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Stan Coombe was an 18-year-old private in the 9th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment stationed out in Burma at the time of VE Day.

He says he was a private in the bren-gun team and that his responsibilities involved reloading the machine guns. However, on that day his regiment were in a place called Mektila, which was a transit camp. They’ had been taken out of the line in Burma and were waiting to be flown to India.

His regiment had been fighting in Burma for fifteen months and were being sent to India for a rest and for combined op training for future invasion to Malaysia.

On VE Day, news came into their transit camp that the war in Europe was over. Because of this great news they were allowed two bottles of beer each. So, the soldiers all enjoyed their beer, before flying out to India later that day.

However, Stan says that in India when they had to report to their pay parade to get their wages; they discovered the two bottles of beer had been docked from their pay!

Image: War cemetery in Yangon, Burma

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