last round and the last man’. At the time, the British higher commanders had got wind of the Japanese advance on Kohima, but had calculated that not more than a battalion would be involved because of the difficulty of the terrain and the lack of supplies. Later it was realised that the Japanese were advancing in much greater strength, and the order was cancelled, but communications in the jungle were always difficult at the best of times, and the order never reached ‘A’ Company. Jock had spent the intervening time in building up ammunition and supplies, and when the Japanese eventually made contact he and his soldiers held them off for three days. And these soldiers of ‘A’ Company were not veterans, but inexperienced youngsters with less than three years service. But they trusted their Captain Sahib. On the fourth day, information
came in from a patrol that a much larger force of Japanese had arrived and was bivouacking not far away. Jock realised that the game was up, and rightly believing that his company, which by then had suffered significant casualties, was about to be overrun, took his decision. He sent for his three platoon commanders, men of wide experi- ence and long service who had come up through the ranks of the Assam Rifles, all older than Jock.He thanked them, and through them, all his sol- diers. He then ordered them to break out with their surviving men and make for Battalion HQ at Jessami. They remembered what he said. ‘I,
however, shall stay. Since my orders were to fight to the last man, I will be the last man.And I could not leave the wounded.’ To a man, his platoon commanders said they too would stay. Jock refused. He ordered them to go, and lead their men out to safety. Later, one of them, tears in his eyes, described how he had last seen Jock, on the fire step of his bunker, stacking Tommy gun magazines on the para- pet, piling quantities of hand grenades around him. In the first light of the next morning, the Japanese attacked again. Naga villagers heard a short but intense burst of fire.Then silence. The one thing the Japanese
respect above all others is courage. They gave Jock a soldier’s burial. At Kohima, the Japanese fought for three months. During that time, not a grain of rice or a round of ammunition reached them from their base in Burma. And so they withdrew, diseased and starving, back the way they had come. These days, the word ‘hero’ has
lost any meaning it once conveyed; but JockYoung, truly,was a hero. Back then, nearly seventy years ago, the only decoration that could be awar- ded posthumously was the Victoria Cross,but there had to be witnesses to support a recommendation. In Jock’s case, there were none.So he got noth- ing. But pipers will rise to the occas- ion in honour of ‘one of our own’ who gave his life, alone, in the jungle, eight thousand miles from home. The Argyll and Sutherland High-
landers have gained sufficient glory on their own account, enough and to