Road to Mandalay gives up its secrets

INDIAN ARCHAEOLOGISTS have discovered a series of mass graves on the Burmese border that may contain the remains of scores of British and American servicemen.

Experts say the graves of the servicemen, killed in the Second World War, demonstrate for the first time the extent to which the Allies co- operated with the Chinese to repulse Japan's advance into southern Asia. The graves also reveal the heavy casualties they suffered.

The graves under investigation are grouped around the start of the "Stilwell Road". This 300-mile highway was hacked through the mountains and jungles of north-east India and Burma on the orders of the American General Jospeh "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell to get supplies to the troops of Chiang Kai-shek, the nationalist Chinese warlord fighting the Japanese from bases in southern China.

With Indian labourers and - as the graves have revealed - thousands of Chinese troops, British and American engineers completed the road in late 1944.

Hundreds of workers died from enemy action, malaria and malnutrition. Their bodies were often buried in hasty, unmarked graves. The Chinese soldiers who formed screens around the construction workers, fending off increasingly frantic Japanese attacks, were buried where they fell. Even keeping the road open was difficult, and led to its being nicknamed the "five men a mile trail."

Tage Tada, deputy director of the government research department of the state of Arunachal Pradesh, started exploring the area last year. His team has found and excavated 11 graves in recent weeks. One is believed to be that of a Chinese commander, the others are of Chinese soldiers and Indian labourers. The remains are being identified by cap badges and belt buckles, which have survived burial in the rich jungle earth.

Mr Tada believes that it is only a matter of time before his team finds the remains of British and American troops, including some from the "Chindit" force. Their leader, Major-General Orde Wingate, led them on guerrilla-style campaigns. It is likely that British troops operating with Wingate behind enemy lines brought their dead to the area where the road was being built. Possibly they wanted them to be buried on soil that was part of the British Empire rather than leaving them in the jungle, Mr Tada said.

After the war, the road fell into disuse.

Mr Tada said that although the Indian government had provided some funds for the team more money was deperately needed. "This is an important bit of history and it would be nice if people remembered it properly. I am hoping that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission will get involved or maybe the Chinese," he said.

At present, the only memorial is a small sign four miles west of the small coalmining town of Ledo, which commemorates the start of "The Road to Mandalay". The road is now impassable.

The Ministry of Defence said last night it would look into the possibility that the graves of British servicemen might be among those found by Mr Tada.

However, organisations representing British veterans who fought in Burma said they believed they had accounted for all the casualties.