British soldiers pictured during mopping-up operations at Pyawbwe during the advance on Rangoon
As the guns fell silent over Europe on VE Day in May 1945, the momentous news meant virtually nothing to Allied soldiers who were fighting on the far side of the world. Campaigning in hot, humid conditions against an enemy who had no concept of surrender, the British Fourteenth Army in Burma could only wish to put down their weapons. The Imperial Japanese Army would fight to the death and in the end it would take the use of nuclear weapons on home soil to force their final capitulation.
“SINCE 1941 BURMA HAD BEEN A HELLISH CHARNEL HOUSE IN WHICH THE ALLIES FOUGHT”