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Released for VJ Day 75, this podcast explores pivotal moments in the Burma campaign during World War Two, which saw a million men from across the Commonwealth unite against the Japanese.

Commanded by General William “Bill” Slim, the Fourteenth Army is sometimes referred to as the “Forgotten Army” because its operations in the Burma Campaign were overlooked by the contemporary press.

In this podcast, Griff Rhys Jones, whose father served in Burma, joins General Sir Mike Jackson, General the Lord Richards, the late Dame Vera Lynn’s daughter Virginia Lewis Jones and a host of Burma veterans including Peter Heppell, Charles Mercer, John Giddings MBE, John Hutchin, Herbert Pritchard and Joseph Hammond, who recall what it was like to fight the Japanese in the heat of the jungle over 75 years ago.

Indian soldiers mingle with troops of the 81st West African Division after the latter had arrived in India for jungle training. The first African colonial troops to fight outside Africa, the 81st Division went on to Burma in December 1943. (IWM IND 2864).

ABOUT VOICES

From the oilfields of the Middle East to the jungles of Burma, our Voices podcast takes you to the frontline of key moments in history – with first-hand accounts from those that were there. Hosted by Harry Bucknall.

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