ANNE FRANK

BURMA 1945 Number 102

NUMBER 102
Editor-in-Chief: Winston G. Ramsey
Editor: Karel Margry
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CONTENTS
ANNE FRANK 2
BURMA 1945: THE ROAD TO RANGOON 30
WRECK DISCOVERY
The Discovery of KN563 46
PERSONALITY
Lieutenant Henry Fonda, USN 50
Front Cover: The house where Anne
Frank (inset) wrote her diary while in hid-
ing and from where she was taken in
1944 to her death at Belsen concentra-
tion camp. (Karel Margry and AFF/AFS)
Centre Pages: The remains of an
armoured carrier, Indian pattern on a
Canadian Ford Quad chassis, lying near
the railway station at Yamethin, Burma.
(Elliott Smock)
Back Cover: The scene at Taukkyan War
Cemetery on March 5, 1997 where the
crew of Dakota KN563 were laid to rest.
(Department of Veterans Affairs,
Canada)
Acknowledgements: The Editor would like
to thank Yt Stoker of the Anne Frank Sticht-
ing for her help with the Anne Frank story.
Photo Credits: AFF/AFS — Anne Frank
Fund, Basle/Anne Frank Stichting, Amster-
dam. BFI — British Film Institute. IWM —
Imperial War Museum, London. MAS — Nearly every year, usually in May, the Frank family went to the photographer to have
Maria Austria Stichting, Amsterdam. RIOD a sheet of mini photo portraits taken. This series of shots from Anne’s sheets from
— Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumen- the years 1935 to 1941 show her gradual change from a little child to a young
tatie, Amsterdam. teenager. (AFF/AFS)

2
 Of all the victims of the Nazi genocide on

ANNE FRANK
the Jews, Anne Frank is probably the most
famous. Her diary, written in hiding between
1942-44 and published posthumously in 1947,
is without a doubt the best-known literary
work to survive the holocaust, and reputedly
the most widely read non-fiction book after
the Bible. Her life story and the extraordi-
nary quality and tone of her writings have
made her a symbol, a veritable icon, both of
innocent youth and of the survival of human-
ity under totalitarian oppression. The house
hiding has become a place of pilgrimage vis-
ited by hundreds of thousands each year. By David Barnouw
in Amsterdam where she, together with her
family and others, spent over two years in

Anne Frank. There are few other names

in modern history or literature which
require so little introduction as that of
this young Jewish girl from the Nether-
lands. Though she only lived to the age
of 15 and left us only one literary work,
she is known by millions all over the
world because of her diaries, published
posthumously after the war. The vivid
and dramatic way in which they portray
the thoughts and experiences of people
in hiding from Nazi persecution, coupled
with the optimistic and idealistic tone
which pervades them, have made the
book an all-time classic, sold in millions
of copies all over the world, and adapted
for the stage and screen. The house
where she and her family spent two
years in hiding, now a museum, has
become a must for every tourist visiting
Amsterdam. Right: Anne as she looked in
May 1942, aged 13, a picture taken two
months before she and her family went
into hiding. The author of our story,
David Barnouw, is staff researcher and
public relations officer at the Nether-
lands State Institute for War Documenta-
tion in Amsterdam. He was the co-editor
of The Diaries of Anne Frank. The Critical
Edition, the definitive textbook pub-
lished in 1989 (the original Dutch edition
appeared in 1986), and is one of the
world’s leading experts on the history of
Anne Frank and her diaries from which
the illustration (top) is reproduced.
(AFF/AFS)

3
Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt in
Germany on June 12, 1929. Her parents,
Otto and Edith Frank, and elder sister
Margot were then living at No. 307 Mar-
bachweg (the right half of the building),
where the young family had moved in
1927. Located in the town district of
Bertramshöhe, the house was a new
one, having been built in 1925. The
Franks occupied the first and second
floors.

The story of Anne Frank starts in

Germany. The Franks were a banking family
from Frankfurt, Anne’s grandfather being
the founder and director of the Bankgeschäft
Michael Frank. The Franks had lived in the
city for generations, Anne’s father, Otto
Heinrich Frank, being born there on May 12,
1889. Educated at the Lessing Gymnasium,
he went to Heidelberg University to study
art. After one semester, he left for New
York, together with Nathan Strauss (of the
family which owned the famous Macy
department store in Manhattan) to gain busi-
ness experience. When his father died in
1909, Otto returned to Germany, though he
still went back to New York several times. In
World War I, he served on the Western
Front, demobilising as a lieutenant. The fam-
ily story goes that he personally brought
back the requisitioned horses of his company
to the rightful owners in Pomerania. It took
him two months to get back home. But the
family business was not flourishing and Otto
Frank, with his American experience, went
abroad again, this time to Amsterdam where
in 1923 he founded the company of M. Frank
& Sons, for banking and trading in foreign
currency. The bank’s office was in the centre
of the city, at Keizersgracht 604, which was
also Otto’s private address. However, the
enterprise was a failure, and by 1925 Otto
was back in Frankfurt where, together with
his brother Herbert, he tried to uphold the
family business.
On May 12, 1925, Otto married Edith Hol-
länder, daughter of a manufacturer from
Aachen and 11 years younger. They spent
their honeymoon in Italy. The couple first
went to live in with Otto’s mother, but in
August 1927 they moved to a house of their
own, at Marbachweg 307. Two daughters
were born: Margot on February 16, 1926, and Left: This photo was taken on the rear balcony, shortly after Anne and her mother
Anne on June 12, 1929. In March 1931, the came home from hospital. Anne is on the lap of Mrs Dassing, the maternity nurse,
family moved to a bigger house at Gang- with her mother standing behind her. Margot, here aged three, is on the left on the
hoferstrasse 24, nearby in a well-to-do quar- lap of Kathi, the Franks’ housekeeper. The three other girls are neighbours who have
ter of Frankfurt. come to admire the new sprout. (AFF/AFS) Right: The same balcony 70 years on.

One reason for the Franks having moved Margot with a friend, Butzy Könitzer, in the back garden, 1932. Otto Frank was a keen
to Marbachweg in 1927 was that it had a photographer and took many pictures of his children. Because several of the family’s
garden where their children could play. photo albums have survived, there exist today a surprising wealth of pictures of
Above: 1931: Anne in the sandbox, with Anne and the Frank family from before the war. (AFF/AFS) Right: With thick foliage
her mother by her side. (AFF/AFS) darkening the garden, this is the best match possible today.

4
 A plaque on the house, dedicated on
June 12, 1957, commemorates: ‘In this
house lived Anne Frank, born at Frank-
furt-am-Main on June 12, 1929. A victim
In April 1931, the Franks moved to No. 24 Ganghoferstrasse, about a mile north-west of National-Socialist persecution, she
of Marbachweg, on the other side of Escherheim road. Compared to the house on died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration
Marbachweg, this was a spacious villa located in a pleasant side street. The Franks camp in 1945. Her life and death — our
lived here until March 1933. obligation. The youth of Frankfurt.’

However, the position of the bank, Left: Margot, Grace (a friend) and Anne squatting below the front window. (AFF/AFS)
already weakened by the loss of the Amster- Right: Shrub and trees have grown where the girls once sat.
dam affiliation, and decisively affected by the
economic depression, suffered a final blow servants were dismissed. On April 1, SA feeling themselves more German than Jew-
when Otto’s brother and partner Herbert in stormtroopers targeted Jewish shops and ish, so being branded ‘not German at all’
1932 became involved in an investment firms. The Franks were ‘assimilated Jews’, came as a severe shock.
fraud, for which he was arrested and tried.
Though he was acquitted, it blemished the
firm’s name.
When the Nazis came to power in January
1933, it was clear to Otto Frank there was no
longer any future in Germany for him and
his family. In March 1933, the Jewish mayor
of Frankfurt was forced to resign. Jewish civil

Right: On March 10, 1933, a cold Friday,

Otto snapshot his wife and two daugh-
ters on the Schillerplatz next to the
Hauptwache guardhouse (on the left) in
the centre of Frankfurt. Two days later,
Sunday, March 12, there would be
municipal elections in Frankfurt in which
the Nazis would win 42 of the 85 seats.
On Monday, SA stormtroopers would
raise the Swastika flag on the town hall
and the Jewish Oberbürgermeister, Lud-
wig Landmann, would be forced to
resign, his seat taken by the Nazi
Friedrich Krebs. (AFF/AFS) Far right: The
tram shelter has gone and an under-
ground station entrance now occupies
the site on Schillerplatz.

5
With the Nazis’ rise to power, the Franks decided to flee Germany, their choice of
refuge being Amsterdam in the Netherlands. By late 1933, they had moved into a sec-
ond-floor apartment on Merwedeplein, a recently-built modern housing area in the
southern part of Amsterdam. The Franks’ house, No. 37II, is on the right. (AFF/AFS)

Because Otto Frank had been in Amster-

dam before and because there was wide-
spread belief that Holland was a safe coun-
try, neutral in World War I, the Franks
decided to emigrate to the Netherlands.
They first moved from Frankfurt to Aachen,
near the Dutch border, moving in with
Edith’s mother in the summer of 1934. From
there, Otto went ahead to Amsterdam, to
start a business and look for a place where
the family could live. His wife and daughters
stayed with grandmother Holländer for the
time being.
Otto first rented a boarding room at
Stadionkade 24, but in the autumn of 1933 he
found a good, second-floor apartment at
Merwedeplein 37II, in a newly-built, modern
part of Amsterdam. Edith and Margot
moved to the new home in December, but
Anne did not come over until March 1934: ‘I
was put on the table for Margot as a birthday
present’, she later wrote in her diary.

Right: Anne soon found new friends

among the children in the neighbour-
hood. Here she is (right) playing on Mer-
wedeplein with her friend Sanne Leder-
mann. Picture taken in 1935. (AFF/AFS)

Left: Anne (second from left) and friends in the sandpit in the Bovenkamp, very kindly allowed us to photograph her back
garden of the Toby family, who lived at Merwedeplein 3. garden. The fence and the sandbox have gone, but the rest
(AFF/AFS) Right: The present-day owner of No. 3, Mrs van de remains the same.

6
In 1934, at age five, Anne went to the Montessori School in nearby Niersstraat, her The traditional school portrait. This par-
first two years there being spent in infant class. This photo was taken in 1936, when ticular one was taken in 1941, when
she was in the first year of primary school. Anne is the girl in the centre. On the right, Anne was 12 years old and in the fifth
her class teacher, Mr van Gelder. Anne’s school results were excellent, though she form. (AFF/AFS) Below: An original
usually had poor marks for algebra. (AFF/AFS) school table improves our comparison.

All classrooms in the school were of

identical design. Today, though it has
modernised the others, the school has
kept one room in its original state.

The Frank family lived a peaceful life at

Merwedeplein. More German-Jewish
refugee families were living at or near the
square (by early 1939, about 25.000 German
Jews had found shelter in the Netherlands).
Margot and Anne made friends with several
of them, but later they played just as easy
with Dutch friends. They went to the
Montessori School in the nearby Niersstraat
and nothing seemed to disturb their carefree
life. Grandmother Holländer left Aachen in
March 1939 to come and live with the Frank
family. (Already of weak health, she died in
January 1942, aged 76.)

Right: Today, the school is named the

Anne Frank School. Enlarged fragments
of Anne’s diary handwriting adorn the
building’s colourful facade.

7
Left: From 1934 to 1940, Otto Frank ran his Opekta business Centre and right: Anne photographed by her father (note his
from an office on Singel 400, in the centre of Amsterdam. shadow) on the steps of the premises. (AFF/AFS)

Left: On December 1, 1940, Otto Frank moved his Opekta and

Pectacon businesses to new premises on Prinsengracht 263
(see map on page 12). The firms’ warehouse, where the spices
were ground, weighed and packed, was on the ground floor.
The door furthest on the left led to the storage rooms on the
second and third floors. The one to the right of that led to the
offices on the first floor, a main office at the front and a smaller
office behind that. No pictures showing the whole building
appear to have been taken during the war, this one, from the
early 1950s, being the earliest one known to exist. (RIOD)
Above: Prinsengracht 263, today the Anne Frank House mus-
eum. Our picture was taken from across the Prinsengracht
canal and before opening hours. At other times, the spot is a
popular stop for the many tourists’ sight-seeing boats cruising
the canal.

8
To promote his business, Otto Frank had
this advertising lorry on which Opekta’s
products were demonstrated. (AFF/AFS)

Otto Frank did not go back to banking.

Before leaving Germany, he had acquired a
license from the German ‘Opekta’ company
to start a Dutch agency for the retail of
pectin, a product used by housewives to
make jams and jellies from fruit products.
(His brother-in-law, Eric Elias, had done the
same in Switzerland.) However, one of the
problems of the trade was the fact that it was
seasonal, jam-making only taking place in
the weeks following the fruit harvest, so Otto
looked for additional trade. In 1938, he
expanded the business with a firm called Pec-
tacon for the ‘trade in and manufacture of
chemical products and provisions’. His main
new product was special herbs, used by
butchers for sausage production. Though not
a gold mine, the combined business made
enough profit to make a good living.
By 1939, Frank employed a considerable
number of people. His right-hand man from
the start was Victor Kugler. Born in
Hohenelbe in Austria in 1900, he had emi-
grated to Holland in 1920. Johannes Netherlands in 1937. Another employee was in the summer of 1937 by Bep Voskuijl. In
Kleiman, a Dutchman born in 1896 (who had Hermine (Miep) Santrouschitz. Born in addition, Frank employed several sales
already worked for Otto Frank’s Amsterdam Vienna in 1909, after World War I she had agents and warehouse workers. The firm was
bank in 1924), was the book-keeper. Super- been sent, like many undernourished Aus- first located at Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal
vising the herb manufacture was Hermann trian children, to Holland to recuperate. She 120, then from the autumn of 1934 at Singel
van Pels. Born of Jewish-Dutch parents in had stayed on, and by 1939 was engaged to 400, but on December 1, 1940, it moved to
1890 in Gehrde in Germany, he had fled with be married to Jan Gies. She had an all-round Prinsengracht 263, a building with good
his wife and son Peter from Osnabrück to the office job in Otto’s business and was joined office and warehouse space.

Left: Staff picture taken in the office on the first floor in 1941.
Front row, L-R; Victor Kugler, Bep Voskuijl and Miep
Santrouschitz (soon to be Miep Gies). Back row: Esther and
Pine, two girls who only worked in the office for a short time.
(AFF/AFS) Above: The same corner with the mantelpiece on
the left. This is the front office, the view through the window
being that on Prinsengracht.

Left: Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleimann pictured on the

steps of No. 263 in 1945. Gies, Voskuijl, Kugler and Kleimann
would all four, under very difficult circumstances and at great
personal risk, help the Frank family during the two years they
were in hiding. (AFF/AFS) Right: Entrance to No. 263 today.

9
 On June 12, 1939, Anne’s tenth birthday, she had a group
photo taken with all her friends on the pavement outside her
home. L-R: Lucie van Dijk, Anne, Sanne Ledermann, Hannah
(Lies) Goslar, Juultje Ketellapper, Kitty Egyedi, Mary Bos, Ietje
Swillens, Martha van den Berg. (AFF/AFS)

When war came in September 1939, most Jewish men and boys. In protest, Amsterdam grew. Nobody seemed to know what would
Dutch remained sure that Holland would and the surrounding region, in a unique happen next.
stay neutral, but the Franks had their doubts. demonstration of solidarity, rose up in a mass On June 12, 1942, her 13th birthday, Anne
Margot and Anne had pen-friends in the strike. Fiercely crushed after two days, it among other presents was given an auto-
United States and in a letter, written by Mar- failed to stop further persecution. graph album, nearly square in shape, with a
got two weeks before the German invasion Certain that the Nazis would sooner or hard, red and white checked cover. She
of the Netherlands, she said: ‘We often listen later seize possession of Jewish businesses, decided to use it as a diary. The first lines she
to the radio as times are very exciting; having Otto Frank tried to protect his property. In wrote, that same June 12, were: ‘I hope I
a frontier with Germany and being a small October 1940, he created a new firm pseudo- shall be able to confide in you completely, as
country we never feel safe.’ owned by his non-Jewish employee Kugler I have never been able to do in anyone
After the Germans occupied Holland in and Jan Gies, Miep Santrouschitz’s fiancé. before, and I hope that you will be a great
May 1940, their lives at first seemed not to Then, in March 1941, he nominally handed support and comfort to me.’
change at all. The Germans behaved well over Pectacon to Kleiman who sold it to this On June 15, she wrote about the past year:
and their officials even seemed to stop radi- new firm, now named Gies & Co. Though ‘Now that the Germans rule the roost here
cal Dutch Nazis who wanted pogroms. But the Germans saw through the scheme and we are in real trouble, first there was
after the summer, the occupier began to appointed a Treuhändler (trustee) to liqui- rationing and everything had to be bought
slowly introduce the first anti-Jewish mea- date the firm, with his friends’ help Frank with coupons, then, during the two years
sures. In July, Jews were removed from the managed to stay in possession of his business. they have been here, there have been all
air-raid service; in October, teachers, univer- A similar construction, with Kleiman replac- sorts of Jewish laws. Jews must wear a yellow
sity professors and other civil servants had to ing Frank as director in December 1941, star; Jews must hand in their bicycles; Jews
sign a paper declaring whether they were saved Opekta. are banned from trams and are forbidden to
Jewish or not. With a few exceptions every- More anti-Jewish measures followed. use any car, even a private one. Jews are only
body signed. In November, all Jewish civil After the summer holidays of 1941, Margot allowed to do their shopping between three
servants were dismissed. and Anne, like all Jewish children, were and five o’clock and then only in shops which
In February 1941, the anti-Jewish aggres- forced to go to a Jewish school, where all bear the placard “Jewish Shop”; Jews may
sion of Dutch Nazis grew stronger and the pupils and teachers were Jewish. They went only use Jewish barbers; Jews must be
Jewish population, helped by their non-Jew- to the Jewish Lyceum in the Stadstimmer- indoors from eight o’clock in the evening
ish neighbours, started to fight back. That tuinen. In May 1942, the Germans ordered until six o’clock in the morning; Jews are for-
was the sign for the Germans to close off part all Jews to wear the Yellow Star to separate bidden to visit theatres, cinemas and other
of the Jewish quarters and round up over 400 them from non-Jews. Fear and uncertainty places of entertainment; Jews may not go to
Left: Summer 1940. Only a few weeks
before, on May 10, the German Wehr-
macht had invaded the Netherlands, and
in a four-day Blitzkrieg defeated the
Dutch army. Though the Netherlands
were now an occupied country, to many
it seemed life just carried on as usual. By
now, Anne was maturing into a very
pretty girl. This picture of her was taken
on the flat roof at the back of the Franks’
house. (AFF/AFS) Right: When we came
to match this picture, Mrs Levelt, the
lady who today lives at No. 37II, was in
hospital with a broken wrist, but we
were able to succeed courtesy of her
neighbour, Richard Reichmann, who has
access to the same roof. All tenants shar-
ing the portico of Nos. 37-38 have to
endure the at times annoying curiosity of
tourists who (sometimes in bus-loads)
arrive to view the house where Anne
Frank lived. One neighbour at one time
even had his house invaded by a group
of Japanese tourists who all were under
the impression that they were visiting
the actual Franks’ apartment. We there-
fore ask our readers to please respect
the tenants’ privacy and not look
through the windows or ring at any of
the doors.

10
Right: On July 16, 1941, Miep San-
trouschitz married Jan Gies. Otto Frank
and Anne were pictured coming out of
the Amsterdam town hall on Oudezijds
Voorburgwal with other wedding guests.
Edith Frank had stayed at home because
grandmother Frank, who lived in with
the family, was very ill. (AFF/AFS)

swimming baths, nor to tennis courts, hockey

fields or other sports grounds; Jews may not
go rowing; Jews may not take part in public
sports; Jews must not sit in their own or their
friends’ gardens after eight o’clock in the
evening; Jews may not visit Christians; Jews
must go to Jewish schools, and many more
restrictions of a similar kind, so we could not
do this and we were forbidden to do that. But
life went on in spite of it all. Jacque [Anne’s
friend Jacqueline van Maarsen] used to say
to me: “You are scared to do anything
because it may be forbidden”.’
Faced with the growing persecution, Otto
Frank looked for ways for his family to
escape. Like many others, he tried to emi-
grate from Holland, and in January 1942
even managed to obtain emigration certifi-
cates for him and his family. It was hardly
more than a German trick to lull the fright-
ened Jews in Holland asleep.
But Otto Frank took other precautions.
Behind the building on Prinsengracht was
another house which was unused and could
not be seen from the street. It was above the
rear warehouse and office, and had two
floors, with three rooms and a bathroom, and
a loft. The entrance was through a door at
the end of a narrow corridor from the front
office. As early as the spring of 1941, Otto
had started to convert this annexe into living
premises where the family could go into hid-
ing and stay until the end of the German
occupation. Over a period of months, he and
his wife moved all sorts of things — furni-
ture, kitchenware — from their home to the
annexe. To hide it from view, the rear win-
dows of the front building were painted dark
blue, ostensibly for black-out reasons.
Otto informed Miep Gies (she and Jan
Gies had married on July 16, 1941), in whom
he had complete trust, about his plans and Now no longer in use as town hall, the building is today the Grand Hotel.
asked her whether she and Jan would help
them go into hiding. Though aware of the ment, Otto offered to his Jewish employee Otto Frank had planned to go into hiding
great risks involved, they agreed. In due Herman van Pels that, if they wished, he and on July 16, but German action caused him to
course, Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman his family could make use of the same hiding advance that with several days. On Sunday,
and Bep Voskuijl were also let into the address. The van Pelses gratefully accepted July 5, 1942, 16-year-old Margot got a call-up
secret. Since they were in the same predica- the offer. card for Westerbork. She was among the
very first group of 1,000 Dutch Jews to
receive such a call-up. Most of these first
recipients were young German-Jewish
refugees; they were to go there without their
parents. Located in north-eastern Holland,
Westerbork was officially a ‘labour camp’; in
reality it was also the Nazis’ transit camp to
the killing centres in Poland. Though this was
of course unknown, most people knew only
too well that a call-up for Westerbork for-
bode nothing good.
For the Frank family this was the signal to
go into hiding. Otto told Margot and Anne
(the latter still did not know where the hiding
place was) to pack their most-important
belongings in a satchel. Twice that day, Miep
Gies came to fetch clothing and other things
to bring to the secret address. Early next
morning, Monday July 6, the Franks closed
the door behind them, leaving behind most
of their possessions; Moortje, the cat; and a
note suggesting they had suddenly gone to
Switzerland. It was pouring with rain. Jews
were forbidden to use public transport or
ride bicycles. Still, Margot went ahead with
Miep on her bike. The others walked the
four kilometres from Merwedeplein to Prin-
sengracht. They were dressed in two or three
layers of clothes and only carried a shopping
This photograph is reputed to be the last picture of Anne (right) and Margot before bag and a satchel, because Jews with suit-
they went into hiding. As no pictures were taken during the two years in the secret cases would raise suspicion. On the way, her
annexe, and none have been found from the period after their arrest, this is probably father disclosed to Anne where the hiding
also the very last picture of the two sisters. (AFF/AFS) place was.

11
Early on the morning of July 6, 1942, the
Frank family left the house on Merwede-
plein and went to the secret annexe on
Prinsengracht to go into hiding. Margot,
whose call-up for the Westerbork camp
had triggered the move, cycled there PRINSENGRACHT 263
with Miep Gies, but Otto, Edith and
Anne walked the four kilometres, bur-
dened with several layers of summer
and winter clothing.
SINGEL 400
On arrival at Prinsengracht, Miep led them
upstairs into the annexe, where Margot was
already waiting, then closed the door behind
them. The family did not know it, but they
would not get out until 25 months later. They
spent the first few days unpacking, sorting
things out, and covering the windows with
curtain cloth. It was two days before Anne
had time to sit down and describe everything
in her diary.
On July 13, after a week, the Van Pels
family arrived: father Hermann, mother
Augustine and son Peter. Anne was not very
impressed with Peter: ‘not 16 yet, rather soft,
shy, gawky youth, can’t expect much from his
company.’
At first, the door in the corridor giving
access to the secret annexe was not con-
cealed. However, after about a month,
Kugler decided it would be better to put a
cupboard in front of it. Mr. Voskuijl, Bep’s MERWEDEPLEIN
father, who worked in the warehouse on the
ground floor, was let into the secret, and by
late August he had constructed a hinged
bookcase, which could be opened and closed
like a door.
The people in the secret annexe lived in Reproduced from Topografische Kaart sheet 25 Oost, 1994.
constant fear of being discovered. To prevent

SECRET ANNEXE

NO. 263

This aerial well illustrates the position of the secret annexe church. Also visible is the chestnut tree in the back garden,
behind the office building on Prinsengracht 263. It could not be which she could see from another window. The aerial dates
seen from the road and was connected to the front house by a from April 1949, when things still looked much the same as in
small corridor. One can see the small window in the attic the war. Since then, the corner block between the house and
through which Anne used to look out to the Westertoren the church has seen considerable change. (KLM Aerocarto)

12
The eight people in hiding at the secret
annexe:

being seen or heard there were strict rules.

They had to adapt to the working hours of
the warehouse. During the day, it was forbid-
den to make any noise, run a tap, or flush the
toilet. They had to whisper and sit still as
much as possible. Only at noon, when the
warehouse workers went home for lunch, the
helpers from the office could pay a visit to
deliver food (procured with illegal ration
cards) and library books. Rubbish was
burned in the stove, but in summer this could
only be done at night, lest the chimney
smoke would make a neighbour suspicious.
Anne and the others looked forward to Sun-
days when they could walk around and talk
without fear of being heard.
During the 25 months, there were many
scaring moments and narrow escapes. One
evening, someone suddenly rang the door Otto Frank. (AFF/AFS) Edith Frank. (AFF/AFS)
bell at 8 p.m. and for a moment they thought
it was the Gestapo. On another evening,
there was a sudden knocking on the cup-
board door. After a moment of fright, it
turned out to be Kleiman who had come to
warn them that there was a carpenter work-
ing in the office. During their time in hiding,
there were several break-ins by burglars and
thieves, who of course were not aware of
their presence, but could well detect and
betray them. Sometimes, they themselves
made accidental loud noises during the day,
for example when Peter dropped a bag of
brown beans down the loft stairs.
Meanwhile, the two families struggled to
carry on as usual. For Anne, Margot and
Peter that meant studying and doing home-
work. They read French, history, geography,
biology, and mathematics, the latter a subject
which Anne hated. But it did keep them
busy. Otto Frank used to help them with the
schoolwork. Margot Frank. (AFF/AFS) Anne Frank. (AFF/AFS)
Anne loved her picture postcards and
movie-star collection and, to liven up her
small room, she pasted many of them on the
bare walls, transforming it ‘into one gigantic
picture.’
Life in the confined space put a strain on
everyone and, not surprisingly, there were
many quarrels and arguments. Anne was a
lively, talkative child, and came in for much
criticism, especially from her mother and Mr
and Mrs van Pels, though she kept trying to
improve herself. Unable to go outdoors, her
only chance to get a glimpse of the outside
world was provided by the attic windows,
from which she could see the Westertoren
church or the chestnut tree in the rear gar-
den, or just look up at the sky.
During their short visits, Miep and the
other helpers told them what was happening
in the outside world. Thus they heard that
the Jews were being rounded up and sent to
the East, and learned which of their friends
had been caught. When on July 9, 1942, the Hermann van Pels. (AFF/AFS) Augustine van Pels. (AFF/AFS).
BBC Home Service announced that ‘Jews
are regularly killed by machine-gun fire,
hand grenades — and even poisoned by gas’,
the family must have heard it. Three months
later Anne, writing about the bad conditions
in the Westerbork camp, commented: ‘If it is
as bad as this in Holland, whatever will it be
like in the distant and barbarous regions they
are sent to? We assume that most of them
are murdered. The English radio speaks of
their being gassed; perhaps that is the quick-
est way to die.’ (October 9, 1942).
With so many people in dire straits, Otto
Frank decided there was room for one more
person. On November 10, 1942, after four
months, the new resident arrived: Fritz Pfef-
fer, a dentist and good acquaintance of the
Franks. Born in 1889 in Giessen in Germany,
he had fled to Holland in 1938. To make
room, Margot went to sleep in her parents’
room. Anne, who from now on had to share
her room with Pfeffer, would write a lot
about him, more negative then positive. Peter van Pels. (AFF/AFS) Fritz Pfeffer. (AFF/AFS)

13
Right and far right: The entrance to the
secret annexe. When the Franks moved
into their hiding place in July, there was
not yet a bookcase there, just a plain
door. The hinged bookcase was only
constructed a few weeks later, by Mr
Voskuijl, one of the warehouse workers
(and Bep Voskuijl’s father). Note that a
wall map hides the top end of the door.
Below: From the concealed entrance, a
narrow corridor on the left led to the liv-
ing-room and bedroom of Mr and Mrs
Frank. From November 1942, Margot
also slept here on a camp bed. Today, all
rooms in the Anne Frank House are
empty and devoid of furniture, with only
two large scale models, one on each
floor, showing how they were furnished
during the war. However, the museum
staff have on two occasions (1986 and
1993) reconstructed the wartime situa-
tion in real size, dressing up the rooms
with furniture and props according to
instructions from Otto Frank and Miep
Gies. This is the 1986 reconstruction of
the Franks’ room. (AFF/AFS)

Right: The empty room today. Below:

Scale model of the second floor. (AFS)

14
A door on the right led to the small room of Anne, which she initially shared with The pictures and postcards which Anne
Margot and later with Fritz Pfeffer. Anne wrote most of her diary at the table in this pasted on the walls are still there, today
room. Above: 1986 reconstruction of the room. (AFF/AFS) Below: As it is normally is protected by perspex panels. Among the
today. Because of its confined space it is quite difficult to adequately photograph the film stars are Shirley Temple, Ginger
room, even from a corner. Rodgers and Greta Garbo.

For Anne, her diary was her freedom. She

could write down whatever she wanted, her
thoughts and ideas, her likes and dislikes.
She wrote extensively about her life in hid-
ing, her friends at school, her family and the
others in the secret annexe, her growing
affection for Peter and her longing for free-
dom. She often wrote her entries in the form
of letters to friends; from September 28,
1942, she began addressing many of them to
a friend, which she named ‘Kitty’. (It is usu-
ally said that this was an imaginary name
invented by Anne. In actual fact, Anne did
have a friend with that name, Kitty Egyedi,
though whether she began using ‘Kitty’ with
her in mind is unknown.) After she had filled
all pages of her first diary album in Decem-
ber 1942, Anne continued her diary in school
exercise books.
Anne was very fond of writing and dearly
wanted to become a writer or journalist later.
In 1943, she began, in addition to the diary,
to write up short ‘Stories and Events from
the Achterhuis’ [literally ‘back house’ — the
Dutch word for annexe]’ in a cash-book
Miep had given her.

The whole room measured only some 7 The other door from Anne’s room gave access to a small bathroom with a wash-
by 14 feet. The door to her parents’ room stand and, behind a door (and to the back of the camera), a toilet. The door on the left
is the one on the right. then completed the circuit of the second floor, leading back to the corridor.

15
Here, just a few feet from the hinged bookcase, a steep flight of as it was the most spacious room of the whole annexe, as a
stairs (left) led up to the third floor and into the room of Mr and general living-room and dining-room for the whole group.
Mrs van Pels. This was also used as kitchen and scullery and, Right: The 1986 reconstruction. (AFF/AFS)

GROUND FLOOR FIRST FLOOR SECOND FLOOR THIRD FLOOR

Plan of the four floors of Prinsengracht 263 and annexe. [1] storage rooms. [7] Landing with secret door. [8] Franks’ family
Warehouse. [2] Front office. [3] Office of Kugler and Kleimann. room. [9] Anne’s room. [10] Wash-room and toilet. [11] Van
[4] Private office of Otto Frank. [5] Office kitchen. [6] Spices Pels’s room. [12] Peter’s room. [13] Front loft. (AFF/AFS)

16
Left: The empty room, with the scale model of the third floor. which served as Peter van Pels’s room. His bed just fitted
Right: The door to the right of the sink led to a small alcove between the wall and the stairs leading up to the attic.

2 2

3 4

5 6
The attic was used to store food supplies, mostly tins or beans.
Anne spent much time here, often together with Peter van
Pels, day-dreaming and looking out of the window. Above:
This is how it looked shortly after the war. (MAS) Below:
Today, for safety reasons, the loft is no longer accessible to vis-
itors of the Anne Frank House, but a mirror installed at the top 7 7
of the stairs allows a look into it. (AFF/AFS)

The secret annexe as seen from the gardens at the back. [1]
Attic. [2] Room of Mr and Mrs van Pels, also kitchen and living-
room. [3] Anne’s room, first shared with Margot and later with
Fritz Pfeffer. [4] Room of Otto and Edith Frank, later also of
Margot. [5] Otto Frank’s private office. Not part of the hiding
place, but belonging to the office on Prinsengracht 263. [6]
Office kitchen. Not part of the hiding place but used by the
office staff. [7] Warehouse. Today, the windows of the upper
floors are open but throughout the time the building served as
secret hiding place they had blinds fitted.

17
 Left: Anne’s ‘first’ diary, the checkered
autograph album which she was given
on her 13th birthday, one month before
the family went into hiding. In this, she
wrote from June 12 to December 5, 1942.
After that, she continued her diary in
school exercise books. (RIOD) Right: In
May 1944, Anne decided to rewrite all of
her diaries into a second, more literary
version. One of the changes she intro-
duced was to give all the people featur-
ing in her texts imaginary names. Her
original listing of the name alterations
shows that she changed her mind on
several of them: for her own family name
she initially chose ‘Anlis’, then ‘Robin’;
Kleimann at first became ‘Uithoorn’,
then ‘Koophuis’; and though she listed
Miep Gies as ‘Anne van Santen’, when it
came to the actual rewriting, she contin-
ued to call her by her real Christian name
— Miep. (AFF/AFS)

On March 28, 1944, she and the others and language, rewrote some entries, left in love with him. Even her father, whom she
heard a London broadcast in which the others out. ‘Dear Kitty’ now became the adored, was no longer her favourite. She
Dutch Minister of Education, Arts and Sci- heading of all entries from the beginning. To talked more openly with Peter than with any
ences of the Dutch government-in-exile, make it more creative, she replaced people’s of the others, and they spent a lot of time
Gerrit Bolkestein, advised people in real names with fictional ones: her own family together in the loft. Her parents disapproved
German-occupied Holland to keep diaries as were renamed the ‘Robins’; the Van Pels of this, and Otto had several serious talks
a record of what went on under Nazi rule. were called the ‘Van Daans’; Fritz Pfeffer about it with his daughter.
Anne wrote: ‘he said that they ought to make became ‘Albert Dussel’; Jan and Miep Gies The Normandy invasion of June 6, 1944,
a collection of diaries and letters after the ‘Henk and Miep van Santen’; Bep Voskuijl caused great excitement in the annexe.
war. Of course they all made a rush at my ‘Elly Vossen’; Johannes Kleiman ‘Simon Everything seemed to change and they all
diary immediately. Just imagine how inter- Koophuis’; and Victor Kugler ‘Harry Kraler’. thought that the long-awaited liberation
esting it would be if I were to publish a Anne never finished her second version, would soon be there. Six days later, Anne
romance of the “Achterhuis”, the title alone but she must have worked on it pretty con- had her 15th birthday.
would be enough to make people think it was stantly from May to August, for by the time By now, her reflections were becoming
a detective story.’ the Germans arrested her on August 4, she more thoughtful. On July 15, she wrote: ‘I
Seven weeks later, on May 20, she put her had filled 300 sheets and progressed as far as simply can’t build up my hopes on a founda-
idea into practice. She began to completely March 29, 1944. All the while, she also con- tion consisting of confusion, misery and
rewrite her diary from the beginning. She tinued to write in her first diary. death. I see the world gradually being turned
commented: ‘At long last after a great deal of Avidly, the people in the annexe followed into a wilderness, I hear the ever-approach-
reflection I have started my “Achterhuis”. In the course of the war. However, the high ing thunder, which will destroy us too, I can
my head it is as good as finished, although it hopes raised by the surrender of Italy of Sep- feel the sufferings of the millions and yet, if I
won’t go as quickly as that really, if it ever tember 8, 1943, were not fulfilled. In the look up into the heavens, I think that it will
comes off at all.’ autumn, Anne found herself frequently sink- all come right, that this cruelty too will end,
For this second version, Anne used loose ing into a gloomy and depressed mood. and that peace and tranquillity will return
sheets of copy paper (probably because the From the beginning of 1944, her friendship again. In the meantime, I must uphold my
helpers could no longer get exercise books with Peter grew more important, more ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I
for her). She made improvements in content important than her family, and she slowly fell shall be able to carry them out!’

Anne sometimes stuck photographs in her diary with com- Hollywood but, at present, I’m afraid I usually look quite differ-
ments written next to them. On October 18, she pasted in a ent.’ On the opposite page are four other portraits from the
picture of herself, an enlargement from her 1939 portrait sheet, 1939 series. One comment reads: ‘This is also sweet, isn’t it’.
and wrote next to it: ‘This is a photo of me as I wished I looked Note that for handwriting Anne used both a normal cursive
all the time. Then I might still have a chance of getting to style and a disconnected printing one. (AFF/AFS)

18
 On the morning of Friday, August 4, 1944, One of the Dutch SD men went down-
a car stopped in front of Prinsengracht 263. stairs to phone for transport for such a large
A German uniformed policeman, SS-Ober- group. After a long wait, a covered truck
scharführer Karl Silberbauer, and about half arrived which brought the eight Jews and
a dozen Dutch plain-clothes policemen got Kleiman and Kugler (who had both been
out and went up to the office on the first arrested as well) to the Amsterdam head-
floor. It was an easy raid, as Silberbauer tes- quarters of the Sicherheitspolizei und Sicher-
tified nearly 20 years later: heitsdienst (Security Police and Security Ser-
‘There was a firm’s warehouse on the vice) in the Euterpestraat. The arrested
ground floor, where we met a worker who, Jewish persons were kept there one day, then
when asked by the Dutch policemen where transferred to the prison on Weteringschans,
the Jews were hidden, gestured with a finger also in Amsterdam.
up the stairs. We then went up to the office Kugler and Kleiman were sent on to the
on the next floor, where we found one of the prison on Amstelveenseweg. On September
two heads of the company [Kugler]. The 11, they were transferred without trial to the
Dutch policemen immediately questioned concentration camp at Amersfoort in the
this man, telling him to his face that there centre of Holland. Both survived. Kleiman
were Jews hidden in the building and that was set free on the 18th because of bad
they had been denounced. . . . The head of health (he had had a gastric haemorrhage).
the firm immediately became terribly ner- Kugler was sent with other prisoners to
vous and went quite red in the face. Without Zwolle on the 26th to dig trenches for the
any coercion, not one pistol was drawn, the Wehrmacht, being moved to Wageningen on
man immediately got up and led us to the December 30. On March 28, 1945, while
Frank family’s hiding place. . . . He led us up being marched off to Germany, he managed
the staircase to a small room one floor up. to escape when his column was strafed near
On entering the latter we could see a dresser Zevenaar.
or set of shelves against the end wall. To the Karl Silberbauer, who led the police raid Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl had not been
right of it was a window. The head of the firm on the annexe on August 4, 1944, and arrested during the raid; for some reason, but
pointed to the piece of furniture. This was arrested those in hiding there. (J. Huf) mainly because they were women, the
then pushed to one side and another stair- Germans thought them innocent. After the
case was revealed which led to the top storey. asked Otto Frank where they kept their cash police had left, they went to inspect the now-
I drew my pistol and went up the stairs with and jewellery, and Frank pointed it out to empty annexe and, finding Anne’s diaries
the Dutch policemen.’ him. Looking around, Silberbauer picked up and diary notes scattered around on the
As Kugler related more than ten years the briefcase in which Anne kept her diaries floor, collected everything. Miep locked the
later: ‘I had to proceed them up the steps. and, spilling the contents onto the floor, he papers in her desk drawer, intending to
The policemen followed me; I could feel put the valuables in it. return them to Anne if she would come back.
their pistols in my back. But since the steps Silberbauer spotted an old army foot- In the days following, Miep, in a brave
were only wide enough for a single person, I locker with Otto Frank’s name and military attempt to buy off the Frank family, twice
was the first to enter the Franks’ room. Mrs rank stencilled on it, and asked to whom it went to see Silberbauer at the Gestapo head-
Frank was standing at the table.’ belonged. When he learned that Frank was quarters on Euterpestraat. Though he
Eight Jews in hiding was quite a catch for the owner and a reserve officer, he became became less hostile when he discovered she
the Jew-hunting policemen. Silberbauer almost polite. was from Vienna too, it was all in vain.

After their arrest, the Franks, the Van Pels and Pfeffer, and Today, the Euterpestraat has been renamed Gerrit van der
helpers Kugler and Kleimann, were taken to the Amsterdam Veenstraat, after a famous Dutch resistance fighter. On
HQ of the Sicherheitspolizei und Sicherheitsdienst, which was November 26, 1944, the SD headquarters was the target of a
located in a pair of requisitioned school buildings on Euterpes- low-level RAF attack, which destroyed the boys’ school across
traat. Here was also the Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswan- the road (where the Zentralstelle was located) and seriously
derung (Central Agency for Jewish Emigration), the Gestapo damaged the building in this picture (the girls’ school). Today,
office organising the deportation of the Dutch Jews. (RIOD) it is a comprehensive school, also named after van der Veen.

19
On August 8, the eight arrested Jews
were transferred to Westerbork camp.
Located in the north-east of Holland, this
had been built by the Dutch government
to house Jewish refugees from
Germany. Taken over by the German
occupation authorities, they used it to
concentrate Jews from every part of the
Netherlands, but mostly from Amster-
dam. Officially a ‘labour camp’ but in
reality a transit station to the killing
centres in Poland, Westerbork was run
extremely efficient by the German com-
mandant. Almost every week trains left
the camp to the east: in all, between July
1942 and September 1944, 64 to
Auschwitz, 19 to Sobibor, 8 to Bergen-
Belsen, and 7 to Theresienstadt. (RIOD)

On August 8, four days after their arrest, the

Frank and Van Pels families and Pfeffer
were sent to the Westerbork transit camp,
where they were put in the penal block.
Life in the camp, even under penalty, was
very different from that in the secret annexe.
In a way, it was a change for the good, for at
last one did not have to stay indoors 24 hours
a day. There are stories that Anne was quite
happy there.
On September 3, 1944, all eight were
included in the last train from Westerbork
bound for Auschwitz. It carried 1,019 Jews:
498 men, 442 women and 79 children. After a
journey of three days, immediately on arrival
in the night of September 5/6, 549 of them,
including all children below 15, were gassed.
Those that survived the selection on the plat-
form, came into the Birkenau camp. Separ-
ated from the men, the women and girls were
put in Block 29 of the women’s camp.
Anne and Margot were at Birkenau seven
weeks. On October 28, they were separated
from their mother and transferred to
Bergen-Belsen, the ‘exchange camp’ on
Lüneburg Heath (see After the Battle No.
89). Though life there had been relatively
tolerable before, by the time the girls
arrived, conditions in the camp had begun to
deteriorate disastrously. There was not
enough food or shelter for the thousands of
inmates, the weather was terrible, and typhus
was raging. After the large tents used to
accommodate the women from Auschwitz
had been destroyed by a night gale on
November 7/8, they ended up in one of the
shaky huts on the Appellplatz. At Belsen,
Anne and Margot met some of the friends
they had known in Amsterdam (like Anne’s
friend and schoolmate Hannah Goslar) or
Westerbork. According to survivor accounts,
the girls were very depressed and convinced
that both their parents were dead. They had Except for the camp commander’s villa near the former camp gate, nothing remains
been assigned the worst place in their hut, of the original Westerbork camp today, the whole site having been cleared in 1970-
the lower bunks near the door, where pneu- 71. However, the open field in the woods where the camp lay is now an official mem-
monia was easily caught. Infected by typhus, orial site, with several monuments in situ and a good museum nearby. This stylised
naked except for a thin blanket, they could reconstruction marks the area of the penal block where the Franks were put.
be seen fading away in their bunks. They
died shortly after one another, Margot one
or two days before Anne, probably in late
February or early March. The exact dates are
unknown. Nor is it known in which of the
Belsen mass graves they were buried.
Nearly all the others who had been in hid-
ing in the secret annexe perished before
war’s end. Mr. van Pels was gassed at
Auschwitz a few weeks after his arrival. Fritz
Pfeffer was transferred to Neuengamme
camp in October and died there on Decem-
ber 20, 1944. Anne’s mother, Edith Frank,
perished at Auschwitz on January 6, 1945.
Mrs. van Pels was transferred to Bergen-
Belsen on November 24, to Buchenwald on
February 6, 1945, and to Theresienstadt on
April 9, where she died shortly after. Her
son, Peter van Pels, was marched out of
Auschwitz on January 16, 1945, in one of the
murderous ‘death marches’; he ended up in
Mauthausen in Austria where he died on On September 3, all eight people from the secret annexe were included in a train
May 5, three days before the camp’s libera- transport to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Franks were Nos. 306 to 309 on the official
tion. transport list which carried a total of 1,019 names. (RIOD)

20
 able to honestly translate the youthful pages
Anne had written. Worse than that, she
altered the text at some places to make them
more palatable to Germans. For example,
where Anne wrote ‘And indeed there is no
greater hostility than exists between
Germans and Jews’ she changed that to ‘And
there is no greater hostility in the world than
between these Germans and Jews.’
An English translation took some time.
Ten publishers refused the book and it was
only after two, Valentine, Mitchell & Co in
Britain and Doubleday in the US, decided to
share the cost of translating that the English
edition finally appeared. Titled Anne Frank:
The Diary of a Young Girl it came out in
June 1952.
Since then, Anne Franks’s diary has grown
to become a universal bestseller. Appealing
to millions of readers everywhere, by now
the book has been translated in over 50 lan-
guages and more than 25 million copies have
been sold worldwide.
In 1950, the Jewish-American novelist
Meyer Levin appeared on the scene, and he
would play a controversial rôle for more than
Of the eight, only Otto Frank survived the death camps. After his return to Amster- ten years. In 1944-45, Levin had been a war
dam in June 1945, he went to live with Jan and Miep Gies, and resumed his director- correspondent for the Overseas News
ship of Pectacon. This picture, taken in October 1945, shows him with the four Agency and had seen Dachau and Buchen-
employees who had so courageously helped him and his family. L-R: Miep Gies, wald, experiences which had led him to
Johannes Kleimann, Otto Frank, Victor Kugler, and Bep Voskuijl. (AFF/AFS) become a confirmed Zionist. In 1950, while
in France, he read Journal d’Anne Frank, the
Only Otto Frank survived the war. One of well-known professor in modern history, Jan French translation of Het Achterhuis, which
the few not evacuated from Auschwitz, he Romein, who was a friend of a friend of Otto impressed him so deeply that Anne Frank
was liberated there by the Red Army on Jan- Frank, wrote a moving piece about it in Het and the diary would come to dominate the
uary 27, 1945. Evacuated to Odessa on the Parool on April 3, 1946, the Amsterdam rest of his life. (His 1973 book about it is
Black Sea, he sailed on May 21 with the New publishing-house Contact became interested. titled The Obsession.) Levin contacted Otto
Zealand ship Monoway to Marseille, arriving Editing it like any other manuscript, they Frank and, on learning about the problems
back in Amsterdam by train and lorry on made further changes in Anne’s original text, to get the diary published in English, helped
June 3. both in punctuation and spelling and content. push on that front and also wrote a very pos-
Having to completely rebuild his life, Otto One of the directors took offence to Anne’s itive review in the New York Times Book
went to stay with Jan and Miep Gies. He graphic mentionings of sexual matters (her Review. In a second review, in The National
already knew that his wife had died, but he first monthly periods; an entry where she Jewish Post, he emphasized that the book
was still entertaining hopes that his daugh- describes how she wanted to touch the ought to be dramatised and made into a film.
ters would return. Like many other sur- breasts of her friend Jacque) and most of Not long afterwards he wrote a radio pro-
vivors, he put an information request in a these were deleted, as were several other gramme on Anne Frank.
Dutch newspaper, the one about Margot and passages deemed to be of little interest. The In March 1952, Otto Frank had authorised
Anne appearing in Het Vrije Volk and Het original Dutch edition, Het Achterhuis, was Levin to act as his literary agent in the
Parool on August 1. Not long after, the published on June 25, 1947, in an edition of United States for a stage adaptation. Levin
Dutch Red Cross informed him that Anne 1,500 copies. (A Dutch journal, De Nieuwe very much wanted to write the play himself
and Margot had both died. Later, he Stem, had already published five ‘Fragment and, besieging Otto Frank with persistent
received positive confirmation of this from from the Diary of Anne Frank’ the previous requests, he managed to get him to agree. At
Janny Brandes-Brilleslijper, a Dutch woman summer.) The book was not directly success- Levin’s suggestion, Frank chose the stage
who had got to know the Franks at Wester- ful, but reviews were favourable: ‘a richly tal- producer Cheryl Crawford, who promised to
bork and had been in the same hut with the ented child’, ‘a moving human document’ produce Levin’s dramatised version if it was
girls at Belsen. and ‘a miracle’. usable. Levin set to work and gave his adap-
Miep Gies later wrote: ‘Now Anne was not French and German editions appeared in tation to Otto Frank who passed it on to
coming back for her diary. I took out all the 1950. The latter was a very stiff translation, Crawford. However, Crawford did not like
papers, placing the little orange-checked done by a lady who had fled from Berlin to Levin’s play at all. Levin managed to get
diary on top, and carried everything into Mr Holland before the war, but was too old to be Frank to replace Crawford with Kermit
Frank’s office. Frank was sitting at his desk,
his eyes murky with shock. I held out the
diary and the papers to him. I said, “Here is
your daughter Anne’s legacy to you”.’
Otto Frank had of course known about the
existence of the diary, but now was the first
time he read it and he was much impressed
by his daughter. He started to copy ‘the
essentials’, as he said later, for the benefit of
relatives and friends who asked how life in
hiding had been, and even translated some
parts into German for his mother who lived
in Switzerland. Later on, he wanted to pub-
lish the diary as a memorial to his daughter
and to fulfil her wish to become a writer. He
typed out a manuscript, using Anne’s second,
rewritten version and parts of her first ver-
sion. He deleted a few passages: some of
Anne’s rude remarks about her mother (but
not all), some unsympathetic comments
about people who were now dead, and some
duller details. He then gave this typescript to
an old friend and radio-dramatist, Albert
Cauvern, asking him to check it for grammat-
ical errors and remove Germanisms.
But it was not easy to get the book pub-
lished. The Dutch tried very hard to forget
about the war and were not waiting for a war
story by an unknown child. Several publish- It was taken in the office on Prinsengracht, against the double doors separating the
ers refused the typescript. However, after a front room from the back one.

21
Bloomgarden, who had acquired a reputa-
tion with Arthur Miller productions, but
Bloomgarden rejected the play as well. To
escape from the impasse, an agreement was
concluded between Levin and Frank on
November 21, 1952, whereby Levin would
put his version to 14 named stage producers;
if all refused, he would accept defeat. None
of them reacted positively, and Otto Frank
thought that he had now got rid of Meyer
Levin.
In late 1953, Bloomgarden asked the
stagewriting couple Francis Goodrich-Hack-
ett and Albert Hackett, who were also
screenwriters for Paramount and MGM, to
write a stage version. The Hacketts found it a
difficult task, especially to keep the eight
people in hiding ‘present’ throughout the
play. It took eight versions before everyone,
including Otto Frank, was satisfied.
The Diary of Anne Frank premiered at the
Cort Theatre in New York on October 5,
1955. Directed by Garson Kanin, it featured
Vienna-born actor Joseph Schildkraut as
Otto Frank, while Suzan Strasberg, daughter
of the famous Lee Strasberg, made her
Broadway debut by playing Anne. The play
was an immediate success (it would see over
1,000 performances) and won various
awards, including the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for
Drama. In Europe, the play was a hit too,
first being staged in Göteborg in Sweden in With Anne’s published diary a worldwide bestseller, and the stage adaption a Broad-
August 1956. The Dutch premiere in way hit, in 1956 20th Century Fox Studios decided to turn the play into a movie. One
Amsterdam on November 27 was a near- of the most difficult problems was to find a suitable actress to play Anne, director
sacral event, with the Queen and her hus- George Stevens screen-testing hundreds of girls, even travelling to the Netherlands
band present and no applause at the end. hoping to find a suitable candidate there. In all, Fox Studios received applications
Meyer Levin, disappointed and still con- from 10,224 girls. Audrey Hepburn had been considered for the role but, at 30, was
vinced that his version was much better than clearly too old for the part, and she had serious reservations about it herself, because
the Hackett adaption, in late 1956 instigated it evoked painful memories of her own youth in Holland under Nazi rule. In the end,
proceedings against Frank and Bloomgarden Stevens selected an American photo model without any film experience, 19-year-old
in the Supreme Court of the State of New Millie Perkins. Here, Stevens (centre) is seen directing Perkins in a screen test with
York, accusing them of fraud and breach of actor Richard Trask (who did not play in the final film). (BFI)
contract, and claiming that the Hacketts had
made use of his material without permission Twentieth Century Fox had purchased the Amsterdam. Over 10,000 girls, many of them
or paying royalties. Furthermore, he wanted film rights to the play in the autumn of 1956, Dutch, wrote letters applying for the rôle of
to be able to bring out his version in Israel, and contracted George Stevens to direct and Anne. A talent scout came to Amsterdam at
something which he said Frank had verbally produce the movie. Goodrich and Hackett the end of 1957 to screen-test some 70 of
agreed to before the contract of November were to write the screenplay, the agreement them, the Dutch press even reporting that a
1952. He demanded $200,000 in compensa- being that it would not be much different Dutch candidate, a young half-Jewish ballet
tion. A court jury judged that Levin’s claim from the stage version. Although the conflict dancer, had been selected. It therefore came
about the use of his material was founded with Levin had not yet been resolved, as a blow in Holland when it was announced
and that Frank and Bloomgarden should Stevens started preparations in 1957. that 19-year-old American model Millie
therefore pay him $50,000. However, Judge A ripple of excitement ran through the Perkins had been chosen to play Anne.
Samuel Coleman disagreed with the jury and Netherlands with the news that an American Joseph Schildkraut was again to play Otto,
overruled the verdict, ordaining that a com- company was coming to shoot a film in and Gusti Huber his wife.
mittee from the American Jewish commun-
ity should arrange a compromise. This was
reached in October 1959: in return for
$15,000, to be paid by Otto Frank, Levin
dropped all claims to royalties and trans-
ferred all his rights to any adaptation of the
diary to Frank.
The discussion whether Meyer Levin (who
died in Israel in 1981) was right after all has
still not abated today. In his eyes, the
Goodrich-Hackett play did not pay enough
attention to the ‘Jewishness’ of the Frank
family; their version was just a tragedy in his-
tory, without the centuries of anti-semitism.
Anne’s famous words at the end of the play
— ‘In spite of everything, I still believe that
people are really good at heart’ — made it a
universal tragedy, so everybody, Jew and
gentile, could feel compassion. Levin had a
point. On the other hand, there is not much
‘Jewishness’ in Anne’s diary; not surpris-
ingly, for the Franks were after all a very
assimilated family.
At the press conference where the selec-
tion of Perkins was announced, 20th
Century Fox’s publicity department had
put up two very appropriate enlarge-
ments, one of the portrait which Anne
had stuck in her diary on October 18,
1942 (see page 18) and one of her accom-
panying entry: ‘This is a photo of me as I
wished I looked all the time. Then I
might still have a chance of getting to
Hollywood’. (BFI)

22
Right: Perkins pictured with the scale
model of the film set. The art directors —
Lyle R. Wheeler, George W. Davis, Walter
M. Scott and Stuart A. Reiss (who won
an Oscar for their joint work) — had
designed a four-storey-high structure
with an open wall at one end. It was not
an exact replica of the real house, design
and lay-out being dictated more by the
requirements of filming than by histor-
ical authenticity. For example, the
Franks’ room on the second floor was
made the main room and general living
area, whereas in real life the Van Daans’
room on the third floor had been used as
such. Also, the stairs to the third floor —
in the real house in the corridor — was
put inside the main room. And Peter’s
room — actually on the third floor — was
put on the second and given an attic-
type window. Below: The elaborate film
set allowed the director to make vivid
crane shots, for example moving up from
the warehouse past the office space to
the secret hiding-place (which effectively
illustrated the need for those in hiding
there to walk silently and make no
noise), or from the main room to the Van
Daans’ room above. (BFI)

23
Right: The cast and director during a
script-reading session. Round the table,
anti-clockwise from George Stevens’
empty chair are: Richard Beymer (Peter),
George Stevens Jr (Stevens’ son and
assistant director), George Stevens Sr,
Diane Baker (Margot), Millie Perkins
(Anne — only her hand is visible), Joseph
Schildkraut (Mr Frank), Gusti Huber (Mrs
Frank), Lou Jacobi (Mr van Daan), Shel-
ley Winters (Mrs van Daan), and Ed
Wynn (Mr Dussel). The last man is a pro-
duction assistant. Absent are Douglas
Spencer (Mr Kraler) and Dody Heath
(Miep). Note the scale model of the set
and the large wall portraits of Anne and
Perkins. George Stevens had been in the
movie industry since the 1920s and had
built up a solid reputation as a director of
entertainment and serious drama films.
In 1944-45, he had led a special US Army
film unit in the European theatre, during
which time he himself had shot rare
colour footage with his private camera.
To prepare his actors for the coming
movie, he had first showed them the
footage he had taken at the liberation of
Dachau concentration camp. (BFI)

Left: Before the shooting started, Perkins met with Otto Frank having lunch with Mr. Otto Frank, the real Anne’s father. He had
and Elfriede Geiringer, Otto’s second wife whom he had mar- never seen a production of the play; it would have been too
ried in 1953 (she died on October 1, 1998). (AFF/AFS) Right: The difficult a thing for him to do. In fact it was very courageous for
scene of the arrival of the Franks and Van Daans in the secret him to come and watch some of the filming that afternoon. We
annexe. Note the crates, boxes and suitcases standing around. all had lunch with him in our costumes, shabby, smelly wartime
L-R: Huber (Mrs Frank), Schildkraut (Mr Frank), Douglas Spencer Dutch clothes. He looked around the table at all the actors who
(Kraler), Winters (Mrs van Daan). In her 1989 autobiography, were portraying his friends and family. He was trembling and
Shelley Winters recalled: ‘One day about four months into the had tears in his eyes.’ Her rôle in the film won Shelley Winters
shooting, George Stevens announced to us that we were the 1959 Oscar for best supporting act. (BFI)

Left: Family scene in the main room. L-R: Beymer, Huber, policemen’ (Del Erickson and Robert Boon — the German Ord-
Baker, Schildkraut, Perkins. Right: A tense moment in the film, nungspolizei was known as ‘Grüne Polizei’ from the colour of
as a watchman (played by Frank Tweddle) and two ‘green their uniforms) inspect the house for burglars. (BFI)

24
 Anne (Perkins) and Peter (Beymer) hav-
ing one of their private moments
together in the attic. Actor Richard
Beymer was later to star in West Side
Story and in The Longest Day (in which
Stevens preparing an exterior shot of the attic window, for the scene in which those he portrayed 82nd Airborne paratrooper
in hiding watch a night bombing raid on Amsterdam. (BFI) ‘Dutch’ Schultz). (BFI)

Shooting in Hollywood lasted almost six April 6, 1959, again with royalty present and supporting act (Shelley Winters), B/W cine-
months. Like with the stage production, everybody dressed in black. The movie matography, and art direction. (Its main
Stevens had great difficulty filming the story received three Academy Awards, for best competitor, Ben Hur, won 11 Oscars.)
protagonists in the confined space of the
secret annexe. Moreover, 20th Century Fox
had a binding contract with CinemaScope,
Hollywood’s answer to television, but this
wide and technically-imperfect format led to
distortion in close-ups. Stevens’ solution was
to emphasize the vertical beams in the rear
annexe, so that they functioned as an extra
frame. Part of the set was mounted on
springs, so that the room could shake in the
bombing scene. The movie made optimal use
of sound — marching Germans, martial
music, gun-fire, the chimes of the Wester-
toren church — to link the indoor story with
the outside world.
Meanwhile, the director’s son, George
Stevens Jr, filmed the outdoor scenes on
location in Amsterdam. A pilot version of
the film was given a sneak preview in the
United States. The viewers’ reaction to see-
ing Anne in a concentration camp was not
convincing enough to retain the scene in the
film.
The Diary of Anne Frank premiered in
New York on March 18, 1959. In the Nether-
lands, there had been fears that ‘Hollywood’
would not do justice to Anne Frank, but
Dutch reports from the US were positive.
‘They have tried sincerely to act in the spirit
of the young girl’, one reviewer wrote. The
European premiere was in Amsterdam on
As 99 per cent of the plot takes place indoors, most of the film
could be shot in the Hollywood studios, but to enhance
authenticity Stevens decided to shoot the few outdoor scenes
on location in Amsterdam. The production of a big-budget
Hollywood movie was something quite unusual in the Nether-
lands of the 1950s and the shooting in July 1958 drew much
attention from the population and the press. Centre: To illus-
trate the fate of the Jewish population under Nazi occupation,
the script called for a winter scene of rounded-up Jews being
marched off under guard. To shoot a winter scene in the
middle of summer, the producers initially tried 15 tons of artifi-
cial snow brought from Germany but, when this failed to
produce the desired result, they used a mixture of salt and gyp-
sum — features which did not cease to amaze the Dutch press
and public. The plan to dig up a large number of trees and
temporarily replace them with artificial, leafless trees for the
winter scenes was not put into operation. In the end, the
Amsterdam Parks Department was only able to supply a single
big, leafless tree, and even that made the papers. (BFI) Right:
Though the film suggests the scene takes place on Prinsen-
gracht, it was actually shot in Staalstraat, a suitably
picturesque street, but located over half a mile away at the
other end of the city centre.

25
 Twice after the war, Dutch justice tried to
establish who had betrayed the secret annexe
in 1944. From the behaviour of the arrest
team, it was obvious that they had had pre-
knowledge of the hiding place. One of the
warehouse workers, Willem van Maaren,
was a suspect, but a first police inquiry, in
1948, produced insufficient evidence for a
trial. The second inquiry took place in 1963-
64, after Simon Wiesenthal had tracked
down Karl Silberbauer in Vienna (he was
still working as a policeman). During interro-
gation, Silberbauer confirmed that the
Sicherheitsdienst had indeed been tipped off
by a telephone call, but he could not give a
name, as the call had been received by his
superior, Kriminalinspektor Julius Dett-
mann, who had committed suicide in 1945.
Van Maaren’s guilt could never be proven
(he died in 1971), and the question remains
unsolved to this day.
On his return in 1945, Otto Frank had
resumed his directorship (with Kleiman) of
Pectacon. In 1948, he also became commis-
sioner of Gies & Co. For legal reasons (since
it was seen as a former German company),
the Dutch government did not grant him
return of Opekta until 1950.
In 1952, Otto moved to Basel in Switzer-
land, to be nearer his mother and sister. A
year later, in November 1953, he married
Elfriede Geiringer-Markovits, a widow he Otto Frank (right) with Jan and Miep Gies pictured on May 3, 1960, on the occasion of
had met on his journey back from Auschwitz. the official opening of the Anne Frank House as a museum. (AFF/AFS)
Before the war, she and her family had fled
from Vienna to Holland. Her husband and shops on human rights, against the Vietnam caused much inconvenience and not a few
son had been killed by the Nazis; she and a war or Apartheid, or discussions on Israel accidents. From now on, a new passage and a
daughter had survived at Auschwitz. They and the Palestinian question. Temporary one-way route enabled visitors to make a
had known the Frank family in Amsterdam exhibitions dealt with ‘2,000 Years of Anti- safe circuit through the small rooms where
and after she and Otto had met again in semitism’ or ‘The ultra-right in Europe’. the events of 1942-44 had taken place.
Amsterdam they decided to marry. The new line was not without controversy. In the 1980s, the Anne Frank Foundation
Though Otto still had his businesses in The foundation’s Board became worried that went abroad, in the first place to the United
Amsterdam, he was now dedicating more the museum staff had become too radical. States. Between 1985 and 1990, the travelling
and more of his time to the diary of his South Africa protested against an exhibition exhibition ‘Anne Frank in the World’
daughter, and in 1953 he laid down his direc- on Nazis in their country. There were even attracted more than a million visitors there.
torships. The following year, he decided to press reports in Holland and Israel that Since then, it has travelled all over the world,
sell the building at Prinsengracht 263. It was Anne Frank had now fallen in the hands of from South Africa to Japan, from South
in a bad shape and the new owners wanted to the ultra-left. Though the matter was also America to Eastern Europe. By now, it has
demolish it and replace it with something discussed abroad, it was all very much an been seen by nearly 7 million people in over
new. inner-Dutch affair, of little or no relevance to 30 countries. In 1997, over 700,000 people
However, with the success of Anne’s diary, the thousands of visitors who continued to visited the Anne Frank House.
people who had read the book had begun to flock to the museum. Unfortunately, because of its worldwide
visit the house, where they were shown In 1970-71, the Anne Frank House was fame and status, Anne Frank’s diary has for
around by Kleiman. By 1955, the idea had closed for a few months to undergo restora- many years been the target of neo-Nazi and
sprung up to preserve the building and turn it tion and alteration, the latter having become antisemitic attacks. These hate groups deny
into a museum. A group of people success- necessary in order to safely cope with the the authenticity of the diary, claiming it to be
fully campaigned for a stop to the demolition masses of visitors to the house. Until then, a forgery. More particular, and making gross
plans. A special foundation, the Anne Frank everyone had to climb up, and come down, misuse of the 1956-59 legal controversy
Stichting, was set up, and in 1957 the new the same narrow stairs to the annexe, which around the stage play, they say the diary was
owner donated the building to this founda-
tion. Fundraising was started and support
came in from all over the world.
The foundation’s main aim was to change
the house into a museum and present the
ideals of Anne Frank to the world. Anne’s
message — ‘People are good at heart’ — was
humanistic, and appealed to everybody, irre-
spective of political denomination or reli-
gious belief. The foundation wanted to pro-
mote reconciliation between people and the
need to execute the 1948 Universal Declara-
tion of Human Rights. However, not all Jews
were happy with the focus on one ‘innocent
child’; others felt that Anne’s diary, ending
as it does before her arrest and deportation,
did not give any real vision of the holocaust.
The Anne Frank House officially opened
to the public on May 3, 1960. Around the
corner, an International Youth Centre was
set up where summer seminars were organ-
ised. The number of visitors grew rapidly,
tens of thousands finding their way to the
Prinsengracht.
In the late 1960s, affected by the spirit of
the era, the Anne Frank House began to
move away from its historical background
and focus more on the general struggle
against prejudice, racism, fascism and anti-
semitism. More and more, the museum’s act- Since then, several millions have visited the building on Prinsengracht and seen the
ivities began to reflect the political issues of place made famous by Anne’s diary. An average day in the tourist season sees long
the time. The foundation organised work- queues outside the premises waiting to get in. This is a Tuesday in July 1998.

26
written by Meyer Levin whom they say was
paid $50,000 to do so by Otto Frank — a
grotesque distortion of the actual court case
(even the amount of money is wrong) and of
course utter nonsense: Anne’s creation was
first printed in 1947, five years before Levin
ever got involved.
The earliest attacks on the authenticity of
the diary were produced by neo-Nazis in
Sweden in 1957. Since then, the same accusa-
tions and lies have been rewritten again and
again, and even sometimes received consid-
erable press attention. In January 1959, Otto
Frank instigated legal action against two
Germans who had repeated the claim of
forgery, Lothar Stielau and Heinrich Budde-
berg, but after two years of legal proceedings
the case ended with an unsatisfactory settle-
ment.
In the 1970s, the attacks came mainly from
the so-called ‘revisionists’, people who deny
the existence of the gas chambers in the
death camps or that the genocide of the Jews
ever took place. Their writings have the look
and the feel — but not the substance — of
scientific research. In the United States, the In May 1986, the Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation published De
so-called Institute for Historical Review Dagboeken van Anne Frank, a scholarly volume which for the first time released the
became notorious for promoting revisionist full texts of Anne’s original diary handwritings. Fully annotated by the two editors —
‘research’. In Germany, British right-wing David Barnouw (our author) and Gerrold van der Stroom — and accompanied by
historian David Irving was forced by Otto historical introductions written by them and the institute’s director Harry Paape, the
Frank in 1975 to remove the following sen- volume immediately established itself as the definitive textbook on the subject.
tence from the German edition of his book A planned new edition will include the five previously unknown diary pages which
Hitler and his Generals: ‘Many forgeries are surfaced in August 1998. L-R: David Barnouw, Harry Paape and Gerrold van der
on record, as for instance those of the “Diary Stroom at the presentation of the Dutch edition. (via Barnouw)
of Anne Frank” (in this case a civil lawsuit
brought by a New York scriptwriter has ing, the ink, the paper, etc of the original approaching expiry of the 50-years’ copy-
proved that he wrote it in collaboration with diaries. Anne’s handwriting was analysed, right protection of the diaries (the rule then
the girl’s father).’ In France, Robert Fauris- and compared with other specimens of her being that a text was free 50 years after the
son, of the Department of Literature at the writing and writings by numerous of her death of the writer, or after the publication
University of Lyons, in 1980 published a classmates. The experts took into account date), the Fund’s trustees asked Mirjam
notorious book titled Le Journal d’Anne that Anne used both a normal cursive letter- Pressler, the German translator of the Criti-
Frank est-il authentique? which resorted to ing and a disconnected printing style. Sam- cal Edition, to edit a new version of Het
statements by unverifiable witnesses and ples of her writing were included in our book Achterhuis, incorporating hitherto unknown
other distortions to ‘prove’ that it was not. to support their conclusion that the diary was parts. It appeared in 1991, thus securing the
Despite litigations, attacks on the diary con- indeed written by Anne Frank alone. revenues for the Anne Frank Fund for
tinue to this day. The glue and fibres used in the binding of another 50 years. The English translation,
On August 19, 1980, Otto Frank died at his the diaries were analysed by infra-red spec- titled The Diary of Anne Frank. The defini-
home in Birsfelden near Basel in Switzer- trometry, and found to be of a type in com- tive edition, came out in the US in 1995 and
land, aged 91. In his Will, he bequeathed mon use in 1942-44, a different kind of syn- in the UK in 1997.
Anne’s original diaries and notes to the thetic glue only coming into use after 1950. Of the helpers of the secret annexe,
Dutch Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumen- Anne mainly used a grey-blue ink for foun- Johannes Kleiman stayed director of Pecta-
tatie (State Institute for War Documenta- tain pens with a strong iron content, a type in con in Amsterdam until his death on January
tion) in Amsterdam, where the present general usage in the 1940. Inks with much 30, 1959. Victor Kugler emigrated to Canada
writer is a staff researcher. less or no iron at all were only introduced in in 1955 and died in Toronto in December 16,
The arrival of the famous manuscripts at 1950. Together, this clearly established that 1981. Bep Voskuijl died in Amsterdam on
the institute the following November was a the paper, ink and glue in the diary and the May 6, 1983, and Jan Gies on January 26,
real media event. Television teams from all loose sheets all existed in the early 1940s, 1993. Miep Gies still lives there today.
over the world visited the institute to film the before Anne and her family were betrayed,
handwritten lines and to ask us what we and certainly before 1950. A summary of the
intended to do with it. Forensic Laboratory’s report by H. J. J.
The institute soon decided that it should Hardy was included in our book.
publish Anne’s diaries unabridged in a com- Finally, we prepared an extensive intro-
plete edition, for two reasons: because they duction. Harry Paape, at that time the insti-
were an important historical source, and in tute’s Director, wrote detailed chapters on
order to stifle once and for all the growing the Frank family in Frankfurt and Amster-
number of published slurs on their authentic- dam, and Anne’s father after the war; on the
ity. Together with colleague staff researcher arresting raid; on the question of who
Gerrold van der Stroom, I formed the editor- betrayed the secret annexe; and on the vic-
ial team. Our research was threefold. tims’ incarceration and deportation. Gerald
Firstly, Anne’s handwritten texts — the van der Stroom wrote a chapter on the
450 pages in the autograph album and two diary’s publication history, the differences
school exercise books (her first diary) and between the original manuscripts and the
the 300 loose sheets (her second version) — published version, and between the latter
were typed out and checked. Errors she or and its German, French and English trans-
others had improved with ink or pencil, were lations. I myself wrote chapters on the
annotated in footnotes. As already said, the Goodrich-Hackett play and the attacks on
two versions differ considerably. Otto Frank, the diaries’ authenticity.
who could not publish two diaries, had used The result, a 714-page volume titled De
her second version and parts of the first to Dagboeken van Anne Frank, was published
compose Het Achterhuis. Though Frank in 1986. Translations appeared in Germany
never denied it, the fact that there existed (1988), France, Britain, the United States
two original versions was not commonly (1989) and even Japan (1995). The English
known. In the complete edition, the two ver- edition, The Diary of Anne Frank. The Criti-
sions and the one published as Het Achter- cal Edition was published by Doubleday in
huis were printed one above the other on the US and Viking in Britain. Everywhere, it
each page, this in order to enable easy com- was hailed as the definitive textbook on
parison. Anne Frank and the diary.
Secondly, we called upon experts at the There was one last sequel. The copyright Statue of Anne by Mari Andriessen.
State Forensic Science Laboratory of the of the diaries lies with the Anne Frank Fund Unveiled in 1977 on Westermarkt, around
Ministry of Justice to examine the handwrit- in Basel in Switzerland. In view of the the corner from Prinsengracht 263

27
 5th PROOF

BURMA 1945: THE ROAD TO RANGOON

By the beginning of 1945, at long last the
Allied advance on three fronts across Burma
had broken through the stubborn Japanese
Mandalay earlier. Slim’s plan was a classic
diversionary one. With Mandalay a mere 100
miles distant from Naung-oo (also known as
By Elliott Smock
defences and by February, IV and XXXIII Nyaungu), it was feasible that the Japanese from Meiktila to support the garrisons at
Corps of General Sir William Slim’s Four- would think that this — Burma’s second city Mandalay. He could then sweep down on
teenth Army, which had been advancing on — was to be the objective of the Fourteenth Meiktila and thenceforth down to Rangoon
the Central Front, reached the Irrawaddy Army. This, of course, was just what Slim making the Japanese Empire’s hold on
river. This presented big problems to a big wanted the Japanese to think as his plan Burma as short as possible. But first the
force as the Irrawaddy — over a mile wide at relied on the removal of the Japanese forces Irrawaddy had to be crossed.
many points — was indeed a formidable
obstruction. Slim made the best of a bad situ-
ation and used this break in momentum to
allow his units and supplies to reach the for-
ward forces at the mighty river’s edge. By
this time, the 19th Indian Division (Major-
General Pete Rees) of XXXIII Corps was
already holding two bridgeheads on the
Irrawaddy’s east bank having slipped across
the river at two places upstream from

Top: On the legendary ‘Road to Man-

dalay’. Burma had been under Japanese
occupation since 1942 when General Sir
William Slim’s Fourteenth Army began
its 400-mile advance to the capital Ran-
goon in February 1945. (IWM) Right: The
author consults with the station master
at Yamethin station in central Burma for
permission to take a photograph. Elliott
Smock is an undergraduate at King’s
College, London, studying Biomedical
Science. Amongst his many interests is
the air war in Burma which led him there
in the first place. During his one month
stay in 1996, his attempts to search for
lost Hurricanes in her jungles were
thwarted on several occasions by the
country’s security forces.

30
 5th PROOF
Burma has never been a particularly easy
country to travel through and, even
today, 99 per cent of Westerners come in
by air. The country is flanked in the north
and east by mountains — the Himalayas
start their long upward climb here —
and, to the north-west from the border
with Bangladesh (back in the Second
World War still part of India) stretches a
vast tract of malaria-infested swamp, the
Arakan, which follows the coastline
southwards. Rolling plains fill out the
central part of the country; areas with
little or no shade provide scant relief
from the merciless summer sun, the long
tracts of road diffuse into dust traps
which the monsoon transforms into
swampy tracks. The battle for central
Burma by the so-called ‘forgotten army’
took place during the first three months
of 1945 with forces approaching Man-
dalay from north and south.

BEACH HEAD ACROSS THE

IRRAWADDY
The bulk of Slim’s forces were to land on
the east bank at Naung-oo, the crossings by
IV Corps being staggered with the 28th East
African Brigade taking pressure off the main
force by simulating a crossing 40 miles down-
stream, foxing the Japanese by drawing the
one force that was a potential threat away
from the true river crossing.
Upstream from Naung-oo, the leading ele-
ments of the 114th Brigade (7th Indian Divi-
sion), which had been moving up to
Pakokku, made contact with the Japanese
who had dug in on the hill overlooking the
road junction at Kanhla. Here, the Japanese
lived up to their reputation as fierce fighters
for it took three days to take these positions
and only then with the support of tanks.
On the night of February 12/13, the 20th
Indian Division crossed the Irrawaddy, 50
miles up river from Pakokku, the 19th Divi-
sion, whose objective was Mandalay, having
broken out from its bridgehead on the 11th,
by the capture of Singu, made possible by the
light and medium tanks that General Rees
had managed to send across the Irrawaddy.
The 19th Division’s 64th Brigade, which had
a bias of armoured vehicles, moved up into
the hills and the Japanese who reacted
aggressively, destroyed two and badly dam-
aged a further two tanks. All the while, the even hotter, peaking in April when the cen- tribulations, the 64th Brigade triumphed and
troops had to endure the intolerable sun and, tral plains turn Burma into a powdered dust- by March 2 the 19th Division was on the leg-
as the days rolled by, the weather would get bowl. However, despite all these trials and endary ‘road to Mandalay’.

The country is cut by three principal rivers, from east to west: the Gulf of Martaban (known as Mu Tamar in Burmese). How-
the Chindwin, which provided the Allies with a geographical ever, it was the Irrawaddy which was to prove the first major
refuge from the Japanese during the earlier Burma campaigns; obstacle to be breached at the start of the Allies’ third cam-
the Irrawaddy, the largest of the three rivers which snakes paign in Burma. Left: In the east, the Ava Bridge formed the
through the northern jungles on its way down from the railway link between Sagaing and Mandalay before it was sev-
Himalayas, brushing past Mandalay and Rangoon in its vast- ered by the British during their retreat in 1942. It still lay bro-
ness before meeting the sea in the Gulf of Martaban; and ken when the Allies returned in 1945. (IWM) Right: Elliott com-
finally the Salween. The latter is China’s gift to Burma and it ments that although now repaired the metalwork of the bridge
defines her eastern extremities until it, too, meets the sea at still shows the scars of war.

31
 5th PROOF
resorted to ever more desperate attacks —
man versus tank — Japanese soldiers using
grenades and small arms destroyed three
tanks belonging to the Carabiners and
caused 12 casualties amongst the tank crews.
Tanks with open turrets, providing some
relief from the intense heat, were also vul-
nerable to sword attacks from the fanatical
Japanese infantrymen. By this time, the
occupants of the bridgehead had so far been
assaulted by more than a dozen Japanese
battalions from four divisions, the 2nd, 31st,
33rd and 53rd.

Today the Irrawaddy beach-head area,

although very hot, is frequented by tourists.
However, there is no evidence left of the criti-
cal river crossings that went on at this loca-
tion. It is possible to reach Naung-oo today by
boat from Mandalay although most people
come here to see the ancient ruins of Pagan,
the remnants of one of Burma’s ancient capi-
tals where some of the more shady locals try
to pass off cut glass stones as rubies to the
more gullible!

Defence of the Naung-oo bridgehead.

This rather posed shot of Private Tom
Barlow on the east bank of the
Irrawaddy on February 25, 1945 demon-
strates well the changing aspect of the
river over the years. With every new
monsoon, new channels appear while
old ones are swallowed up by the rest-
less waters making even the most up-to-
date maps obsolete. (IWM)
Air support was provided by RAF Hurri-
canes. On February 19, two Hurricanes from
No. 20 Squadron opened fire on a suspicious
heap of foliage in open ground, the attacking
fire revealing a Japanese tank. After the sub-
sequent discovery of its companions, the
whole of the squadron, armed with 20mm
cannon and rockets, repeatedly attacked the
armoured group destroying 13 of the enemy
tanks.
With the Mandalay contingent on its way
and the diversionary process in full swing,
the bridgehead grew and the Japanese

The ancient ruins of Pagan — unchanged then as now. (IWM) 1975. This is the main gate in the east wall — all that remains
Major Roy Hudson (see issue 100, page 18) came this way in of the old city built by King Pyinbaw in the 9th century.

Tanks . . . and temples. A bulldozed track leads down to the river pontoon ferry site at Pagan. (IWM)

32
 5th PROOF

MEIKTILA A traffic control point in Naung-oo. The MP is facing a very small narrow lane which
Slim’s masterstroke — the unleashing of was the main exit from the river ferry site. Next stop Meiktila. (IWM)
IV Corps upon Meiktila — left the Japanese
reeling as they had clearly thought that Man- attack, the Japanese 168th Infantry Regi- destruction. The airstrip at Thedaw was
dalay was the primary objective. IV Corps ment was on its way from Lashio in the taken. Much of the following day was spent
moved with as much secrecy as two divisions north-east to rejoin its parent division and its ‘mopping up’ stragglers and by the evening
and an armoured brigade can muster and lack of anti-tank weapons cost it dearly, the Meiktila was in Allied hands. Slim’s IV
slipped out of the bridgehead in the small regiment being decimated by the Allied Corps had won Meiktila; now they had to
hours on February 14. Japanese resistance armour. hang on to it, for the Japanese were clearly
along the way was stiff and entanglements While the 48th and 63rd Brigades pressed not going to let their forces further north in
ensued with a variety of different Japanese on through Meiktila, the Japanese had Mandalay be starved out.
units but, with the aid of tanks, the bulk of strengthened their positions and mined Meiktila was engaged in an almost contin-
the opposition was crushed. It was at this stretches of the town. Artillery and mortar uous Japanese counter-attack from the
time that the first instances were recorded of fire rained down while the most forward ele- moment it was captured. The original Japan-
Japanese soldiers in foxholes and detonating ments dug in at the railway station for the ese plan for their 18th Division to try to split
high-explosives when the tanks trundled night after an air strike in the afternoon. The the town in two proved unsuccessful, so on
over them. A further insight into the unwill- following day, March 3, saw the total the night of March 14 the Japanese switched
ingness of the Japanese soldier to give him- destruction of the remaining Japanese garri- the emphasis of the attack to the town’s air-
self up occurred four miles south of son. As the 48th Brigade pressed down on field with the aim of reducing the all too
Taungtha, where a Japanese rearguard facili- the centre of the town, the Japanese broke effective supply efforts of the RAF. With the
tating the clearance of a hospital was met. out eastwards where they blundered into the 9th Brigade (5th Indian Division) being
Some 180 of the resulting dead appeared to 255th Tank Brigade ensuring their final flown in en masse the following day, the
be hospital patients who were victims of a
mass suicide, such was the revulsion of sur-
render.
By February 28, the leading components
of the 48th Brigade of the 17th Indian Divi-
sion (Major General D. T. ‘Punch’ Cowan)
were under two miles from Meiktila, while
the 1/7th Gurkhas supported by tanks took
up position on the banks of Meiktila’s north
lake. Meanwhile, the 255th Indian Tank
Brigade supported by the 16th Light Cavalry
headed east and made for Meiktila’s airfield.
At this stage, IV Corps was cut off from
orthodox re-supply routes since Taungtha
had been retaken by the Japanese, so the
corps had to prepare for the assault on Meik-
tila with the aid of air supply. The battle for
Meiktila began at 7 a.m. on March 1, 1945.
The 48th Brigade moved south to hold the
north bank of the South Lake while the 63rd
Brigade swept across from the west to
occupy the slip of land dividing both the
North and South Lakes. The 255th Tank
Brigade succeeded in capturing the airstrip
and, although patrols confirmed the area was
largely cleared of Japanese, they were found
to be well entrenched in the satellite airstrip
of Thedaw further north. At the time of the Pictured here by Major Hudson, the house has since been divided into two.

33
 5th PROOF
ward position, manned by troops from the
1/7th Gurkhas. The Japanese gave up the
fight during the night of March 23/24, falling
back and leaving 198 dead as well as two
guns and a number of small arms.
Fighting at the airstrip reached a bloody
climax on March 24/25 when two aircraft
were destroyed on the strip, the battle being
so intense that the commander, Lieutenant-
Colonel K. Bayley of the 9th Brigade, was
wounded by a shell fired at point-blank
range at the command post he was occupy-
ing. Hundreds of men died on the battlefield
leading up to March 25, heralding the start of
yet more skirmishing. At dusk, a tank drove
down the runway, the defenders only realis-
ing that it was Japanese when it was joined
by two more and some infantry and started
attacking fortifications on the west side of
the landing ground. Aided by six guns, the
attacking force succeeded in breaking
through the wire defences and was only
halted once PIAT anti-tank weapons were
brought to bear on the enemy tanks.
By the end of March it was apparent that
although the Japanese had little hope of re-
capturing Meiktila, their constant attacks
against the sheer weight of IV Corps, now
well massed in the area, made it more realis-
tic for the Allies to await the general advance
on the long road to Rangoon. Allied casual-
ties from the capture and defence of Meiktila

The battle to capture Meiktila lasted

three days and began on March 1. In this
picture, troops are seen preparing their
mortar positions the day before.
attention given by the Japanese to the air-
field made this air-landing operation a haz-
ardous one. However, losses were slight, with
only one Dakota out of 54 being hit on land-
ing. Nevertheless, it was clear that the Japan-
ese were far from falling back and the deci-
sion had to be taken to suspend 9th Brigade’s
influx until the situation improved.
The Japanese were responding in aggres-
sive style and the next night, after many skir-
mishes, it was found that the enemy had
entrenched itself on the east side of the run-
way, having effective control over its entire
length. It was not until the next day that the
6/15th Punjabis, supported by tanks and the
1/3rd Gurkhas, managed to clear the per-
imeter. Although flying was resumed on
March 16, the operation was still far from
safe with Japanese artillery claiming another
Dakota resulting in 22 casualties. Japanese
patrols twice fought their way onto the run-
way on March 17 yet, in spite of this, the day
saw a further 60 landings, bringing in the rest
of 9th Brigade, allowing other units to con-
centrate on offensive sweeps across the
countryside and also to keep the Japanese at
bay from the precious landing ground.
The Japanese, however, were well aware
of the airstrip’s significance in the arrival of
reinforcements and were naturally loathe to
let it go unmolested. On the night of March
17/18, a Japanese patrol infiltrated past the
defences onto the airfield and set fire to a
C-47. The pressure applied by the Japanese
deemed the landing of aircraft as too risky
and thereafter all supplies were to be air-
dropped.
When a large force of Japanese was spot-
ted south-east of the airfield, it was engaged
by elements of both the 9th and 48th
Brigades. The 48th lost three tanks on March
22 and the Japanese, hot on the heels of the
withdrawing column, attacked the brigade’s
harbour, a secure area where the troops were
stood down. The commander of the Japanese
49th Artillery Regiment, Colonel T. Uga,
was noted by the Japanese commanders as
behaving with conspicuous gallantry, often
directing attacks at the scene personally, and
bringing his guns to bear almost at point- Left: The 1st Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment, lob their bombs over the town’s
blank range. During the fighting, a 75mm many pagodas. (IWM) Right: Fifty-plus years later, Elliott found the same pagoda cov-
gun was in action only 15 yards from a for- ered with bamboo scaffolding . . . but surely not to repair the same damage!

34
 5th PROOF

Twisted girders and pock-marked steelwork at Meiktila railway station are grim
reminders of a battle which took the lives of over 2,500 men.

— as well as the initial river crossing — were

lighter than those at Mandalay, possibly
reflecting the surprise of the Japanese in this
attack. In all, 835 men were killed, with 3,174
wounded and 90 missing, with losses from
sickness amounting to about the same figure.
The Japanese had suffered equally badly,
their 18th Division having lost 1,733 men —
one third of its strength — and being forced
to give up 22 guns (almost half its total num-
ber). The once mighty 49th Division had suf-
fered worse and, out of an initial strength of
10,000, the division lost 6,500 and had just
three guns remaining out of 48. With much
of the Japanese Burma Area Army demor-
alised and on the retreat, it was time for Slim
to move in for the kill. Now the roles were
changed and, with the surrounding province
in the grasp of Allied hands and Meiktila
captured, there seemed little to stop the
Allied steamroller on its way to Rangoon,
only 170 miles away to the south.

There are many reminders of March 1945

in modern-day Meiktila. Much of the town
was rebuilt following the fighting in 1945
although part of the railway station is original,
still bearing damage from the conflict. One
rather expensive shop in Meiktila sells colo-
nial bric-a-brac, and amongst the stacks of old Elliott found that the same effigy looks down on the former West Yorks command
and tatty Royal Doulton china and other odds post inside the grounds of the monastery.
and ends like antique razors and spectacle
frames, some interesting pieces of militaria a few swords and even a tank periscope! find any bargains here; the author still pines
can be found. I saw a Bowie knife in a very These items are generally all in very good after a very lovely little pedometer in the orig-
good canvas sheath, bayonets (usually of the condition but they are not cheap and you inal box but the shop owner wanted the equiv-
British variety), compasses, Japanese helmets, would be very disappointed if you expected to alent of UK £20 for it!

Where do we go from here? This signpost two miles north of

Meiktila marks the fork on the road to Kyaukpadaung, not
quite as poetic-sounding as the ‘road to Mandalay’!

35
 5th PROOF

MANDALAY Mandalay Hill (above) was the first and prime objective of Major-General Pete Rees’
With the Japanese clamouring to retake (below) plan to take the town. The high ground was taken during the night of March
Meiktila — the vital break in the Japanese 8/9. (IWM) Bottom: Major Hudson’s comparison was taken from the golf course on
chain of communication — a new element of the western side. Fort Dufferin is out of the picture to the right.
pressure was applied to an already tense
campaign. It was clear from the outset that a
victory at Mandalay needed to be as swift a
triumph as possible.
As XXXIII Corps moved in on Mandalay,
its component forces drove toward their
respective objectives. General Rees’ 19th
Division ploughed on to Madaya, just north
of Mandalay, closely followed by armour and
infantry to be funnelled into Mandalay once
Madaya was secure, while the 5th and 20th
Indian Divisions swept up from the south,
thwarting further any plans the Japanese had
of reinforcing Mandalay. Stiletto Force,
spawned from the 19th Division, moved off
towards Mandalay on March 5, bypassing
Madaya and leaving the 98th Brigade to deal
with a Japanese rearguard force retreating
from Point 1487. On March 8, Stiletto Force
stood before the northern slopes of Man-
dalay Hill. This peculiar, pagoda-dotted
range lies like some gigantic beached whale
— the only significant high point in Burma’s
central plain for many miles. The assault on
Mandalay Hill, began that same night.
A Gurkha officer who had been in Man-
dalay before the war accompanied the force
and, with his knowledge of the hill’s twisting
walkways, the 4/4th Gurkhas managed to
secure the highest point of the hill by sunrise. attack twice while the Gurkhas, supported by Corps, mopped up pockets of enemy resis-
The next day saw the Japanese counter- tanks from the 150th Royal Armoured tance.

36
 5th PROOF

The Mandalay Royal Palace — better

known as Fort Dufferin — was a huge
structure with an outer perimeter over a
mile square. This picture taken after its
capture gives a good idea of the thick-
ness of its massive wall which, even
using 20th-century weaponry, proved a
formidable obstacle. There were several
entrances and, unlike the North Gate
seen here being used by Allied troops
after the surrender, most had the protec-
tion of an outer screening wall. (IWM)
Today, tourists enter via the South Gate.

As the Gurkhas concentrated on Man-

dalay Hill, the remainder of the 98th Brigade
turned its attentions to Fort Dufferin where
the Japanese were firmly entrenched. The
fort had been built by the Burmese King
Mindon in 1858. A huge walled structure, its
walls are a mile square, 23 feet high and 30
feet thick at the base, narrowing to 12 feet at
the top, crowned with a walkway. The per-
imeter is protected by crenellated brickwork
several feet thick and, as if this were not mulated to rush the fort under an intensive cut the wire and the artillery concentration
enough, the fort is surrounded by a moat 40 artillery bombardment. An air observation had lifted, the Japanese, guessing what the
feet across and spanned by five easily post confirmed that the breach was a suitable ominous calm implied, opened up on the
defended bridges, the whole set-up reminis- point of entry since debris from the bom- incoming assault platoon. Despite covering
cent of an oriental medieval castle. On the bardment had formed a ramp down into the tank fire and smoke rounds from mortars,
night of March 8/9 an attempt was made to fort’s grounds. the platoon lost a third of its number and
storm the fort but the defenders were well Under cover of intense artillery fire, a General Rees had to call a halt. Meanwhile,
prepared and repelled the attack. On March detachment of engineers began to deal with the battle for Mandalay Hill raged on, for the
10, a medium gun firing at point-blank range the defences on the north bridge. The bridge Japanese still held a portion of the southern
breached the north wall and a plan was for- was not mined, but once the engineers had and much of the northern faces of the hill.

Looking from inside, the outer screening wall is clearly visible beyond the entrance.

37
 5th PROOF

Above left: Even when the top of the hill

had been captured, the fight to eliminate
the Japanese on the lower slopes contin-
ued for four more days. (IWM) Above
right: Major Hudson determined that this
shot was taken on the small track ([1] on
the map) to the north of the fort.

Over the next four days, other attempts to

break into the fort failed although much of
Mandalay proper was cleared. With most of
1
the town now in Allied hands, efforts were
intensified to capture the more stubborn
pockets of resistance but the Japanese troops
occupying Mandalay Hill fought to the death
and the last round. In the end, such was the
unwillingness to surrender that Allied engin-
eers, supported by infantry, had to bulldoze
enemy foxholes, burying many Japanese
alive. The hill was finally taken on March 13.
Meanwhile, the battle for the fort went on,
it being bombed on numerous occasions with
the RAF providing close air support
throughout although in one instance, when
Allied troops pulled back to allow for a
heavy air strike, the Japanese moved forward
to take their positions, which offered some
protection from the bombing
On the night of March 14/15, the 98th
Brigade made another attempt to break into
the fort. However, having got across the
moat, the two assault platoons found it
impossible to hold the breech while the
remainder of the attackers forced their way
through, and this attack ended — like so
many before it — in failure.
Below left: Sniping proved particularly
troublesome, the numerous pagodas
providing excellent vantage points. Here,
British troops — possibly the Royal Berk-
shire Regiment — fire from a position
near the summit. (IWM) Below right:
Peace where war once raged. Now only
the occasional sound of chanting monks
breaks the tranquility.

38
 5th PROOF

With Meiktila under a determined Japan- Taken from the top of the ‘Thousand Steps’ leading up the hill, a Thunderbolt
ese counter-attack, the pressure was on in (circled) has just dropped a bomb on Fort Dufferin obscured here in the smoke. (IWM)
the north for an Allied triumph at Mandalay.
More aerial attacks on Fort Dufferin fol-
lowed, No. 221 Group, RAF, subjecting the
walls of the fort to more damage on March
15 by unleashing a force of B-25 Mitchell
bombers armed with 2,000lb bombs on the
stronghold. However, as the attack was car-
ried out at 6,000ft, the bombing resulted in
poor accuracy so the next day P-47 Thunder-
bolts, armed with 500lb bombs, carried their
bombing runs out at a lower altitude, from
south to north. The wall was hit, but not
breached as it was found that the bombs fre-
quently bounced right over the moat and
exploded in the vicinity of Mandalay Hill!
The fighter-bombers then changed to a
north-south orientation and some gaps were
made in the upper wall of the fort. In the
meantime, more medium guns had opened
up at close range on the north and east walls,
producing numerous points of entry for the
attacking forces. Jungle growth makes a comparison from the same vantage point almost impossible.

While the battle for the fort continued, tanks and infantry are attack on the central areas where the Japanese were still hold-
pictured here filtering into Mandalay town proper for the ing out. (IWM)

39
 5th PROOF
The victory had not come cheap. The
Japanese had been ready for XXXIII Corps
— an unfortunate by-product of Slim’s diver-
sionary plan to snatch Meiktila — and it cost
the Allies 1,472 killed, 4,933 wounded and a
further 120 men missing. Sickness (losses
from which dropped later in the campaign
due to improved medical care), accounted
for another 3,571.

Mandalay is Burma’s second city and at

one time was the capital of the old Burmese
kingdom. Immortalised by Rudyard Kipling
and later by Ian Dury and the Blockheads
(who were obviously fond of Kipling!) in
their 1978 hit record, it was a place I was
very much looking forward to see for
myself. When I arrived there in June 1996, I
found it to be very dusty with many of the
buildings having obviously been rebuilt
since the war. The heat was intense — very
similar to that suffered by XXXIII Corps
over 50 years before — but I loved the place.
Being smack-bang in the centre of Burma, it
is a comfortable and great base from which
to strike out to other locations; no doubt
Slim thought so too!
When cycling around the huge perimeter
March 20: General Rees collects his prize and ascends to the battlements. of Fort Dufferin today, patchy post-war

The next significant assault on the fort

occurred two days later. The plan was for
infantrymen supported by engineers and
flame-thrower units to infiltrate through
breaches in the north-east and north-west
areas of the wall. The operation was to take
place at night and troops were to wear rub-
ber-soled boots and move up without hel-
mets to maintain an element of stealth. Once
entry into the fort had been achieved, the
north-west and north-east groups were to
regroup and attempt to secure the northern
half of the fort. Then, fighting patrols were to
be sent to capture and hold the remaining
exits at which time tanks would be sent in
and the remaining Japanese, starved and low
on ammunition, mopped up piecemeal.
As the troops moved off at 10 p.m., pad-
dling across the moat, they were spotted by
the Japanese who scrambled to their posi-
tions on the wall, opening fire on the boats
below. One boat was lost and it was then
found that the flame-throwers lacked the
range to deal with the small-arms fire of the
Japanese defenders. It was also clear that the
attackers had nowhere to go and, with dawn
approaching, General Rees ordered their
withdrawal. Today Fort Dufferin is very much under Burmese military control.
For the rest of March 18, the RAF contin-
ued their bombing attacks on the north wall. fort. The six ethnic Burmese who proffered repairs to the wall are very obvious and the
The next day artillery took over with many this surrender announced that the surviving fort is still very much under Burmese mili-
guns firing at point-blank range from 300 to Japanese defenders had left the fort during tary control.
500 yards so that, by dusk, there were around the night. The 62nd Brigade moved into the Mandalay is an excellent place to hunt for
20 separate breaches. fort, reporting it clear, and at 1.30 p.m., 12 military relics — there are some interesting
At midday on March 20, after another of days after the battle for the city had begun, pieces in impromptu tourist shops — but
the RAF’s heavy raids on the stronghold, a one of the gunners nailed a Union Flag to again, they are not cheap (a little less than
white flag, accompanied by the Union Flag, Fort Dufferin’s flagstaff. Mandalay was Meiktila) and one is unlikely to find anything
emerged from the east gate of the battered Slim’s. particularly scarce.

In the background of this picture can be seen Mandalay Hill; in Repairs to the crenellated wall seem not to have followed
between lies the formidable moat around the palace. (IWM) faithfully to the original.

40
 5th PROOF

MOUNT POPA AND SURROUNDS Left: Monday, April 2, 1945, and a moment of quiet reflection in the advance to
The Imperial Armies were on the retreat Rangoon. The commander of the 19th Indian Division, Major-General Pete Rees, and
from the Central Front. While the Japanese Lieutenant-Colonel H. Finch of the 2nd Royal Berkshire Regiment pictured attending
high command braced itself for what was a church service in Maymyo, 40 miles east of Mandalay. (IWM) Right: Elliott found All
sure to be a decisive set of battles, IV Corps Saints Church little changed, albeit that Burma has not been part of the British
was to spearhead the advance to Rangoon, Empire for over 50 years.
leading the push down the road from Meik-
tila.
While IV Corps was driving south,
XXXIII Corps was clearing the area along
the Irrawaddy, a region, part of which con-
tained the rich oil fields surrounding the oil
town of Chauk. The first signs of serious
Japanese resistance were met at Point 534
south of Letse, but resistance crumbled fol-
lowing an air strike by four squadrons of
RAF Thunderbolts and Hurricanes. The
89th Brigade (7th Indian Division) was held
up by the stubborn Japanese defences
around Chauk. As the 5th Brigade (British
2nd Division) moved south into the Mount
Popa area, after minor skirmishes with small
INA (Indian National Army) units, the deci-
sion was made to seize the railhead town of
Kyaukpadaung and neutralise any Japanese
resistance around Mount Popa. The region
was believed to be occupied by the Japanese
154th Regiment.
As the 268th Brigade cut the enemy’s com-
munications to the rear, 33rd Brigade moved
in on Kyaukpadaung from the north. The
capture of this small town was essential since,
not only was it situated in a strategic position
as far as the railway junction was concerned,
but it was also at the centre of an important
road junction, the capture of which was vital
for continued security along the XXXIII
Corps most forward position.
The attack on Kyaukpadaung was
launched on April 12. The Japanese were not
sufficiently strong to resist the repeated
attacks of the Allied armour, and, after a
long day, they slipped away during the night.
All that remained the next morning were 32
INA troops who surrendered along with six
Japanese, 125 dead and a 15cm howitzer as
well as numerous items of oil plant machin-
ery and railway rolling stock. By April 12,
with Slim’s army extended in a long line five
divisions wide across the central front, the
RAF moved up, a step closer to Rangoon,
the mobile advanced control centre follow-
ing IV Corps on its more direct push to
recapture the capital.
However, even with Fourteenth Army’s
advance as rapid as it was, time was already
running out as it was already starting to rain
in the northernmost edge of the monsoon
belt turning all unmetalled roads into muddy
quagmires. The humid atmosphere that

41
 5th PROOF
the 1/3rd Madras, forcing the battalion to
move forward into safety beyond the barrage
curtain. Progress in the heat was slow and six
days later one battalion had reached the
northern tracts skirting the mountain where
it met up with 5th Brigade, while the remain-
ing battalion took up position on a ridge in
the southern shadows of the volcano. As
night fell on the 19th, fires were seen break-
ing out all over the mountain as the Japan-
ese, obviously doubting their ability to hold
the hill mass, started to destroy their stores
to prevent them falling into Allied hands. As
the rest of 268th Brigade moved in, numer-
ous small groups of Japanese on the retreat
were engaged, and five 105mm guns and 17
3-ton lorries captured.
The next day the defences on Mount Popa
crumbled as infantry from 268th Brigade,
supported by armour, swept up the slopes of
the beleaguered mountain, the odd Japanese
remaining fleeing under the cover of dark-
ness only to be destroyed in the open when
daylight came.
The Allied victories in the Irrawaddy basin
and on Mount Popa were significant — effec-
tively securing the attacker’s right flank and
Above: Troops from the 5th Brigade (2nd Division) supported by armour move up the thus providing XXXIII Corps with the secu-
slopes of Mount Popa. (IWM) Below: At this point, the road curves to the left, eventu- rity it needed to advance further into the
ally to reach the steps of the monastery. It was just around the corner that . . . heart of Burma and into the Rangoon district

followed the monsoon deluges left men gasp-

ing in the intensely hot and steaming air and
unable to function properly in what was a
very hostile environment. The effects of the
climate change increased the hazards of
overflying the Burmese countryside too.
RAF crews were vulnerable in the banks of
cumulus clouds that preceded the early rain-
fall. Nevertheless, these obstacles could not
be allowed to slow the advance, for con-
ditions would only get worse as the Four-
teenth Army approached Rangoon and the
monsoon season started in earnest.
The Allies began to close in on Chauk and
the settlement at Mount Popa. As Chauk fell
after a stiff tussle, 268th Brigade launched
the attack on the garrison on Mount Popa.
The long-extinct volcano dominates the
landscape around about and is visible for
many miles as a distinctive landmark in the
flat dusty plains of central Burma, the peak
of the mountain being formed by the ragged
edges of the crater. A single long and wind-
ing road attempts to take the bite out of the
gradient up to the summit, but the hill is tor-
tuously steep, especially near the top, and to
travel the distance in the heat of the day by April 13, but the Japanese defences were where it hoped to deal the Japanese a crush-
foot would have been utterly exhausting. The well organised and on the night of the ing blow before the crippling monsoon sea-
1/3rd Madras and the Nepalese Mahindra 14th/15th a bombardment started a brush son started in earnest. It was a race against
Dal Regiment engaged the enemy on fire in the scrub surrounding the positions of time.

. . . the Japanese resorted to suicide tactics to try to halt the

advance. Left: A 250lb bomb was found buried in the road with
a command wire to a nearby foxhole for a soldier to detonate
the explosives beneath a passing tank. (IWM) Above: Elliott
found several examples of empty bomb casings being put to
secular use as bells — like this one in Mount Popa monastery.

42
 5th PROOF
YAMETHIN
The IV Corps advance was south on a two-
brigade front on a direct collision course with
the Japanese who held Pyawbwe. The town
was held by the tattered remnants of Lieu-
tenant-General M. Honda’s 33rd Army,
severely mauled from their encounter with
the British at Meiktila, and the speed of the
Allied advance caught the defenders on the
hop before they could be bolstered by the
15th Army. The 33rd was no match for the
Allied armour flung at it by Slim, and the
town was enveloped, cutting its communica-
tions to the rear, before General Cowan,
commanding the attack, moved in for the
kill.
After initially and unknowingly surround-
ing the Japanese headquarters, Allied tanks
moved off to the north, giving General
Honda and his staff the chance to flee to
Yamethin where they regrouped with the
18th Division. With their leader gone, the
33rd Army fought on to its destruction.
Although Honda had given orders to pull out
on the night of April 9/10, when Pyawbwe
was finally entered the following day, 1,110
dead were found along with 13 guns. An
army had perished along with its weapons:
total Japanese losses from April 3-10 being
2,900 dead, 44 guns, six medium tanks and 70 Above: The remains of the Burma railway — Mandalay to Rangoon. Heavy air and
motor transport vehicles. Only 29 prisoners artillery attacks reduced Yamethin railway station to rubble. (IWM) Below: Techni-
had been taken. One incident on April 10, cally, photography of railway installations is forbidden in Burma though Elliott was
when a column of 150 Japanese soldiers was not to be outdone.
marching north to Pyawbwe, exemplified the
discipline and martial code of the Japanese
soldier, for when it was attacked with mortar
rounds and small-arms fire, resulting in a
third of their number being killed, the troops
did not break formation, continuing to march
straight on to Pyawbwe.
As the escaped remnants of Honda’s army
retreated southward and regrouped at
Yamethin, they were pursued by elements of
the 5th Indian Division (Major-General E.
C. R. Mansergh). On the evening of April 11,
the leading elements of the 5th Division
came under heavy fire as they attempted to
enter Yamethin, forcing them to withdraw
north of the town. The Japanese force cut off
an advance guard some 100 strong (which
had passed through the town without
incident) from the main body.
Early next morning, the 123rd Brigade
harbour was attacked by low-flying Japanese
aircraft. There were few casualties but a tured no further ground and at 4.30 p.m. the stubborn and it was not until midday that the
bomb (the only one dropped) hit a petrol attack was halted. That night, the Jats, who 2/1st Punjabis, supported by tanks and
lorry and the resulting fire destroyed 28 vehi- were on the north-west of the town, were attacking from the west and south-west,
cles, including several petrol and ammuni- attacked twice but they counter-attacked managed to drive the Japanese from Yame-
tion lorries. later that morning, clearing and occupying thin. The action at Yamethin was a fierce one
Efforts to enter Yamethin that morning the area west of the main road. However, the and cost 123rd Brigade 126 casualties and the
failed as 500 Japanese reinforcements had advance guard remained cut-off from the Royal Armoured Corps two tanks. The dead
arrived. A further attack with heavy air and main body since the Japanese still had a con- bodies of 80 Japanese soldiers were found,
artillery support by the 7th York and Lan- trolling arc of fire over the vital road. Resis- their injured colleagues presumably having
caster and 3/9th Jats in the afternoon cap- tance in the eastern half of the town was escaped with the retreating main force.

Left: Not far away he found evidence of the fighting. This shell of a Ford armoured car
(technically an Armoured Carrier, Wheeled, Indian pattern on Canadian Ford Quad
chassis) — possibly one of those lost by the 116th Royal Armoured Corps on April 14
— lies near the local tennis court where further signs of battle are evident (right).

43
 5th PROOF

Just 50 miles from Rangoon, a rifleman of the 1/10th Gurkhas Much of what is now called Bago has been rebuilt including the
enters the smouldering streets of Pegu on May 1, 1945. (IWM) mosque in the background of the wartime photograph.

PEGU
The approach of the 17th Division on Pegu
(Bago as it is known in modern-day Burma)
was halted on April 30 at the Moyingyi
Reservoir where the Japanese were found in
a well-organised defensive position. The
reservoir protected their right flank, while a
minefield covered other approaches. Natural
obstacles prevented the outflanking of the
position by 17th Division’s tanks so the 9th
Royal Horse were ordered to make a two-
squadron frontal attack with their medium
tanks at 9.30 a.m., supported by a company
of the 6/7th Rajputs. The attackers were held
up by the stubborn Japanese defences but
managed to break through to establish a
road-block to the south of the position. At 3
p.m. elements of the 1/3rd Gurkhas and the
third squadron of the 9th Royal Horse were
sent into the fray. The Japanese fought on,
but in vain and by 6.30 p.m. all resistance had
ceased. The Japanese had lost over 200 men,
and numerous stores, dumps of ammunition
and several vehicles were also captured. The
17th Division suffered 65 casualties and lost
three tanks.
Pegu itself was the last major town on the
road to Rangoon and as such it was occupied
by a large Japanese force — cobbled
together and patriotically (and perhaps opti-
mistically) called the Rangoon Defence
Force (RDF). Commanded by Major-Gen-
eral H. Matsui, the RDF consisted of the
105th Independent Mixed Brigade, a provi- Rangoon — symbolic goal of the ‘forgotten’ Fourteenth Army in its epic advance. Its
sional brigade made up of convalescent sol- railway station was also a sorry sight when captured. (IWM)
diers; Japanese civilians; military prisoners;
men from sea, rail and other administrative
units; an anti-aircraft battalion; an airfield
battalion; several infantry units made up of
training personnel, trainees and reservists,
and two naval guard companies. All in all,
the force numbered around 6,000 men.
With lightning speed, the 17th Division’s
attack on Pegu began on April 30. A com-
pany from the 48th Brigade moved up to the
railway station, taking the northernmost
bridge which had been blown by the Japan-
ese. Meanwhile, the 63rd Brigade was slowed
by well-hidden Japanese guns, only one of
their tanks being destroyed and its support-
ing armour hit taking considerable damage.
By 5 p.m., as the attack was halted at dusk,
the 1/3rd Gurkhas and the 5th Horse had
secured a 200ft hill overlooking Pegu. Night
patrols sent out reported that the Japanese
were withdrawing and by 8 a.m. the next day,
armour from the 255th Tank Brigade had
cleared eastern Pegu leaving 133 dead Japan-
ese and 24 guns, eight of which were of
British origin (most of them still serviceable),
eight Vickers and an ordnance dump. Pegu
railway station was seized and by the evening
of May 1 the town was in Allied hands. The
Fourteenth Army was now just 50 miles from
Rangoon.

44
 5th PROOF

‘Japs Gone’. The enigmatic inscription on the roof of Insein Prison which spelt the end of the Japanese occupation of Burma.

RANGOON reported that the words ‘Japs gone’ had been ‘Extract Digit’ (i.e. Wake up!) An RAF
The assault on Rangoon was initiated by painted on the roof of Insein Prison, a loca- Mosquito then landed on the racecourse, the
an airborne landing of a battalion of Gas at tion which held many Allied prisoners of crew being the first to confirm the Japanese
Elephant Point, south-west of the city. war. The message was given credibility by had fled. Rangoon was in Allied hands once
Meanwhile, RAF aircraft over-flying the city the addition of a piece of RAF slang — more.

Left: The few Allied PoWs remaining in the prison were soon taken by Major Hudson in 1974, the prison was in use as an
replaced by Japanese. (IWM) Right: When the comparison was army recruiting depot.

The joint Thanksgiving and Victory Parade in Rangoon The Military Governor, Major-General Henry Chambers com-
included troops from all the services which fought in Burma. manding the 26th Indian Division, took the salute.

45
 In November 1990, a Burmese hunter
deep in the hilly wilds of north-western
Burma, stumbled upon the wreckage of an
aeroplane. Searching through the debris he
found a watch inscribed with the name and
Service number of a W. Kyle. The watch was
THE DISCOVERY OF KN563
passed on to a Christian missionary who
handed it to a representative of the Com-
monwealth War Graves Commission
stage. Permission for the operation to take
place was pursued at the highest diplomatic
channels and, after more than a year of con-
By Elliott Smock
(CWGC) at Taukkyan Cemetery outside centrated planning and diplomacy, the team communications; Captain Homer Tien, team
Rangoon. By chance, a visiting British lady was granted full permission to attend to the doctor; Corporals Frank Hudec and Mark
who saw the watch informed the CWGC rep- crash site. Lamontagne, still and video footage; and
resentative that the ‘R’ prefix of the Service It was the task of Major Bill Leavey of the Warrant Officer Tim Robinson and Jim
number suggested that the watch had Canadian Armed Forces to put together a Vienneau, field and jungle experts. Civilian
belonged to a serviceman in the RCAF, and ten-man military team to go into the jungle members included Garth Pritchard and
so, after several routine attempts to resolve and recover the remains of the lost airmen. Daron Donahue who were cameramen for
the situation by the CWGC, the matter was Forensic dentist Lieutenant-Colonel Martin the National Film Board. Team leader was
passed to the Canadian Veterans Affairs Field would be in charge of the most impor- Philip MacDonald of Veterans Affairs Can-
organisation in July 1995. Upon further tant aspect of the mission — that of record- ada. Shelly Whiting, the second secretary of
research it was learnt that William Kyle had ing and recovering the remains — while mili- the Canadian Embassy in Thailand, also
held the rank of pilot officer and was the co- tary policeman Chief Warrant Officer Terry accompanied the team. To prepare them for
pilot of a C-47 which had failed to return Cyr was responsible for team security. Other the Burmese jungle, everyone embarked on
from carrying out an air supply drop in June team members included Master Corporals an intensive three-day jungle training course,
1945, and was one of six men subsequently Steve Cruickshank and Wade Patterson, also receiving numerous immunisation shots.
reported missing.
With the crash site identified, the Veterans
Affairs and the Canadian Department of
National Defence set up a Foreign Affairs
and International Trade recovery team, their
task being to positively identify the wreckage
and to recover and identify the human
remains. However, the mission to reach the
crash site was far from straightforward. It
was close to the Indian border and hence in a
restricted area for which permission was
needed; furthermore, timing was critical
since the unbearable jungle heat and mon-
soon conditions prevalent between March
and September would make such a physical
exercise near impossible. A first attempt to
retrieve the remains took place in the
autumn of 1995 but failed; similarly, a second
attempt in spring 1996 also met with failure.
In the meantime, Kyle’s watch was returned
to Canada whereupon Veterans Affairs Can-
ada reunited it with his surviving relatives.
As more information was collected regard-
ing the site, and as communications between
the Canadian and Burmese authorities
improved, the task looked more likely to suc- Top: The Canadians return. Following in the wake of a long-lost Dakota, which failed
ceed. The Canadian government was whole- to return from a supply-dropping mission to Myitkyina on June 21, 1945, a recovery
heartedly behind the initiative and the party from the Canadian Armed Forces fly over the Burmese jungle to search for the
Burmese authorities were anxious to find a remains of the crew of KN563. Above: Led by Major Bill Leavey, the team undertook
way to improve their image on the political route marches with full rucksacks to prepare them for the mission.

46
Base camp was established at Khamti, a village some 50 miles Lieutenant-Colonel Martin Field briefs Phil MacDonald of the
from the crash site. Canadian Veterans Affairs and Major Leavey before the off.

The recovery team arrived in Rangoon

(now known as Yangon) on November 22,
1996. The temperature was 35°C (November
is quite pleasant in Burma) and the team
began to adjust to the very un-Canadian heat
and humidity. After seven days of acclimati-
sation and revision of jungle techniques, the
search and recovery team flew 1,000 miles
north, courtesy of Myanmar Airways,
Burma’s domestic server. They landed at
Khamti, a small outpost which was to be
their base camp for the next few weeks.
Meeting with the district’s military authori-
ties, the expedition details were finalised.
Next morning, December 2, Major Leavey’s
group flew 50 miles by helicopter to be
dropped off in the jungle.
Upon arrival at the crash site, the remains
of the aircraft appeared upside-down, the
only complete piece of wreckage being the
tail unit, much of the rest having been gutted
by fire. As Leavey said afterwards: ‘Wreck-
age was scattered over an area of approx-
imately 30 square metres, in a ravine with a
steep slope. The largest part was roughly 1.5
metres long, but there were hundreds of
small fragments scattered both on and below
the jungle soil and mire. No remains were
immediately apparent, and more than 50
years of erosion, vegetation and monsoon
storms had altered the site significantly. The
only solution was to dig. And dig we did. It
was quite warm by Canadian standards and
after about 30 minutes we were soaked with The only major intact piece of wreckage found at the crash site of the No. 435 Squad-
sweat.’ ron C-47 was the crumpled tail section.

The whole object of the exercise was to recover human hands over pieces of bone found by hunters and (right) points
remains. Left: Major Siu Thu, the Burmese Army liaison officer, out the spot where these had been unearthed.

47
 The recovery team dug for three days and The team hand-dug the whole area, care- The team laid six poppies in a cross on a
on the second day Cruickshank found a fully sifting the soil for bone fragments. tree at the crash site and placed a ‘Canada
watch with an inscription on the back which Remembers’ flag at half-mast on another
read: ‘Jim, from Mom, 26-12-1943’. That was tree. Six small remembrance pennants were
a moving moment for the team members, planted before the team departed.
one commenting: ‘We’ve all got little chil- The individual personal effects belonging
dren and it was from this guy’s mom’. to some of the crew were catalogued and
On the third day, the team gathered returned to the families. Parts recovered
together and performed a remembrance ser- from the aircraft were destined to be dis-
vice for the dead airmen. It was an emotional played at the Canadian War Museum includ-
moment for the 14 Canadians as Shelly Whit- ing a metal cup (in two sections), examples of
ing recited the WW1 poem Verbatim fol- melted aluminium, an engine hose cover, an
lowed by Philip MacDonald’s rendition of aircraft wheel jack, a radio box outlet, glow
the Act of Remembrance. tube, fuel pump and various other electrical
components, temperature gauge, parachute,
They shall grow not old, as we that are left fire extinguisher plate, Douglas cover plate,
grow old; engine control cover, two seat-belt buckles,
Age shall not weary them nor the years steering component and control arm, blinker
condemn. oxygen flow indicator, a fishing lure, two
forks, a small folding knife, a Pratt & Whit-
At the going down of the sun and in the ney engine plate, shell casings (exploded), a
morning; radio jack, an eye glass (spectacles) and a
We will remember them. propeller blade.

48
Left: At the end of the operation, members of the recovery their fellow-countrymen lost their lives on this precise spot.
team stood in silent remembrance of the day when six of Right: Canada Remembers.

WHAT HAPPENED TO KN563? Burma where low, wispy clouds often that, except in isolated cases, few, if any, of
Dakota KN563 belonged to No. 435 obscure visibility. In such poor conditions, these crashes will ever be found.’
(Royal Canadian Air Force) Transport the aircraft could easily have flown into high The remains of the crew of KN563 were
Squadron. During the Burma campaign, the ground. Extensive fire damage indicates that laid to rest in Taukkyan War Cemetery on
squadron transported 24,906 tonnes of the aircraft did not run out of fuel and, March 5, 1997. They were buried with full
freight and 14,000 passengers, and evacuated although engine failure is unlikely, it is still a military honours, the difficult task of identi-
851 casualties, achieving a total of 15,681 sor- possibility. fying the remains having led to a collective
ties over Burma. After the cessation of hostilities in South grave with a single, flag-draped coffin. In
Under the command of Warrant Officer East Asia in August 1945, both British and Canada, Veterans Week 1997 was launched
William Rogers of Halifax, KN563 took off American search teams made extensive on November 5 with the hand-over of the
from Tulihal, India, on the morning of June efforts to trace and recover the remains of components from KN563 by the Honourable
21, 1945, her crew briefed to drop supplies to lost servicemen. From February 1946 Fred Miflin, Minister of Veterans Affairs, to
the Fourteenth Army at Myitkyina some 200 onwards, numerous British parties scoured the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. The
miles from base. Nothing further was heard Burma and the surrounding countries for the ceremony, held at the Canadian Museum of
of the aircraft and it did not return. Conse- remains of wrecked aircraft and their occu- Civilisation was attended by family members
quently, the pilot, Warrant Officer Rogers; pants. Search Team No. 9 surveyed the Indo- of the six airmen, members of the recovery
Pilot Officer William Kyle of Perth, Ontario; Burma frontier — the region in which team, Canadian veterans and high school stu-
Flight Sergeant Charles McLaren of Camp- KN563 was discovered — an area which has dents. Mr Miflin said ‘I am proud to be able
bellville, Ontario; Flying Officer David some of the most difficult terrain in the to launch Veterans Week with the transfer of
Cameron of Oshawa, Ontario; Warrant whole country. A report issued by Air Com- these important items to the Canadian War
Officer Stanley Cox of Beresford, Manitoba; mand, South East Asia, in 1946 said: ‘Some Museum.”
and Leading Aircraftman Cornelius Kopp of 50 crashes remain outstanding in these areas The representative pieces of KN563 were
Duchess, Atlanta, were all posted as missing, after continuous search, apart from monsoon accepted on behalf of the museum by Dr
presumed dead, and their names were added periods, extending over 15 months by one of George MacDonald who responded: ‘The
to the Singapore memorial. the most experienced OCs [Officers Com- mission of these six airmen has come to a
The reason for the crash remains obscure. manding] Searcher Teams. In view of the conclusion . . . But with these pieces now
The monsoon period is in full swing in June, lack of positive information regarding the housed at the Canadian War Museum, we
especially in the hilly regions of northern location of crashes, it is probably true to say will ensure their story continues to be heard.’

March 1997. In the presence of family members, a single coffin is borne to its last resting place in Taukkyan War Cemetery.

49
LIEUTENANT HENRY FONDA, USN
Henry J. Fonda approached everything he
did with a seriousness of purpose. After
Pearl Harbor he registered for the draft right
By James E. Wise Jr and Anne Collier Rehill
away, and on August 24, 1942, he walked
into Naval Headquarters in Los Angeles to
enlist. His hope was to serve as a gunner’s
mate, since this was a shooting war and
Fonda, as always, intended to give it his all
and get the job done right. He was already an
established star, having made his screen
debut in 1935 in The Farmer Takes a Wife,
and having played the lead, in 1940, in what
many still consider his masterpiece, The
Grapes of Wrath (for which he was nomi-
nated for an Academy Award).
In 1942, at age 37, Fonda was exempt from
the draft. He was not exempt from the objec-
tions of his wife, but Frances Seymour finally
relented and sent him off with her blessing.
She would wait with their children in their
Pennsylvania Dutch-style house (complete
with walk-in fireplace, it sat on nine acres of
gentleman’s farmland amid flagstone walk-
ways, flowers, vines, haystacks, chickens,
rabbits, and a Victory Garden grown under
the guidance of Organic Gardening and
Farming magazine). Fonda felt that he must
do his duty as an able-bodied American man.
What would his fans say, he asked Fran, if
they saw his face up there on the screen
instead of out there with the rest of his com-
patriots? His place was with them, for now.
Born in 1905 in Nebraska to a printer
father and a mother who woke him up in the Top: Having joined the US Navy voluntarily in 1942, Henry Fonda ended his wartime
middle of the night at age five so he would career with the award of the Bronze Star for meritorious service as an Assistant
not miss Halley’s Comet, Henry Fonda was Operations Officer and Air Combat Intelligence Officer. Here he is seen receiving the
brought up a Christian Scientist and taught decoration from Vice Admiral G. D. Murray, the Commander Marianas. Above: Fonda
to be honest, hardworking, and forthright. began his acting career in 1935 in The Farmer Takes a Wife with Janet Gaynor.

50
Fonda began his service career as a Quartermaster Third Class (below) on the staff of the Commander Forward Area Central
on the USS Satterlee (above), ending the war a lieutenant Pacific aboard the USS Curtiss (bottom).

He went through boot camp, with its view for Naval History magazine, that Fonda
physical training, questionnaires and tests, at ‘had already, on his own, set up shop in one
San Diego. Previously always skinny—he of the ship’s offices and was hard at work
and buddy Jim Stewart (see After the Battle checking inventory against allowance . . . and
No. 1) had tried muscle-building exercises at beginning the endless task of making correc-
MGM to get some meat onto their scrawny tions. He also checked regularly on shipyard
arms — on the boot-camp diet Fonda gained work in the bridge area and took custody of
weight for the first time in his life. He earned the navigation equipment when it arrived. I
his white cap after eight weeks’ training. His should have done that work, but my XO
plan of becoming a gunner’s mate was duties kept me busy. As soon as possible, we
fouled, though, by a chief petty officer who selected a QM striker, but Fonda was the
gave him what-for about wanting so badly to Navigation Department.’ This was typical
go out and get himself all shot up. After see- behaviour for the focused, steady Fonda. At
ing the results of Fonda’s tests and recognis- times aloof, even unapproachable, Fonda
ing the young fool’s high intelligence, the brought to each task the same powers of con-
chief cut orders for him to attend 16 weeks of centration. (But he also knew how to have a
quartermaster training. This meant that right good time when the occasion called for
Fonda would be a navigator’s assistant — not it; after the war he and Jimmy Stewart par-
good news. Maths had never been his forte, tied for almost a year.)
and during his training he would not only The Satterlee’s sea trials began in May
have to improve his mathematical skills, he 1943 and ended with commissioning on July
would also have to master trigonometry and 1. As the ship left port and headed for San
navigation equipment. His primary duty as Diego, it was discovered that one crewman
quartermaster would be communications — was missing, a signalman third class. Fonda
signaling with blinkers and flags. He stayed accepted those responsibilities as well, mean-
up nights and studied as he had never done ing that he had to stand double watches and
before, after which newly rated Quartermas- work twice as long and hard as the others.
ter Third Class Fonda was on his way to his But when the Satterlee arrived in San Diego,
first ship, the USS Satterlee (DD-626), a Ben- Fonda was able to celebrate by hitching a
son/Gleaves-class destroyer. ride to Hollywood and the farm.
The Satterlee was the second US destroyer He returned a week later to a new set of
to be so named. The original was a World orders. He was to report to Naval Head-
War I four-piper, part of the destroyers- quarters, 90 Church Street, New York City,
for-bases deal reached between Britain and Fonda reported to the second Satterlee in for officer’s training. Meanwhile, the Satter-
the United States. The British were desper- May 1943 as she stood almost completed in lee was to get under way the following day
ate for more ‘small boys’ after their stagger- the builder’s ways at the Seattle-Tacoma bound for Norfolk, Virginia. Because of
ing losses early in World War II, and the US Shipbuilding Corporation. The ship’s execu- Fonda’s departure, there would be no quar-
destroyers were turned over for Royal Navy tive officer, Lieutenant Charles Cassell, termaster third and no signalman third.
service in September 1940. The original Sat- reported around the same time, and when he Fonda promptly volunteered to stay with the
terlee, renamed HMS Belmont, was torpe- boarded the ship, Fonda was one of those ship during the transit. If he was going to be
doed and sunk by the German U-boat U-82 already aboard. Cassell later told Captain an officer, he needed all the Navy experience
on January 31, 1942 in the mid-Atlantic. Alexander G. Monroe, USNR, in an inter- he could get.

51
 Before Fonda’s departure, a fellow ACI
officer spoke to the green men about what to
expect in the Pacific. Among other admon-
ishments, he advised them confidentially to
bring along as much liquor as they could
carry. It would come in handier than any-
thing else when they needed to bargain for
boats, vehicles, or whatever their admirals
told them to get.
After a week’s leave with his family,
Fonda travelled north to San Francisco and
boarded a Dutch freighter that took him and
several other ACI officers to Pearl Harbor.
In a parachute bag he carried 14 bottles of
top-grade bourbon, carefully wrapped.
A two-week cram course in anti-subma-
rine warfare at Kaneohe, Hawaii, was fol-
lowed by temporary assignment to the staff
of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the US naval
commander in the Pacific. As an additional
duty, Fonda was made an officer-courier and
soon found himself en route to Kwajalein
atoll delivering dispatches to Admiral Nimitz
(whose flagship was the carrier Essex
[CV-9]). He made the mistake of leaving his
parachute bag in a Quonset hut while taking
a launch out to the Essex. Upon his return,
The Satterlee departed as planned, in com- he discovered that the bag had undergone a secured to a mooring buoy for the night. The
pany with three destroyers, escorting the series of mishaps culminating in its being real problem was that shortly after dark the
British aircraft carrier Victorious. The group tossed out of a departing plane onto the run- Japanese began their nightly bombing
ran south to the Panama Canal, transited the way. At least four bottles had been smashed. attacks . . . [This] went on until Commander
canal, and sailed north to the naval base at Dripping with bourbon, Fonda reported to Forward Area Central Pacific arrived,
Norfolk. During this transit Fonda had a his new home, where the executive officer embarked in USS Curtiss . . . [Then] things
hellish time with the signalman’s part of his ordered him to hand over all of his clothes started changing fast, and soon there was an
duties. Standing on a small perforated plat- for early, emergency-only laundering. anti-submarine net around the whole
form off the bridge behind the surface look- The Curtiss provided maintenance and anchorage, and we no longer were able to
out, he had to read the signals from the general support for the PBM seaplanes of have movies on the weather decks because
Victorious and relay them to the striker, Patrol Bomber Squadron (VPB) 216. The darken ship and other regulations were more
below him. A chain running across the front PBM ‘Mariners’ collected intelligence that tightly enforced.’
of the platform kept them from falling over- was processed by Fonda and his small group Fonda’s conscientiousness made a lasting
board. All this was tricky enough business of photo interpreters and analysts. Informa- impression on Cook, in particular once in
under normal conditions, but when they hit tion gathered from numerous frames of late 1944, when one of his patrolling aircraft
stormy weather on their way to the Panama aerial film and post-mission debriefings were reported the sighting of a Japanese subma-
Canal, the lookout got seasick. Worse, the dispatched to higher command for use in tac- rine. Fonda, who was staff watch officer at
winds blew it straight into Fonda’s face and tical planning and Fonda routinely briefed the time, received the report and knew he
telescope, making it all the more difficult — and debriefed squadron crews. had to move immediately to alert naval
and unpleasant — for him to decipher the The Curtiss’s wartime patrols ‘lasted most forces in the area. ‘Action on his part was
flagship’s messages. of the daylight hours’, remembers VPB 216 necessary’, Cook says, ‘and he left to issue
Shortly after their arrival in Norfolk, a commanding officer Captain Harry E. Cook, the warning to alert all units present. He was
relieved Fonda got shore leave along with ‘and most landings were made in the late in such a hurry that he stumbled as he started
the signalman first, whom he had befriended, afternoon.’ Cook’s account (from the Naval down a ladder . . . with the result that he suf-
and the two of them went out and got History interview with Captain Monroe) fered a bad laceration . . . [He] continued full
pie-eyed. The party went on until daybreak. continues: ‘Because we had to refuel from tilt until he had completed his duty and only
Later that morning Fonda reeled onto the tenders, it was well after dark before we then did he get to sick bay for treatment.’
northbound train with his seabag and his
orders to report to Naval Headquarters, New
York. The ship’s logbook notes recorded his
departure: ‘Fonda, H. J. 562-62-35, QM3/c,
USN transferred to local receiving station for
further transfer to Commandant 3rd Naval
District for assignment by Bureau of Naval
Personnel.’
Fonda reported to his new command in
New York and was discharged as an enlisted
man. Moments later he was sworn in again,
as a lieutenant (jg). He was ordered to Wash-
ington to make training films at Naval Air
Station Anacostia. But a bitterly disap-
pointed Fonda managed to convince his new
boss at Anacostia that he could best serve in
air combat intelligence (ACI). The officer,
who would have preferred to be anywhere
but behind a desk himself, evidently was an
understanding man and ordered Fonda to
Naval Training School (Air Combat Intelli-
gence), Naval Air Station Quonset Point,
Rhode Island.
Fonda found his new training much to his
liking. His schoolmates were mayors, district
attorneys, young judges—bright people with
interesting backgrounds. In their company
he learned coding, photo interpretation, and
other requisite skills, finishing the course in
the upper quarter of his class. Finally granted
his wish to join the fighting Navy, the newly
designated ACI officer was ordered to the
seaplane tender USS Curtiss (AV-4) to serve Mister Roberts in which he portrayed the leading character, both in the 1948 stage
as assistant air operations officer under Vice play and the film version in 1955, enabled Fonda to relive his days in the Pacific. Not
Admiral John Howard Hoover, Commander only was he able to draw on his first-hand experience of life at sea . . . but he also
Forward Area Central Pacific. wore his own original wartime cap to add a nice touch of authenticity.

52
 Later that day Fonda served as master of
ceremonies for a ship board entertainment
program featuring renowned banjoist and
Naval Reserve officer Eddie Peabody. As he
took to the makeshift stage, Fonda received
a standing ovation — his shipmates’ demon-
stration of their approval of Lieutenant
Fonda.
Shortly after Fonda reported aboard the
Curtiss, the ship moved on to Eniwetok. The
general-quarters alarm went off regularly,
and all hands grabbed life preservers and
helmets and rushed to the deck. Fonda was
assigned to battle stations only a few times
during the war.
The Curtiss moved with the fleet as it
mounted campaigns against Guam, Saipan,
and Iwo Jima. With Americans now within
striking distance of their home islands, the
Japanese initiated kamikaze operations,
which took a heavy toll on US combatants
and their crews. When the ship was off
Saipan in December 1944, Tokyo Rose
broadcast information about the seaplane
tender, including the fact that actor Henry
Fonda was on board. She promised that
Japanese forces would soon sink the ship,
and within a few days the Curtiss was indeed
attacked, narrowly missing being hit by
kamikazes.
Fonda first saw one of these suicide planes
when the Curtiss’s guns shot it down and it
crashed into the water some 25 yards from
the ship. Fonda believed that his duty was to
collect whatever intelligence he could from
the downed aircraft, and the next day, after
things had quieted down, he and two sailors
climbed into shallow-water diving gear. They
dived down to the plane, about 30 feet below
the surface, finding the bodies of the pilot
and bombardier still strapped into their over-
turned aircraft. Fonda and his mates recov-
ered maps, flight plans, and other valuable
documentation.
ACI officer Fonda, now a full lieutenant,
studied it all and concluded that the
kamikazes were being launched from tiny
Pagan Island in the middle of the Marianas
chain. On his recommendation, Admiral
Hoover ordered air strikes against the island,
and for the next few weeks the Japanese Serving with Air Combat Intelligence, Lieutenant Fonda pictured with two members
attacks stopped. of the staff of Vice Admiral John Hoover: Lieutenant Jack Breed, the admiral’s aide,
In addition to the kamikaze attacks, the and Flag Lieutenant Kenneth B. Van de Water, on the flagship on July 19, 1944.
fleet was faced with increasing Japanese sub-
marine activity, and Fonda was able put to for Pacific duty, taking Japan would still be a With his Priority Two in hand and not
good use the ASW training he had received bitter struggle. There would be massive cas- minding at all now, Fonda was on his way the
at Kaneohe. Since naval intelligence had bro- ualties. day after the dispatch had arrived. Hung
ken the Japanese code, forces afloat knew At the beginning of August, Fonda and his over but still continuing the celebrations that
the date of departure, speed, and course of boss, the air operations officer on Hoover’s had begun the previous day, he attended a
enemy subs operating in their area. Using staff, flew to Tinian and met the crew of the brief ceremony before boarding a plane that
this information, Fonda would plot a sub’s Enola Gay. They were among the few intelli- would take him to the States. Vice Admiral
course on a sheet of Plexiglas and devise a gence officers who had access to what was G. D. Murray, USN, Commander Marianas,
search pattern. On one occasion, naval forces being planned. Fonda did not know precisely in the name of the President of the United
were deployed to an area in which Fonda what the B-29’s effect would be, but he did States, awarded Lieutenant Fonda the
had estimated a sub’s position. An attack was recognise the significance of its presence. Bronze Star with the following citation:
made, and the Japanese sub was destroyed. Upon their return to Guam the officers kept ‘For distinguishing himself by meritorious
In late June 1945, the Curtiss put into the secret, which was revealed to the world service in connection with operations against
Guam, and Fonda and his cabin mate went when, on August 6, 1945, the atomic bomb the enemy as an Assistant Operations
ashore on liberty. While they were enjoying was dropped on Hiroshima (see After the Officer and Air Combat Intelligence Officer
their brief respite, the Curtiss headed back to Battle No. 41). on the Staff of Commander Forward Area
sea, and on June 22 the ship was hit by a A week later Fonda pulled the 2300-0700 Central Pacific and Commander Marianas
Frank kamikaze off Okinawa on the star- communications-desk watch which meant he from 12 May 1944 to 12 August 1945. He
board forward at the third-deck level. This had to sort through the dispatches that were contributed materially to the planning and
was the last attack of the Floating Chrysan- brought at regular intervals from the com- execution of air operations which effectively
themum/Kikusui 10 kamikaze operation and munications Quonset hut. About mid-watch, supported the Marianas, Western Carolines,
the end of the Divine Wind that had been he came across a message for him that sent and Iwo Jima Campaigns, neutralized enemy
planned to save Japan. Aboard the Curtiss, it him into a fury. He was ordered to report to installations on nearby enemy-held islands
took 15 hours to bring the fires under con- Washington, on a Priority Two basis, to par- and atolls, and which subsequently devel-
trol, by which time the forward magazine had ticipate in the Naval Radio Hour program. oped into search missions in Empire waters
been flooded and only half the ship was liv- Fonda had successfully avoided such duty and strikes on the Japanese mainland. His
able. The seaplane tender lost 41 men, with thus far, but a Priority Two meant he was to keen intelligence, untiring energy and consci-
28 wounded. When the Curtiss staggered leave posthaste. While fuming over these entious application to duty were in a large
back to port at Guam, Fonda and his cabin orders, he heard a commotion in the com- measure responsible for his successful contri-
mate went aboard and found their quarters munications hut. Finally a guard came in bution to the Central Pacific campaign.’
destroyed. carrying the latest batch of dispatches, wear- Henry Fonda had been proved right: he
Admiral Hoover shifted his flag to Guam, ing the biggest smile Lieutenant Fonda had had had a very important contribution to
and it was there that Fonda learned of VE ever seen: Japan had given up, he make to the war effort. After a brief tour in
Day. The event brought home a grim reality announced. At first Fonda did not believe Navy Public Affairs in Washington, he left
to the Hoover command: even though it him, but then, left alone again and smoking a active duty, remaining in the Naval Reserve
would mean more men and ships available cigarette, he knew it was really over. until November 1953.

53
Henry Fonda’s first post-war film part
was as the sheriff in My Darling Clemen-
tine, seen here with Ward Bond, left, and
Roy Roberts.

In Hollywood, after celebrating exten-

sively along with the rest of the country,
Fonda got back to work. The first film in
which he appeared was the Western My Dar-
ling Clementine, touted by the New York
Times as one of the ten best pictures of 1946.
Among the numerous movies he made sub-
sequently was Mister Roberts, Thomas
Heggen’s timeless war story set in the Pacific.
Fonda was able to bring first-hand
experience to his outstanding performance
as the leading character on both the stage
(1948) and screen (1955; the picture was
saluted by the Academy as one of the year’s
best). The officer’s cap he wore during these
performances was the same one he had worn
during the war in the Pacific.
Fonda’s association with the Navy was to
last for many more years, if sporadically. On
July 4, 1957, he and fourth wife Afdera were
living in a villa on the Riviera, near Ville-
franche. A US cruiser was anchored in the
harbour, and Fonda decided to treat the boys
to an Independence Day celebration. He had

Inevitably, it was the military characteri-

sations for which we remember Fonda
most. Above: A break with director Ken
Annakin during the making of Battle of
the Bulge in 1965.

stashed away several hundred dollars’ worth

of fireworks. As the daylight faded, he
blasted a rocket off the terrace, over the
water in the direction of the ship. The cruiser
responded immediately in kind, alternating
with Fonda and continuing to send up
colourful displays long after his supply had
run out.
During the Vietnam War, at age 62, Fonda
served again. Although the actor did not
approve of US involvement in the conflict,
the United Service Organizations executive
who called him was able to convince him that
he owed it to the American servicemen to
help boost their morale however he could;
the war was not their fault. Fonda partici-
Right: The Immortal Sergeant — an
inspirational war film released in 1943 in
which a battle-hardened sergeant is
killed after inspiring his recruits . . .

54
. . . and as Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, here landing on Utah Beach, in The Longest Day released in 1962.

pated in the Handshake Tours of April 1967, ply failed to grasp the big picture. In perhaps Award the previous year for his accomplish-
flying all over South Vietnam and out to the an encapsulated version of their country’s ments in his field); and that same year the
carriers Ticonderoga (CV-14), Kitty Hawk heartbreaking division over the ill-fated US Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle honoured
(CVA-63), and Bennington (CV-20). He had involvement in Vietnam, father and daughter him with a lifetime achievement award. He
taken the precaution of bringing along a disagreed, fought, and later came to terms died in 1982.
Polaroid camera and plenty of film, fearful with what became history.
that he would not be able to think of any- Henry Fonda’s many memorable plays Stars in Blue by James E. Wise Jr and
thing to say. Neither standup comedy nor and movies include The Caine Mutiny Court Anne Collier Rehill is published by the Naval
light chatting had ever been his bent. But the Martial (Broadway, 1955), War and Peace Institute Press of Annapolis, Maryland. Read-
camera was a hit, and everyone seemed to (1956), Advise and Consent (1962), In ers in the US should contact the Naval Insti-
want to be photographed with Henry Fonda. Harm’s Way (1965), and On Golden Pond tute Press direct on Tel (800) 233-8764 or
He disapproved as well of his daughter (1981). He won the 1981 Academy Award www.nip.org. For readers in the UK, please
Jane’s later actions in Vietnam but under- for best actor for his performance in the lat- contact Airlife Publishing Ltd., Tel 01743-
stood that her motivation was pure; she sim- ter (and had won an honorary Academy 235651, Fax 01743-232944.

CONTENTS

STARS IN BLUE
Above and Beyond
Eddie Albert, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.,
Henry Fonda, John Howard, Robert
Montgomery, Wayne Morris.
The Early Years
Wallace Beery, Ed Begley, Jack Benny,
Humphrey Bogart, Pat O’Brien, Spencer
Tracy.
World War II
Harry Belafonte, Ernest Borgnine,
Frank ‘Junior’ Coghlan, Jackie Cooper,
Tony Curtis, Kirk Douglas, Buddy
Ebsen (USCG), Tom Ewell, Pat Hingle,
Rock Hudson, Gene Kelly, Jack Lem-
mon, Guy Madison, Victor Mature
(USCG), Paul Newman, Logan Ramsey,
Aldo Ray, Buddy Rogers, Cesar
Romero (USCG), Robert Stack, Rod
Steiger, Robert Taylor.
The Korean War and Afterward
Bill Cosby, Glenn Ford, John Gavin.

No stranger to war, years later Fonda had to fight his own typified by yet another of his roles, this time with Audrey Hep-
longest battle — and perhaps the hardest one of all — with his burn in the film of that name. Henry Fonda is just one of the
own daughter over her vehement stand against America’s many Hollywood actors whose wartime careers are included in
involvement in Vietnam. It was a ‘war and peace’ argument Stars in Blue.

55