- Alf Smith, D Troop, 316 Battery, 130th (Lowland) Field Regiment
The Lowlanders had a hell of a war. Despatched to the far side of the globe to face the merciless might of the Imperial Japanese Army, this steadfast band of volunteers and conscripts endured operations that are now all but forgotten, overlooked in even the most comprehensive published histories of the Second World War.
They were ordinary men facing extraordinary horrors, a gang of amateurs forged into a crack unit that took on some of the Royal Artillery's toughest engagements in Burma. Drawing upon hundreds of archive documents, unpublished memoirs and declassified reports, their astonishing story of hardship, humour and heroism is told here for the first time. This painstakingly-researched book traces their journey from enlistment to demob, examining the battles they fought, the way they lived, and the triumphs and tragedies they experienced along the way. It weaves together the grand strategies of politicians and generals with first-hand accounts from those at the sharp end, from the gunners on the ground, to the infantry they supported, to the pilots battling for the skies above them.
Until now, surviving details of their staggering feat of human endurance have lain buried in archives, a neglected sideshow to an ill-remembered theatre of conflict; the forgotten of the Forgotten Army.