Capt Rowland, now 99, vividly remembers approaching the town, following a trail of devastation to the front line.

“We saw abandoned trenches and destroyed villages, and as we moved forward the smell of death was everywhere,” he said.

The young captain was a member of the Punjab regiment of the British Indian army, on his way to help relieve 1,500 of his fellow soldiers who had spent weeks resisting 10 times their number in Japanese forces.