260473 Pte. Fred "Ike" Abbott British Army 1st Btn. Cameron Highlanders from:Sheffield My father, Fred Abbott, joined the 1st Battalion, Queens Own Cameron Highlanders as a regular soldier around 1937 and due to family circumstances was given a discharge. He was a forge master and when war broke out was in a reserved occupation but decided to honour his conscription responsibilities and joined the West Yorkshire Regiment.
He went with the BEF to France and was evacuated from Dunkirk. He was sent to Beverly where ironically a decimated 1st Battalion, Queens Own Cameron Highlanders were being reformed and he was reassigned to his old regiment.
In 1942 the Regiment embarked for India. In March 1944 after months of training, the regiment was sent to Kohima. I remember him telling me about the issue of plimsoles so that they could quietly take Hill 5020 near the Naga Village to help in the relief of Kohima.
Most of the stories I remember were told when I was a child and I suppose still fresh in his mind. Later he spoke little of slaughter.
He went on to Mandalay, the Irrawaddy crossing and other theatres. My father was the regimental gymnastics champion and told me that his name was put up on the drill hall wall in Inverness, I don't know if it is still there. He also had a medal for being the Battalions best shot and because of this was given the duty of body guarding Uncle Bill when he visited the front.
A story he told me, which I have also read about, is in-between fighting on Hill 5020, while on guard duty, he observed a Japanese soldier come out of the undergrowth, drop his pants to defecate. I suppose with the horrors of seeing his friends mercilessly butchered and tortured, he couldn't resist beading up on the enemy's buttocks and squeezing the trigger. As mentioned this is documented but with anonymity of the shooter. Throughout his life, and he lived until 83, he could never find it in his heart to forgive the Japanese for their atrocities.
After he returned from Burma, he met my mother and married. He had a full life but suffered many illnesses directly related to the environmental hardships and trauma of this period in his life. He died in South Africa in July 2001.
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