The Battalion of the title was the 3rd/6th Gurkhas who, after years of service in the relative peace of the Khyber Pass, joined the Chindit operations designed to fight behind enemy lines in Burma. Illness prevented Paul from joining them and he was seconded to Chindit HQ from where he had a good view of the whole operation.
Drafted into the Broadway stronghold to assist the evacuation, he describes the organised chaos of the fly-out: an exercise which coloured his view of mules for life.
The battalion fought on, long after its planned period of front line action, being whittled away by enemy action and winning two Victoria Crosses in the process.
A final invasion of Malaya and Paul, then aged a mere 24, was demobbed to pursue his dream of reading English at Cambridge.
Published privately by Lyon and Lamb, The Lost Battalion is available for £10 from www.lulu.com/shop
