Tank Tracks to Rangoon by Bryan Perrett Page A

neither C Squadron nor 63 Brigade. Lt Palmer’s troop was therefore given the difficult task of getting through to them.
I was told to establish contact with them and give verbal orders for them to withdraw immediately. We knew nothing whatsoever of the enemy’s movements. I decided to make a wide sweep out to the south-east and followed little-used tracks, few of which were marked. The country was close and I moved with considerable caution.
    More by luck than judgement, as I had soon got rather lost, and also due to a bit of incorrect map reading, I hit the road running south-east from Monywa and met some Indian refugees who told me that there were tanks further up the road. I concluded these belonged to C Squadron and pushed on.
    I soon met Pat Howard-Dobson’s troop, who directed me to Sqn HQ. John Congreve was very pleased to see us as he was under the impression they were completely cut off. I was taken to the Brigade Commander. I briefed him on my orders and explained that I had worked my way round without seeing any Japanese. He was very worried about getting his wounded away, and I called up the regiment and they organized a bullock-cart convoy which was brought down to us under escort by Basil Young.
    At 1700 the Brigade started to pull out. C Squadron, who only had a few tanks, left Shorty White to stay with me. Our two troops then carried out a series of leap-frogs to cover the withdrawal and we had only slight trouble from some mortaring and a few rounds of anti-tank fire.
    We rejoined the squadron at Yeu and soon snipers started up from the river area. It looked as if the enemy were following up quickly. We moved up the Yeu road about ten miles where we leaguered. During the night, Ray Nickel, whose troop had been missing, came in. He had been wounded and his troop sergeantkilled. Basil Young, who had covered our withdrawal, had had a bad time and had destroyed one of his tanks which had broken down.
    7th Hussars were now operating in a particularly nasty neck of the woods, which swarmed with dacoits. During the day, three members of an A Squadron tank crew were stabbed to death by villagers who were pretending to barter. Unfortunately for them, the vehicle commander shot his way out with his pistol, and soon returned with the entire squadron and a company of West Yorkshires. The infantry attack flushed the dacoits out of their village and under the tanks’ guns; too late it was realized that the running mob contained women and children, and innocent people died before the firing could be stopped. This unhappy incident upset 7th Hussars more than anything else during the long retreat.
    Next day, B Squadron, patrolling the Monywa-Yeu road, had a further brush with dacoits.
    ‘The roads were a horrible sight,’ recalls Palmer. ‘They were crowded with civilian refugees, many of whom had been killed by dacoits. The Burmese had been quick to take their revenge on Indian shopkeepers and moneylenders. On one occasion I was told of a dacoit gang and followed them. We found them fleeing. They numbered about 50/60 and we had a real holiday, killing and wounding a very large proportion of them. We also put in a certain amount of work destroying Burma Division’s MT which had been abandoned. We even found a 3.7-inch AA gun apparently in working order, and put this out of action.’
    Meanwhile, 2 RTR, whose squadrons had been dispersed on various tasks over a fifty-mile triangle, had concentrated and moved into a lay-back position at Budalin on 2nd May. A Squadron was sent down to Alon to cover the river, and a little later C Squadron arrived to protect their left flank. Some Japanese barges were engaged on the river, but at this stage of the war the Stuarts’ 37-mm gun did not fire HE ammunition, and the small, neat hole made by the AP shot did not do a great deal of damage.
    By now, the troops trapped in Monywa had made their way out, and 2 RTR’s role was to cover their withdrawal to the north and act as