The Forgotten 14th Army Poem by David Smart

They loved their Scottish homelands
Their scented English glades
They loved their great Welsh mountains
And the Irish summer rains
But now they sleep in Burma
Where the river Chindwin flows
And a small white cross above them
Their names; their comrades wrote.

They dreamed of home and loved ones
Where the lights did gleam like pearls
They loved to spend their evenings
With their young and pretty girls.
Their youth was one brief glory
Which sped too quickly by
They left their happy homelands
And crossed the seas to die.

So salute the flag of freedom
Salute your glorious sons,
They came from every walk of life
To man and fire the guns
And through the skies across the sea
Through many a Foreign land,
To meet the tyrant enemy
And smash his heathen land.

Now that the war is over
And peace once more returned
We think of those we left behind
When we watch the home fires burn.
We will think of those gallant lads
'Neath Burma's sweating soil
Who made the supreme sacrifice
The Japanese to foil.

From Dinapui to Kohima
Through Imphal's bloody plains
The battle raged for many months
In heat and monsoon rains.
Through Burma's steaming jungle
Along the Tiddum Road
And up the Chocolate Staircase
Their gallant way they strode.

The roads across the frontier
Lead on to Mandalay
And their feet lead on to Tokyo
They know no other way.
When the Rising Sun has set
And the freedom flag will fly
Salute the Fourteenth Army
They weren't afraid to die.

Sleep on you unsung heroes
You died, but not in vain
You will always be remembered
And Fourteenth is your name.