Second World War RAF veteran from Newark, who fought Japanese in India and Sumatra, shares his story on 80th anniversary of VJ Day

An extraordinary man has recalled his experience of fighting in the far east at the end of the second world war.

As the county prepares to mark the 80th anniversary of VJ Day, the Advertiser has spoken to a remarkable veteran who fought against the Japanese on the far side of the world.

Eric Robb, now 99, is a lifelong Newarker and served with the RAF from 1943 to 1947.

Born on December 14, 1925, Eric left school at the age of 14 and began working at Mumby’s clothing factory in Newark for just 45 pence a week, where he made uniforms for the war effort.

When he received his call up shortly after his 18th birthday, Eric joined the RAF with hopes that he would be posted close to home, at one of the many RAF bases across Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire,

Instead, after 12 weeks of training at Cardington in Bedfordshire, he was sent overseas.

Not knowing where he would end up, Eric first spent time in Northern Ireland before heading to India and the Himalayas, and would help 358 Squadron as they dropped supplies into Burma using American Liberator bombers.

When victory was finally declared against the Japanese on August 15, 1945, there was hope that troops would soon be able to return home.

But despite the war now technically being over, there were still many remnants of Japanese forces who refused to surrender and continued to fight for years to come.

Shortly after VJ Day, Eric was stationed at the Changi prisoner of war camp in Singapore, before received a posting to the 37 Staging Post in Sumatra.

It was here that Eric would experience many close calls with the enemy while guarding an airfield near Padang.

“The war was over but it didn’t make a difference, they were still shooting at us,” he said. “It was a scary time.

“The guard posts were very isolated, we literally took a machine gun, a box of hand grenades, and hoped for the best.

“We would be out there all night, and I never slept.

“[The Japanese] couldn’t have been far away, you could always hear them in the bushes.

“They used to shout ‘Johnny, Johnny’, hoping you would poke your head up so they could take a shot.

“A bullet whizzed by my head so close it messed my hair, I thought it got me.

“One night I saw some lights moving in the trees, I gave them a quick blast on the machine gun and the lights went out. I don’t know if I hit anyone or just scared them.

“It was a hell of a change from Newark and it was a tough job, but someone had to do it.”

Eric was also stationed with a unit of Ghurkas at the airfield, who he described as “brave chaps” as they would venture off into the jungle to chase down enemy resistance.

He also had a few more lucky escapes, including the time he was escorting an officer to Padang, but on their way back to base, they were blocked by the Indian Army who had heard that they were going to be ambushed.

“Our officer told us to drive as fast as we can so off we went, thundering down the road,” he said.

“The closer we got to the base, the more I thought they were going to get us.”

It was nearly two years after the war had officially ended that Eric was finally able to return home in July 1947.

Stepping off a ship in Southampton, he jumped on a late train north and spent hours walking the streets of Nottingham as he waited to catch the morning milk train to Newark.

When Eric arrived home he let himself in using a spare key, hidden exactly where he remembered, and fell asleep in an armchair before any of his family had woken up.

The first familiar words he would hear came from his brother-in-law shouting “look who’s here.”

Eric returned to work at Mumby’s, where we caught to eye of a young lady named Kath — they would go on to be married for 68 years until she died at home.

Eric joked: “I was in the RAF, but I didn’t do much flying.

“I love England, I love Newark, and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

“Singapore and Sumatra are not places I’d ever like to go back to.

“I think I’ve done enough travelling — I’m quite happy here.”

Now, at the age of 99, Eric remains fiercely independent, cooking and cleaning for himself, and maintaining a well kept garden.

Despite now struggling to walk far distances following a recent fall, Eric refuses to be pushed in a wheelchair as he believes that is “for old people.”

Jim Robinson, of the RAF Benevolent Fund and RAFA Balderton, described Eric as being one of the most remarkable people he had ever met, although his story has largely gone unnoticed.

Eric proudly displays the medals he received during the war alongside his original dog tags, and even earned himself a hand signed good service certificate from “the boss”, Lord Mountbatten, who was the Supreme Allied Commander in the South East Asia Command during the second world war.