Indian airborne reminiscences.

"RED light on " . '" . the Dakota vibrated as it lost speed for its run in and, with the sandbanks, receding beneath us, ,the dropping zone came in,to view through the open door. The ground chosen for the landing was a narrow tongue caught between the icy waters of the Kabul River and the Indus where they converged just above the fort at Attock. It was January and the night was cold, but a half-moon lit the scene as the men gradually assembled at the rendezvous. Within an hour of landing the Battalion was complete again, thus performing an operation quickly by night which, the' new Divisional Commander! stated, they had been trying unsuccessfully to perform at home for some time. This drop was Phase 1 of the final exercise for Operation "Eagle," which. was. obviously to be for a combined assault at the beginning of 1944 somewhere down the Arakan Coast. Before Phase 2 could be started all aircraft were withdrawn, leaving the 50th Indian Parachute Brigade virtually high an.d dry. It was a terrible anticlimax and life appeared: to hold nothing more than another hot weather training period in Campbellpur. Shortly afterwards we heard we were to go on advanced jungle training to ' kohima.Where was Kohima? After scrutinizing our atlases it appeared to be a small Naga town, miles from the Japanese. The Brigade, less the 154th Gurkha Battalion. which was remaining to complete its air training, left Campbellpur,N. Punjab, on February 24, by rail for Calcutta, which was reached four days later. As notice of departure had been rather sudden, the second dose of cholera vaccine had to' be given during train ltalts. After leaving Calcutta on the 28th the Field Service Area ' was entered, this change being immediately no'ticeable by. the fact that all the Indian, Civilian train staff were in khaki, and one drew" batta."2 After a, journey of twelve hours ,the riverhead at Sirajganj Ghat was reached. From this point there was an. overnight journey in a river paddle steamer to Tistamukh, where, for some unknown reason, it was necessary to change into another steamer. Two days were spent in this one, basking in the sun, moving slowly up the broad Brahmaputra. Riverhead was reached at Pandi, where we disembarked at the same time as an American-trained Chinese battaliol1 destined for the Ledo :Road. The metre gauge Assam Railway was in the throes of reorganization, as it had just been taken. over by the Americans, so it took nearly a day to reach Dimapur, the railhead, where the night was spent int,he transit camp. Next day, packed like sardines in three-tonners, the remaining 40 miles to Kohima were covered by free