This country is at war with Germany. We shall go on to the end.

I remember the sheets of flame which came up and almost blinded us from our guns.

During the Second World War, the fighting in Burma was some of the most challenging of the entire conflict.

Dense jungle, Montser Rains, disease and a determined enemy made the campaign brutal and complex.

Yet for many years it has been one of the least remembered theatres of the war.

The soldiers who fought there, the British, Indian, African and Burmese, became known as

the Forgotten Armies. A new exhibition at the National Army Museum in London, beyond Burma

Forgotten Armies, looks to change that. It explores not only the campaign itself, but also the wider human and political

story that emerged from the fighting in Southeast Asia. I recently visited the museum and met with

Dr Alan Jeffries, the museum's head of equipment and lead curator for Beyond Burma, to talk about

the exhibition, its themes, and the process of bringing this difficult

history to life. I start by asking, what can visitors expect to see at Beyond Burma Forgotten

Armies? It's called Beyond Burma for a number of reasons. So beyond Burma, because geographically,

it looks at the campaigns in North East India, Blair, as well as Burma. Beyond Burma, because geographically, it looks at the campaigns in northeast India, Blair, as well as Burma.

Beyond Burma, because it takes a story up to and slightly further than the independence of Burma in 1948.

And then beyond Burma, because one of the sort of the ragged end of the Second World War,

the term the historians seem to use now.

So obviously the Japanese surrender in August and they signed the surrender in September,

in 1945. But at the same time, British and Indian soldiers are actually continuing to serve across Southeast Asia.

So in 1945, 20th Indian Division goes to Saigon

to help prop up the French Empire until the French troops are able to return.

They're there for six months and even end up fighting the Vietnam.

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