75th anniversary VJ Day 2020

 My father George Douglas Whitfield served in the RAF from July 1940 – April 1946.  Most of this, until his return to the UK in April 1946 was in Burma and India with the RAF supporting the Burma Campaign..

The Fourteenth Army, known to many as ‘The Forgotten Army’, numbered over one million men under arms, the largest Commonwealth army ever assembled. Air lines of communication were crucial: some 615,000 tons of supplies and 315,000 reinforcements were airlifted to and from the front line, frequently by parachuted air drops, and 210,000 casualties were evacuated. The Royal Air Force and the Indian Air Force, supported by carrier-borne Fleet Air Arm aircraft, provided constant offensive bombing sorties, together with fighter cover and essential photo-reconnaissance in support of the Army. Towards the end of the War, RAF Liberator aircraft carried out some of the longest operations ever flown to drop mines into the Pacific. At sea, the Royal Navy and the Royal Indian Navy provided the landing craft, the minesweeping operations and the combined operations necessary for the coastal offensive in the Arakan, as well as providing gunfire support from seaward. The Royal Marine Commando, as well as Royal Marines from the units of the Fleet, took part in the Arakan operations.

The Japanese surrendered on 15 August 1945, now known as VJ Day.

Chris Whitfield

(Ardleigh Parish Councillor)

Cllr Chris Whitfield whose father George Douglas Whitfield serviced in Burma & India from 1940-1945

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