After 60 years, a final farewell to my friends in arms

Aged just 18, Jack Hough was drafted into the Army’s Second Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment on June 17 1943, but he was injured during a battle with the Japanese.

The 87-year-old, who lives in Garforth, was in hospital for three months after the bullet pierced his right buttock but he later found out the same bullet had gone on to kill his comrade Willis Wray.

After decades without knowing where Willis was buried and having never met any family of the soldier from Pontefract, Jack is now ready to pay his respects to his friend.

The grandfather of four said: “I’ll be paying my final respects to him as he served with me, it will be emotional especially as it could have been me as well, definitely.

“He was a lot older than me, he would probably be 30 and I was one of the youngest guys over there.

“We were battle hardened and it was a matter of getting on with the job, our objective was to conclude the fighting – we were looking forward to getting home.”

Lance Corporal Jack Hough had been deployed to the Indo-Burmese jungle to fight the Japanese in the midst of the Second World War, before his regiment joined colonial forces in the battles of Imphal and Kohima, in Burma.

Remembering the incident, when he was defending a roadblock, Jack said: “The Japanese had been battling around Garrison Hill at Kohima and were now coming down the road towards us.

“My friend Willis Wray was shot dead, he was right next to me, and I got hit at the same time.

“I found out later that the same bullet that killed him went into me – I was very lucky.”

By the time Jack rejoined his comrades, the Allies had reoccupied most of Burma and the Japanese army had suffered 85,000 casualties.

Before long Jack learned about the atom bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and the ensuing Japanese surrender, 67 years ago this month.

He added: “At the time we all said three cheers that the war was finally over and our duty had been completed – if those bombs hadn’t been dropped we would never have seen the end of war.”

After the war’s conclusion Jack celebrated his 21st birthday in Singapore, with a homemade cake and ham sandwich which his mother had posted to him in a tin.

But during his time there he saw groups of allied prisoners of war from the notorious Changi Jail, which had been run by the Japanese during their wartime occupation of Singapore.

He said: “They were like skeletons. I didn’t get a chance to speak to them. I could see that they were not interested in talking, they just wanted to get home.”

After leaving the army in 1946, Jack went on to work for his father and later sold the family dairy business, before getting married and having children and getting a job in insurance.

He went back four years ago to visit some of the old battlefields he remembers so vividly but couldn’t locate the grave of his fallen friend.

Since then Jack has found out that Willis is buried in the Taukkyan War Cemetery, in Burma.

After he saw a newspaper advertisement eight years ago about the Big Lottery Fund’s Heroes Return programme, Jack’s desire to pay his final respects to his fallen friend resurfaced after years of keeping the memories to himself.

He said: “I will talk if people approach me but I’m not one to rabbit in on about it.”

Jack is now planning a visit to Burma with his daughter Janet and the help of a heroes return grant, which pays for Second World War veterans make commemorative trips, later this year.

Since 2004, more than over 50,000 was veterans, their widows, spouses and carers have made commemorative trips – supported by grants of more than £24m.