Revisiting Battle Of Sangshak

* Ted Hockings, Basil Seaton and Lt Col Hopkinson , one day before the battle starts

Revisiting Battle of Sangshak I am a WW 2 relic collector. During my normal visit to various battle sites of WW2 for collection of world war relics, i happen to find lot of slit trenches and bunkers still in good conditions. This create a subtle interest in me to study exactly what happen in those trenches and bunkers during battle. Sangshak is yet such a place where i enjoyed visiting again and again. Talking with aged people who were an eye witness was really fun. More fun is when i started sharing information with veterans who took part in the battle. An account of each one of them speak of the harsh days without food and water. Maurice Bell, the then second in command of the royal signal attach with the 50th para brigade at Sangshak gave me his account of the battle as below:- Snipers:- It became customary for Brigade HQ officers to gather near the HQ at around 1pm for “lunch”. There was little to eat but it was an opportunity to exchange information on the progress of the battle and generally update ourselves on what was happening. It was usually fairly quiet at this time with both sides preparing for the evening attacks. However, on one occasion, the peace was shattered by a stream of bullets and our very rapid dispersal. It still seems a miracle that no one was even wounded. Nobody could explain how the sniper had managed to infiltrate so far into our “box” but his skill and bravery must have been of the highest order. As he must have foreseen, his own death came within seconds. We continued to meet for “lunch” – but took much greater care. There were enough casualties without our adding to them in an irresponsible way. Dead Gurkhas:- I had a personal slit trench near the Signals Office in the Brigade HQ area. It was shallow but long enough for me to lie down and grab a couple of hours sleep whenever operations allowed. It also stored my scanty personal kit. Two or three days after the start of the battle I found that someone had installed a mortar alongside the trench. This seemed unsociable, to say the least, but I was much too busy to argue. However the matter was quickly resolved by a direct hit from the Japanese artillery. And I was left to pick pieces of dead Gurkhas out of my bedding roll and kit. I don’t remember any qualms, or even distaste, at having to do this though I now feel physically sick at the thought. By that stage of the fighting I must have been inured to the sight of shattered bodies and human blood. It was also a fact that sooner or later – and probably sooner – I would meet the same fate. Moving round the “box” at night:- The problem was that the Japs were clever at infiltrating and the “front line” was never far away, wherever you were in the “box”. It was good sense to avoid moving around after dusk but sometimes, when a job overran the time estimated or where a problem had arisen which demanded my attention, there was no alternative. Each night a password was allocated and this, in theory, should have distinguished friend from foe. The problem was that, whatever language was chosen for the password, it would be a foreign language for more than half the defending forces. Could the challenged person say the word quietly but clearly? Could the challenger recognise the word? It was always an enormous relief to reach HQ in one piece. Sharing the salt:- It was a long and difficult walk from Sangshak to Imphal and I made it in the company of one British sergeant from the mountain battery, three or four Indians and a similar number of Gurkhas. We had met by chance during the break out. We were all tired before we began and none of us had eaten much over several days. But we pressed on, using tracks which we hoped were too insignificant to be manned by the Japanese. We had no food but we did have opportunities to drink from mountain streams. And the perspiration pouring from us drained our bodies of salt. After some three or four days we came to a Naga village that had not, up to then, been occupied by the Japs and we gratefully accepted their offer of food. But, most of all we craved salt. I shall never forget standing in a circle and passing a piece of rock salt from mouth to mouth. Round and round it went, with never a thought of race, colour or creed. Our bodies were all the same – suffering severe depletion of common salt. With so many troubles in the world stemming from tribal or racial differences, or variations in skin colour, or competing religions I often recall that sharing of the rock salt!

The legendary Soldier Basil Seaton on his account over his escape from the Japanese has written me the following snippet.

" I joined the 152 Indian Para Bn in december 1943 and Sangshak was March 44, so i was not a long time para. Furthermore, I was seriously wounded the first morning of the actual Sangshak battle, treated in Field Ambulance and kept sedated. Wounded and left for dead upon the Brigade evacuation, I was kicked awake next morning by a Japanese soldier.... he was as startled as i was, but i hit him below the belt and scuttled off into the jungle, diving into heavy undergrowth. when it was dark, i crept down the tract to get out of the Sangshak village clearing and head for Imphal....... Before i made it a second japanese soldier came up the track. I lay motionless but he put his hand on my head... my only weapon was the para. fighting knife. In a brief struggle i stuck my knife into his stomack and then his neck and it was all over. Lastly , a three days twenty-five miles hike without ration, but i was helped by two grenades from a dead soldier ( for catching fish). I finally reach the Imphal plain and a company commanded by an old friend.

I was alloted a mortar platoon and at first contact, we were deployed to join C company but the japanese got there before we did. We rejoined the main body to go through the events. As far as expert evidence is concern, most of those poor sould are death eg . Jimmy Roberts(153), Allan Cowell, Paul Lewis, John Ball and of course Colonel Hopkinson and others. The Book Imphal is an excellent , accurate account of what happen. 50(P) Bde in a "patrol" role was in no state to hold the majorJapanese offensive which exploded. We had not even got barbed wire to stall enemy probes and many of those involved were new to jungle warfare--- they died bravely, terribly outnumbered by the japanese offensive.

The japanese offensive was a complete surprise. even when the first party of fifty attacked the V Force positions there was no great alarm. Not until Japanese troops of 31 Division attacked our C company was there any realisation that the attack was in overwhelming strength. they had with them troops of the renegade indian national Army, who kept calling out in urdu inviting Indian survivors to come out and be fed. I didn't go !! There was some bitterness felt by Sangshak and other survivors in that the BRitish deployed positions in general followed parallel to the Chinwin river, in a straight line with no depth, and were in turn served by the line of supply.It was transparently obvious even to junior officers that an attack like Kohima, would cut off most of the Imphal threatre. Harry Seaman's book page 86, second paragraph " now just two days into the siege............" , gives a clear picture as to how aware officers and men realised that there had been an awful blunder somewhere. There was also a trend to decry the 50(P) Bde performance as "newcomers" to Burma. It was not until the Commander-in- Chief general Slim lauded their performance as saving the Imphal force from a disastrous defeat by the two japanese division- describe by the Japanese themselves as "marching on Delhi"- that the ugly rumours ceased. In the meantime, Brig. Hope-thomson had been send home as a lieutenant-colonel9to win a DSO later in Germany). there were fewer decorations than would be expected from such an heroic battles as Sangshak. 152 parachute Battalion was left with only four officers not killed or wounded( out of the twenty- eight total) and thereby unable to take part in the forthcoming Singapore invasion".