A former soldier from Pontefract who was only a teenager was evacuated from Burma as the Japanese military invaded during the Second World War.
Charles Gerarld Delaney, better known as Gerry, was living in the Southeast Asian country in 1942 where his military father William was based.
He has told the Express his story as the world marks Victory in Japan (VJ) Day on August 15.
It marks the date in 1945 when Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces, ending the Second World War.
On March 8 following the fall of what was then known as the capital Rangoon, Mr Delaney, then 13, and his family were told to leave the country.
His father gave him a pistol and a rifle in case they were attacked on their way to safety in India.
He said: “We only had half an hour’s notice and we left in what we were wearing.
“All I can remember is the excitement, not the fear. It’s not easy to describe the feelings of a 14 year old.
“I think more about it now. I think about the wives – my mother had a 12 month old baby in the back of a three tonne truck.”
The travelling family consisted of Mr Delaney, his mother Sarah, and siblings Doreen, Peter, Kenneth and Lavinia.
The journey in a convoy of trucks was long and the conditions hard.
Their convoy travelled through Burma before the reaching an airstrip with a number of American B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft.
Mr Delaney said: “At this point we had no idea where we were going except we were being evacuated away from the advancing Japanese.
“We were quickly ushered into the fuselage of the aircraft. It wasn’t long to takeoff.
“At one point, I remember machine guns, which I believed to 5’’ Brownings, located in the side fuselage, open fire on an attacking Japanese aircraft.
“Sitting on the side of the fuselage and to the side of the guns I was showered with shell casings.”
The family had been moved to the safety of India. It was a number of weeks before they heard news from William.
Rumours had begun to spread that the battalion in Burma had been cut off.
Mr Delaney’s brother developed pneumonia by the time they arrived in what was then Bombay, which prolonged their stay in India.
He said: “Whilst on the one hand this was an unfortunate illness, the troopship we should have travelled in was torpedoed and sunk in the Indian Ocean.
“We had been incredibly lucky and fortunate to avoid capture by the Japanese and apart from pneumonia, the removal of tonsils in Maymo and severe sunburn, we experienced no serious illness during our stay.”
After returning to West Yorkshire, Mr Delaney knew he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps.
“All I was thinking about was becoming involved in soldiering,” he said.
He became a soldier in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.
Paul Cartwright, president of Pontefract Civic Society said: “Pontefract Civic Society has always been proud of the military links of Pontefract through its two former army depots or barracks, none more so than the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and the Yorks & Lancaster Regiment. Each November, we remember them.”
