I remember when I was a kid, and long before I developed a collector's interest in watches, finding the watch my father had worn when he was fighiting with the Chindits in Burma during the war in a drawer. When he died, many years ago now, it disappeared, but last week it resurfaced in a sewing box my brother found. It turns out that it is a Longines tre tacche with a step case. The pictures aren't great, but its a nice heirloom to have, especially as a couplel of years ago I tried to retrace his steps on his infiltration into Burma in 1945 -- still the longest single file military march in history. Under his name is CE -- for Church of England so he could be buried with the right prayers -- and his army serial number.

My brother has just had it serviced, and it's running fine.

 

Your Dad was a hero. I lost a Great Uncle in June of 1944, who was one of Merrill's Marauders. The 2 groups have some things in common, being in Burma, long, long marches, under fed and equipt among other things. I wish I had Uncle Dick's watch. Good on you, Sir.

McK

 

Both the Chindits and Merrill's Marauders also suffered from the stunningly bad leadership of Joe Stillwell. They were brave men.

My father, middle of the middle row, somewhere in the Burmese jungle, 1945.

And just under 50 years later, a ladder made from the wing brace of a DC-3 that crashed at a Chindit camp near Indaw, central Myanmar.

And my batman, nearly lost when a boatman out of his head on opium piled into the riverbank in the jungle. Luckily I found the head and the springbars in the bilges

And finally, an elevation plot of the last 100km of the walk -- we were cutting our way through the jungle for most of it. At least we didn't have a thousand men in front of us churning up the mud. Fergusson's column were hard men.

 

What a great piece to have. Amazing and what a treasure. My Grandad was in Burma. The Battle of Kohima. The forgotten army indeed... He is the second from the left and unfortunately this I think is the only picture I have of him in the services. Unfortunately I think the two brave men to his right never came home...

 

Simply fantastic!!

 

Very nice!

Seems.to be a large one? 35mm? It has a first generation case witch is the most appealing for me. Congrats and enjoy your beauty!

 

Great heirloom, thanks for sharing the stories.

 

Amazing watch and heirloom Tim! Hope I can see it in metal soon!

 

A heirloom with a fantastic story; thanks for sharing

 

I hope you won't mind me paying tribute to a fresh faced, not quite 22 year old Maruader who never came home to have a full life, so others could have a free life. Rest in Peace, Uncle Dick.

 

Sorry for silly question @timjohn , but if your father was fighting on the ground alongside infantry or special forces, do the letters “RAF” on the back of the watch stand for Royal Air Force and was he part of the radio specialists who would call in air support?

@McKinley RIP to your uncle Dick, may he and all of those other young men who died fighting in those days be thanked for enabling the peace and prosperity the West has since enjoyed.
Talking about which, the film Darkest Hour about Churchill and the early days of WWII is a good one.

 

Twist of fate -- Robin Arnold Frank....

I'm sure my father would have been honoured by the association. Both the Marauders and the Chindits showed some insane bravery. The Marauders were thrown into battle again and again with inadequate weapons when their Chinese allies failed to do the job. Stillwell was personally exceptionally brave, but showed almost no strategic grasp of how to command troops in irregular combat, insisting again and again in sending the lightly-armed troops up against entrenched Japanese positions in places like Mogaung and Myitkyina. The Chindits and the Marauders suffered accordingly. Of the 2,750 Marauders to enter Burma, only 130 were combat fit by the time the unit was disbanded in 1945, and only two of them had neither been wounded nor hospitalised. When the Chindits were disbanded, of the 2200 remaining only 119 were combat fit.

 

Kohima was a nightmare. There are a couple of great books about the Burma campaign. Have you read Fergal Keane's Road of Bones, which is specifically about Kohima? Among the other good ones are Defeat into Victory by Gen. Bill Slim, and Quartered Safe Out Here, by George MacDonald Fraser, who also wrote the Flashman books, and -- weirdly -- the screenplay for Octopussy

 

It was indeed a nightmare. My Grandfather seldom talked about it. To lock it away and get on with his life was his way of dealing with it. I do know that like most brave men who have found themselves in similar situations it never leaves you and he always spoke about the ones he left behind. The gentleman above is most fortunate to have such a watch and connection with his father. I have read about Kohima but not the books yo mention. I will do so. Thank you. Strange connection to James Bond!

 

All these old bits of metal we collect have some great history attached to them. The ones like above are a true testament to truly heroic men that shaped the way we live today.

Thanks for posting these snippets of your families history.

 

A brave man. Brave men all....

 

My father never spoke of his experiences either. I'm sure that there was an element of trauma, especially after Kohima, but having spent a fair time in war zones myself, I think there is possibly other reasons too: there is no real point in talking about one's experiences to people who weren't there. No one wants to be seen as a war bore, even veterans; talking about action always sounds like one is making oneself out to be brave when we've seen people much braver than ourselves; and the humour, and there is pretty much always a bit of humour, seems macabre or ghoulish to outsiders. Veterans speak to veterans in a language that no one who hasn't been through it can understand properly. Too often this isolation is interpreted as the result of pure trauma.