Launching The Jungle War
How Lieutenant Jim Chance took on the Japanese and... well, you'll need to read the book to find out!
It was a very great pleasure helping in the launch of Hannah Watson’s brilliant new book for young readers - The Jungle War - at the National Army Museum last weekend. Please, if you haven’t yet bought this via Amazon, please do so, in large quantities! Although its designed for younger readers, I know of lots of adults who have read and loved it too. The beneficiaries are the Gurkha Museum, the Kohima Educational Trust and the Gurkha Welfare Trust. It tells the fictional story, based on real events, of a young British officer in the Burma Campaign, Lt Jim Chance. As war comes to the Far East he joins the Indian Army, is commissioned from Dehra Dun into the Gurkhas and then finds himself fighting through the withdrawal from Burma in 1942 and then Wingate’s first Chindit expedition.
An excerpt from the book will give you an idea of just how brilliantly Hannah tells this story. This is at Kawkereik, where the Japanese first crossed into Burma from Thailand in late January 1942:
Bullets had been spattering above them all day from across the muddy waters. Jim clutched his Lee Enfield .303 rifle in clammy hands. It wasn’t as quick as an automatic… but then again, they didn’t have many automatic weapons, only a handful of short-range Tommy guns and a few antiquated Lewis guns that he’d never even seen, held somewhere else in the battalion. The Lee Enfield had served him well on the Dehra Dun rifle range, he reminded himself. Besides, right now, it was all he had.
Jim looked towards the dark river, willing his eyes to see more, to do more, to help him more.
Then, without warning, the enemy played his first hand.
There was a whoosh – and the night sky over Kawkareik blazed with a terrible, artificial light. All around, the narrow trenches lit up as a Japanese flare arced high above them.
Bathed in a stark, pale blue light, Jim’s men were for a few seconds thrown into sharp relief. Jim could see the whites of their eyes. Shut them! he wanted to shout, just as he’d been trained, or the men would lose their night vision.
Then all hell broke loose.
The flare disappeared as soon as it had begun. But in its dying light, Jim had just enough time to see a wave of Japanese soldiers running at him, swords and bayonets glinting in the dark. A strange, high-pitched scream washed towards him from the advancing shapes. Then, the light was gone, and Jim saw nothing – could only hear, and imagine – the devastation by its sounds.
There was the intense rat-tat-tat of guns far superior to his own getting louder as the soldiers lunged forwards.
Then, the whip of bullets overhead, thudding into the ground and entering flesh, and the scramble of a stretcher-bearer diving his way towards one of Jim’s men – which one? – before the casualty bled out. Suddenly, shapes in the dark were running at him. He could smell the metallic tang of blood.
Jim Chance looked into the jaws of death, and opened fire.
A bullet ripped out of Jim’s rifle. The kick from its recoil smashed into his shoulder. He quickly moved the bolt backwards and then forwards, reloading in a single practised movement.
There were now more shapes around him than Jim could count. Something darted past him – had he fired too late? The sky flared again, and then all Jim saw were lights dancing in his retinas. And through them, the flash of a bayonet, thrusting its way into his chest.
Jim’s vision turned red. Hot blood blossomed over his uniform. A dark shape crumpled over him, and he fell backwards through the air. The base of his head thumped against the ground at the bottom of his trench. For a moment, Jim could see a final flare fizzle out against the sky, making him swoon. The trench felt like a grave. He struggled for breath. Was he was being buried alive?
Silence. Then Jim’s eyes sagged shut.
Want to read more? Of course you do! Please get the message out there. Not only will you love the story, but you’ll be helping three very good causes at the same time. And, of course, if we can cover our costs on this, we’ll be able to ask Hannah to write the sequel…
I hope Jim’s okay.