,P,'s, "The track was divided into sections," said Watson, Each section was

under a sergeant’s charge. He had local labour, and the colonel paid the men R's 1/8

a day, women R’s 1/00 and chicos A’s 8, It didn’t matter whether the women carried her chico on her back or not, it still got its A*s 8, They were "honest about everything" and used to bring along bricks and sticks indicating the number of days

when working they wanted pay. Leeches, malaria and dysentery were not the only hazards, for over the rivers which were swollen by the rains there were narrow rickety suspension bridges. Very frightening crossing them, said Watscn, The little

lived of tin party on *l.l/6 a of bully and two biscuits for every meal. Twice a day they had tea, in the evening rum. At night we all used to sit around in a circle, 'said Hat son. The, Colonel would order me to pass the rum around, and then ask each he had done the man what during the day, then allot us our tasks for following day. He would ask us if we wanted anything, and having made his list, wireless it back to Imphal. -Both agreed that the Colonel was an amazing man.

Having learnt how to blow rocks with gelignite, he used to wander off on his own and have private blowing-up parties. He worked stripped to the waist with his men and

and slept fed with them. Once he saw a large snake in his basha. He ordered a lance-sergeant to kill it before he returned several days later. The lance-sergean'* did kill a snake, and told the Colonel, who promoted him Sergeant on the spot.

Unfortunately, the snake appeared in the Colonel’s basha that night. The sergeant was not demoted. When, after five months of hardships, the party reached Lakhipur where the track broadens out into the tarmac tea-planters’ road to Silchar, they were

of received, by the local tea planters right royally, and given a great show hospitality.

"When • ,Up this new track which those who knew said was impossible went Jeeps,

had they saw them. all the villagers did a bunk," said Watson, "but once they got u.sel to machines all they wanted was joy-rides,"

Addresses, R, S.M. P. Watson, 32 Grey Terrace, Ryhope, Sunderland; QiM.S.

Frank Car.berry, 30, Albany St,, West Hartlepool,

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