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Shepperson Memorial

very tough training in harsh conditions of cold and damp, but also the excellence of
the instruction.
He was successful and his commission as a temporary Second Lieutenant in
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the Northamptonshire Regiment was gazetted on 20 April 1943. He duly joined the
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6 Battalion of the regiment in Sheringham, Norfolk where they were nominally in a
coastal defence role, but mostly in training for overseas service. After several months
there, Sam and a group of mainly university graduates were sent on embarkation leave
before travelling by train up to Greenock, Scotland where they boarded ship. Only
once they were at sea, were the young officers told that they were sailing for Cape
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Town, en-route for East Africa and service with the KAR.
Trying to learn Swahili from a grammar book during the journey, the
contingent disembarked at Cape Town before travelling by rail to Port Elizabeth, then
joining another vessel for the journey north to Mombasa, Kenya. Sam was then sent
inland via the Uganda Railway to Nairobi where he was posted to a Kenyan battalion
of the KAR. However, this did not last long as he volunteered for a vacancy in a
Nyasa battalion where his Swahili was of little use, and he had to start learning
Chinyanja (now known as Chichewa). The battalion had the duty of guarding Italian
prisoners of war, but Sam’s priority was language instruction and getting to know his
soldiers.
By the end of 1941, the Italians had been driven from East Africa and the
British forces turned to occupation duties. Elsewhere, the Japanese entry into the war
and subsequent conquest of Burma in 1942 placed India under direct threat of
th
invasion. Major reinforcements were needed and in February 1943, the 11 (East
African (EA) Division, consisting largely of KAR units from East and Central Africa,
was mobilised for service in India and Burma. But it needed time to organise and train
before being committed to battle; in June 1943, the new division moved in stages by
rail from Nairobi to Mombasa before sailing by troopship to Ceylon (modern Sri
Lanka). There, it embarked on an intensive training regime where the new skills and
acclimatisation required for jungle warfare could be obtained. This included Sam and
many others who were sent to a training battalion for instruction. Once this initial
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phase was complete, Sam was then posted to D Company of 13 (NY) KAR as a rifle
platoon commander. There, he and his askari, participated in the battalion’s own
programme of preparation that culminated in a divisional test exercise in May 1944.
In the meantime, the Japanese had invaded India in March 1944, but had
been decisively defeated in the battles of Imphal and Kohima by June; now the High
Command intended to drive them out of Burma. This difficult task required fresh
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troops; 11 (EA) Division was selected to spearhead the initial push. It left Ceylon in
June, moving by sea to Chittagong, East Bengal (now Bangladesh) before moving by
steamer up the Brahmaputra River and thence to Imphal. From there, it would have
the arduous task of marching into the jungle and clearing the Kabaw Valley before
turning east and securing crossings across the mighty Chindwin River. This was a
formidable task as the Kabaw Valley was known locally as the ‘Valley of Death’.
Bounded by high ridges and covered in thick teak forests, it was notorious for the
tormenting clouds of malarial mosquitoes and hordes of ticks that transmitted scrub
typhus. Movement everywhere was slow and laborious with very limited visibility.
Indeed, the Japanese thought it impassable to large forces as there was only a dirt

3 London Gazette, Issue 35984, 20 April 1943, p.1811.
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35984/supplement/1811/data.pdf
4 Imperial War Museum, Holding 19666, Interview with Professor George Shepperson, Reel 1
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80018705
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