Burma. c. October 1945. Many cemeteries were in this type of jungle. In many areas hundreds of ...

Burma. c. October 1945. Many cemeteries were in this type of jungle. In many areas hundreds of metres of access paths had to be cut by the War Graves Commission survey party before the cemeteries could be cleared. Where possible Japanese labour was used, but often the prisoner of war (POW) volunteers who had been in these camps were the only ones able to find the cemeteries. Finding individual graves or the location of a small group of graves was very difficult, but also remarkably succesful overall. This particular area is in Burma or Thailand. The War Graves Commission survey party's task was to locate POW cemeteries and grave sites along the Burma-Thailand railway. They also took the opportunity to recover equipment and documents which had been secretly buried, under instructions from senior POW officers, in the graves of deceased POWs.