Pte. Nathan Todd
British Army Royal Artillery
from:London
Nathan Todd was my uncle. He joined up in 1940. He was, initially, in the Royal Artillery until October 1943 when he was attached to the 4th Battalion, Border Regiment. He served in the Chindits behind the Japanese lines.
He told me that at one stage he and a fellow soldier contracted malaria and dysentery and were very ill. Because they were behind the Japanese lines they could not be taken along with their group. The commanding officer told them that they would taken by the Naga tribesmen on mules to try to get back to the British base. He handed my uncle and his colleague a revolver each with the instruction, "Five bullets for the enemy and one for yourself". With that they were placed on the mules, I think he said that they were sort of slung over them, and taken by the Naga tribesman to begin their journey back to base. It must have been a long journey because he was posted missing in action.
He told me very little of his experiences despite my questions. He told me that one morning, before he was taken ill, he woke up in his sleeping bag to find that a python had wrapped itself around him. He could just move his hand and managed to shoot it with his revolver. He was discharged in 1946. My uncle died 40 years later - the irony was that he died following an intense bout of malaria which he suffered with all his life after his military service.
