Biggleswade
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment
Reminiscences of the Second World War service of Ernest Oakley

Places > Biggleswade > Second World War > Beds and Herts Regiment

by Mrs J. Oakley

Ernest Arthur Oakley was born in Biggleswade and was living there at the time he joined the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment in December 1930.  He saw overseas service in India (1931-37 ), France (1939-40) , the Middle East (1942) and India/Burma (1942-45).

A group of Chindits
('Ernie' Oakley is shown second from the right)

He was a member of the Chindits.  The Chindits were an allied Special Force that operated deep behind enemy lines in North Burma in the war against Japan.  They lived for many months in the jungles of Japanese occupied Burma and relied on airdrops for supplies. Mrs Oakley remembers "As well as the air drops of food etc, they had a Burmese guide who helped them supplement their food by partly living off the jungle.  I'm not sure what they ate, apart from one time they had a makeshift pudding and put some berries in it, which turned out to be caster oil berries with dire results."

Ernest Oakley was flown out of the jungle in 1945 to a hospital in Poona.  He was then brought back to this Britain in a hospital ship to be taken to Cowglen Military Hospital near Glasgow.  After treatment for malaria, dysentery and other tropical diseases he was demobbed and retuned to Biggleswade.

Ernest Oakley was awarded the 1939-45 Star, the Africa Star, the Burma Star, the Defence Medal and the War Medal 1939-45.

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Page last updated: 23rd January 2014