A NEW book pays tribute to a Woodfalls soldier and the “Forgotten Army” of the Burma campaign.

The Road to Rangoon: A Journey in Father’s Footsteps, by Sonia and Anthony Green has been published on Victory over Japan (VJ) Day, which marks the end of the Burma campaign of the Second World War.

The book tells the story of the war service of David Green from Woodfalls and the journey taken in his footsteps by his son Anthony.

Anthony, whose father David served in the Royal Artillery for six years and in the Golden Arrow (7th Indian Division) in India and Burma, worked out an itinerary in order to experience and better understand the countries and the environments his father would have encountered.

His father had returned to Woodfalls unannounced in 1946, weighing just six stone, and suffered from malaria for the rest of his life, dying from a heart attack at the age of 68. He did not see Anthony until he was three-years-old.

Anthony and his wife Sonia travelled to Kohima in Nagaland, India and to many of the locations in Burma where so many fought and lost their lives.

Sonia said: “We wanted to give some recognition to the resilience and determination of the regular Burma Campaign soldier, like Anthony’s father, the ordinary man who was thrown into this completely alien environment and simply had to cope.”

“The book is a combination of our experiences and the contrasting story of David’s regiment (the 139th (Jungle) Field Regiment), in often atrocious conditions, battling illness as well as the terrifying Japanese forces. Soldiers who fought in the Burma Campaign are often referred to as The Forgotten Army, having arrived home to little or no recognition, and rarely spoke of their experiences,” she adds.

The book has been published today on VJ Day, which marks the end of the Burma Campaign of the Second World War.

Anthony says he feels “very proud and sad at the same time” about publishing the book on VJ Day, adding: “My father was lucky enough to return, albeit unannounced, on the 44 bus to Woodfalls, but very few did. Like so many he never spoke of it and perhaps that’s why people know so little of what they went through.”

The Road to Rangoon: A Journey in Father’s Footsteps is available from millersford.co.uk