Our local library was getting rid of some old books and I rumbled through the table and found this gem.

In 1942 the Japanese invaded the British colony of Burma. thousands of soldiers and civilians were forced to flee, hindered by the bombing of crucial ports. Those left behind traveled on foot through the northern jungles to the safety of Assam in India. Many did not make it. A variety of dangerous routes were attempted , with a small minority braving the most treacherous route, the Chalkan Pass; an insect and leech infested dense forest with sheer drops and torrential rivers.

Step forward Gyles Mackerell. A decorated veteran of the Royal Flying Corps, Mackerell was a tea plantation overseer in his mid-fifties with a taste for adventure.

The ruling British administration did not have the knowledge or resources to help but Mackrell, who had spent most of his life in Assam, had access to elephants and knew local tribes.

Mackrell’s diaries reveal that he received an SOS on June 4, 1942, from refugees who had managed to cross the Dapha by forming a human chain.

Mackrell wrote at the time: “I promised to collect some elephants and move off as quickly as I could as they told me the party behind would be starving, especially if they got held up by the rivers.”

In a series of epic marches, he reached the Dapha on 9 June to discover a group of 68 soldiers who had become trapped on an island when the waters rose rapidly. Footage shot by Mackrell shows his party’s effort to reach the soldiers, with elephants struggling up to their tusks in the tumultuous rapids and barely able to move.

But as the river subsided in the early hours of the morning the elephants were able to reach the island and evacuate the soldiers.

Mackrell and his colleagues then set up camp on the Dapha, helping a stream of refugees to cross the dangerous river to asylum in India. Despite supplies running low and suffering with fever, which forced Mackrell to return briefly to Assam, around 200 people were saved by September 1942.

Mackrell, who eventually died in Suffolk in 1959, received the George Medal for his efforts and was celebrated as “The Elephant Man” – much to his own discomfort.

A barrister turned freelance writing, author Andrew Martin has captured the drama, heroism and endeavor of the rescue mission in a rollicking “Boys Own Tale”! Still available through Book Depository I cannot recommend this read enough.