AS the nation pays tribute to those who lost their lives fighting the Japanese during the Second World War, Lizzie Anderson meets a County Durham veteran who remembers the sacrifices allied troops made in the Pacific all too well.

TODAY (August 15) is Victory over Japan Day (VJ Day), an annual commemoration of the Japanese surrender that ended the Second World War.

The surrender, on August 15, 1945, came nine days after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It also brought to a close the longest and bloodiest operation in the entire conflict.

The Burma campaign lasted from 1942 to 1945 and saw Commonwealth soldiers from Britain, India and Canada, and some Chinese and US troops, battle against Japanese and Burmese forces in a climate characterised by stifling humidity and monsoons. Often referred to as the forgotten army, the soldiers were thousands of miles from the battles in Western Europe, but their tireless efforts and sacrifices were crucial to ending the war.

Burma Star veteran Les Butler, 92, was one of around 200 young men from Sedgefield Camp in County Durham to travel to Asia in 1944 with the West Yorkshire Regiment. Originally from Birmingham, he had spent three years in Sedgefield with the searchlight battery. During this time, he met his wife Marjorie and the couple married at St Edmund’s Church in Sedgefield on September 25, 1943. Newly married and still in his early twenties, he had no idea what awaited him in the Burmese jungle, despite receiving intensive training.

“When I found out I was going I didn’t like it,” says Mr Butler, who still lives in Sedgefield with his wife.

“Marjorie and I had just got married and she was expecting a child but it was the same for a lot of the lads that went over. We were all doing our duty.”

The campaign in Burma followed the surrender of Singapore, a British colony, to Japan in February 1942. The Japanese occupation was a crushing defeat for the Allies, with 140,000 troops and Singapore citizens killed, wounded or captured. The British-led 14th Army retreated northwards through Burma and thousands more soldiers were to die before the Allies eventually defeated the Japanese in 1945.

A vastly underestimated and fearless fighting force, the Japanese soldiers believed themselves invincible and fought until their last breath. For years, Mr Butler was unable to speak of the atrocities he witnessed. However, he has recently started writing his memoirs to ensure the sacrifices his comrades made in Burma are never forgotten.

“People assume it was just the Americans that fought the war against the Japanese and so it was, but not Burma,” he says. “The only Americans were the pilots who flew us back in the last phase of the war when Mandalay fell.

“I welcome all the press coverage for D-Day, VE Day and Dunkirk but you rarely see anything for VJ Day.

“The Burma campaign was the longest continuous operation involving British and Commonwealth forces during the Second World War but we remain the forgotten army.”

Among Mr Butler’s most painful memories is when a monsoon prevented the last in a convoy of Dakota planes from taking off. The plane was carrying members of a new unit who had just arrived in Burma.

“Those lads had to come to us by trucks but when they passed through a village we had been fighting in, the Japanese returned and killed them all – young lads about 19-years-old,” he said. “It was terrible. They were attacked with swords. I know this because one lad made it back. He had hidden underwater in a paddy field.”

The Burmese climate, high altitude and challenging terrain made life even harder for the soldiers, who were frequently soaked to the skin by monsoons.

Many men succumbed to diseases such as malaria, dysentery and jungle sores, including Mr Butler who developed gangrenous wounds on his legs.

Thankfully, his medical officer had a supply of penicillin and was able to treat him without resorting to amputation.

Others were not so lucky. When Mr Butler liberated prisoners of war in Rangoon, he found the Japanese had simply cut the legs off those suffering from the same complaint.

After the war, Mr Butler returned to Sedgefield, where his wife and the two-year-old daughter he had never met were waiting for him.

He set up his own business as a painter and decorator, before working exclusively for Manor House in Sedgefield for 32 years. Mr and Mrs Butler, who have two daughters, will celebrate their platinum wedding anniversary on September 25.

It is now almost 70 years since Japan surrendered but Mr Butler, who is the only surviving Burma veteran in Sedgefield, will never forget his experiences in Asia.

At 2pm today, he will lay a wreath on the war memorial on Sedgefield green to honour the thousands of young men who lost their lives fighting the Japanese. The tribute will form part of Sedgefield Village Veterans’ annual VJ Day service, which the public are welcome to attend.

An excerpt from Mr Butler’s war diary will also be read out.