He had already served in aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean earlier in the war.  Part of his equipment in Burma was a silk map of the country, which he kept as a memento of his part in the campaign.  The outstanding leader of the campaign, Viscount Slim, is commemorated in many places, including the Slim Room in the Defence Leadership & Management Centre.

Earlier this year Sgt Haughton’s daughter, Group Captain Sheila Haughton, thought that this would be a suitable place to put the map on display in order to give others an insight into the realities of the campaign and the RAF’s role in it.  As a result, Mrs Pat Haughton, John Haughton’s widow, kindly offered to lend the map to DLMC and unveiled it at a ceremony on 12 September 2008.  The map is in remarkable shape considering the conditions it, and its bearer, endured throughout the campaign.  Other than the ragged edges one would expect in a piece of material of this age, the map is intact and legible, down to some pencil notations made by Sergeant Haughton himself, identifying suitable locations for re-supply drops.

The Burma Campaign was the longest fought by the British in the Second World War.  It started in December 1941 with disaster and retreat and ended in triumph in August 1945 with the total defeat of the occupying Japanese army.  The Campaign was fought on many levels, in the jungle, the mountains and across the arid plains.  Men often fought face to face and hand to hand, but the campaign grew to resemble a modern war with the airlift of entire divisions, aerial re-supply, landings by glider, casualty evacuation from small jungle airstrips and the deployment of landing craft in support of sea borne invasions and river patrols.  The country and its climate was the enemy of all.  Disease and infection decimated armies – tick-borne scrub typhus, malaria, leeches and “jungle ulcers” are just a few of the medical problems faced by the man on the ground.  One also cannot forget the weather: monsoon season lasted months and the rain fell in sheets day after day and created conditions where clothing would quite literally rot from one’s back.  The soldiers of the Burma Corps had to endure all of this and a lot more during their disastrous defeat and debilitating withdrawal to India during the early part of 1942.

In Sergeant Haughton’s own words about the Burma campaign:

'As well as being a WOM I was also the Ground Combat Instructor, which is probably why my superiors suggested that I volunteer to join Wingate’s Special Forces on his second excursion into Burma; so, early in 1944 I was attached to the West African Frontier Force.

The original intention of the Allied invasion of North Burma in 1944 was to assist Stillwell’s Chinese-American forces to capture Moganing and Myitkyana so that a road pipeline could be opened up from north-east Assam to China.  Wingate’s main job was to cut the lines of communication of the Japanese facing Stillwell on the Salween river to the east.  The experimental Long Range Penetration force of the year before had gained much useful information, particularly that troops behind the Japanese front line could be supplied by air as long as the Allies achieved and maintained air superiority.

To this end every Army column had attached to it four RAF personnel to signal for supply drops and summon and direct air support when and where necessary: a flight lieutenant pilot, a W/Op, A WOM and an ACH.  We dressed as soldiers and were equipped and trained by the Army in the ways of the jungle.

After much preparation we were flown into Burma at night from Assam by the USAF in Dakotas, together with mules and weaponry.  We had quite a hot reception the following morning and many adventures in the weeks and months that followed, but the one that saddened us most was when the RAF Liaison Officer, Sqn Ldr Larman, was wounded one night when we were ambushed as we approached a railway line and road (which we had to cross).  Unfortunately we were forced to leave him behind to the mercy of the Japanese, as anyone who could not walk was abandoned in order not to hinder the column.

Many of us suffered malaria, dysentery and other tropical diseases and we were glad when the campaign was over, and even more so not to have been taken prisoner by the Japanese – something we were told not to let happen at all costs.'

Sgt John Haughton RAF, wireless operator during 2nd Chindit Campaign in North and Central Burma 1941-1945