Donald Joseph

Despite the atrocities around us there were some very human moments out in Burma.

The jungle was teaming with animal life and almost every night the monkeys used to scare us. We would be fast asleep in our tents and then we’d wake up with a start to hear them either shrieking or chattering - they sounded just like the Japs talking in low voices. You can imagine – we were instantly on ‘high alert’.

One particular night I nipped into the jungle nearby our tent to answer the call of nature. I had just crouched down, shorts around my ankles when I felt something dig in to the top of my thigh. It was a reflex action. I screamed running out of the undergrowth nearly tripping over my shorts.

Instantly heads to appeared around the tent flaps and my pal Ron Jones ran over and discovered the problem – it was a leach!

After regaining my decency, Ron lit a cigarette to burn the bugger off. If you pulled them out they would leave their fangs behind and that would fester.