Film-maker Don Clark tells Richard McComb about the voices emerging decades after the end of the ‘forgotten war’ in Burma.

Sixty-five years have passed but some of the men still carry parasites picked up in the jungle while others suffer recurring attacks of malaria.

During the three-and-a-half year war in Burma, following Japan’s invasion in January 1942, British troops slogged their guts out amid monsoon conditions, virulent disease and harsh terrain.

If they overcame these hazards, they had to contend with the unremitting will of the Japanese combat troops, who swore to fight to the death.

Despite the dreadful trials, traumas and conditions they endured, the eventual Japanese surrender saw British veterans become part of a forgotten army who had fought in a forgotten war.

Their endeavours, including the extraordinary actions of the Chindits Special Force, went unremarked. The brave men returned to civvies’ street, stoically carried on with life, telling no one, neither wives nor children, about the appalling sights they had witnessed.

Now a West Midlands film-maker is helping to shed new light on what remains for many an unknown war.

Don Clark has made a documentary, For Your Tomorrow, based on first-person testimonies of the men who waged war in a tropical hell.

Clark, an avid oral historian and founder of Wolverhampton-based Word of Mouth Films, hopes his film will raise awareness of the conflict and enable today’s generation to get an insight into the sacrifices made by their grandparents’ generation.

Clark, who set up Word of Mouth following a career in financial services, interviewed 24 men connected with the Burma Star Association in Wolverhampton. He started filming the accounts of these ageing former combatants in 2005; nine veterans have died since the project began.

Clark said: “We have a window of opportunity to talk to these people before it closes. It was an honour to talk to these men, many of whom have now gone.”

Wolverhampton Wanderers life president Sir Jack Hayward, who flew glider missions over Burma, recalls in the film how he lost half of his squadron in the perilous monsoon conditions.