Another Man’s War: The Story of a Burma Boy in Britain’s Forgotten Army

368 Pages·2014·9.82 MB·English

by  Barnaby Phillips

‘Two young West African soldiers shipped halfway across the world in 1943 to
fight for the British in Burma find themselves abandoned – wounded, starving
and sick – in the unmapped jungle of the Arakan. Their astonishing adventures
are reconstructed here in gripping detail… A real-life thriller with sobering
implications for the British reader – but I found it impossible to put down.’
Hilary Spurling
author of Burying the Bones
‘Barnaby Phillips has uncovered a tale which touches the world in every sense.
The story is a deceptively simple one, of a lanky boy who runs away from his
dusty Nigerian village to join the British Army and is left for dead thousands of
miles from home in the Burmese jungle. The miraculous sheltering and survival
of Isaac Fadoyebo not only make an irresistible human drama. They also
illustrate the terrifying global swirl of the conflict. Told with warmth and colour,
this account of a forgotten soldier in a forgotten army in a forgotten war will not
itself be easily forgotten.’
Ferdinand Mount
author of The New Few

A Oneworld Book
This eBook edition published by Oneworld Publications, 2014
First published in North America, Great Britain & Australia by Oneworld
Publications, 2014
Copyright © Barnaby Phillips 2014
The moral right of Barnaby Phillips to be identified as the Author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988
All rights reserved
Copyright under Berne Convention
A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78074-522-0
Ebook ISBN 978-1-78074-523-7
Note on the Text
In 1989, Burma’s military government changed the name of the country to
Myanmar, and at the same time the capital Rangoon became Yangon. I have
used the original names throughout this book, for the sake of consistency, as the
greater part of it concerns the years around the Second World War. No offence is
intended.
Typesetting and eBook design by Tetragon, London
Map artwork copyright by Critiqua
Oneworld Publications
10 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3SR, England
C O N T E N T S
Prologue
PART I. SACRIFICE
1. One big man
2. Let this bayonet drink my blood
3. A calabash in the wind
4. The generals are met
5. Black men held the gate
6. Full of loneliness
7. Juju on the River Kaladan
8. Cover me, Lord
9. Loyalty and patience
10. Home again
11. Great awakening
12. The cries turn to laughter
PART II. DEBT
13. Into a ravine
14. Here you left us
15. Natives of Arakan
16. Impregnable
17. For our children to be free
Epilogue
Appendix: Key dates
Acknowledgements
Image section
Notes
To my parents