Who’s Afear’d tells the inspiring story of the 2nd Dorsets at Kohima. Written by Christopher Jary and William Franklin, it describes the Dorsets’ gallant part in one of the bloodiest battles fought by the British Army in the Second World War. This book completes Christopher Jary’s series of five books about the Dorsetshire Regiment’s four battalions who fought in the Second World War.
The 2nd Dorsets’ action, wresting the Garrison Hill Spur from the Japanese, turned the course of the Battle of Kohima, which was itself the turning point of General Slim’s British and Indian Army’s campaign in Assam and Burma. Before this battle the Japanese Army had been on the advance; after Kohima, they were on the retreat all the way to Rangoon.
Told, often in the words of twenty-seven men of all ranks who were there and lived it, this book focuses on the fighting soldiers’ experience and tells how the Dorsets’ final victory was clinched by a single Grant tank commanded by Sergeant Gerry Waterhouse from Leeds. Other strong characters emerge. The highly professional Sergeant Yorky Seale, a miner’s son from Heckmondwike, who kept his young soldiers alive by setting an unrelenting example of supreme professionalism. Padre Gus Claxton and Medical Officer Joe Chamberlin, who together laboured tirelessly and selflessly to tend the wounded and comfort the wounded and bereaved. Platoon commander Jock Murrills, who in his first action saw three quarters of his Platoon killed and wounded. Nineteen-year-old Private Tom Cattle from Corfe Castle, who had to learn in battle how to be a fighting soldier and miraculously survived until severely wounded after Kohima.
By describing the horrors they encountered fighting a merciless enemy who defended every last position to the death, Who’s Afear’d explains why so few veterans ever spoke of their experience. It is full of photographs together with colour paintings, pen and ink sketches and cartoons drawn by Captain Jock Murrills, an artist who led a platoon of Dorsets throughout the campaign.
Dr Robert Lyman, author of Kohima 1944, Slim: Master of War, War of Empires 1941-45 and The Reconquest of Burma 1944-45 – has described Who’s Afear’d as:
A marvellous achievement, moving and beautifully written. It’s an important addition to the literature of the campaign and a brilliant testament to a quite remarkable fighting battalion. The high point of regimental history.