To quench our thirst we drank water from the nalla with chlorine tablets dissolved in it.

In the jungle, we slept in bamboo sheds on wooden planks, only to wake up the next morning and find our fellow soldier sleeping next to us dead.

But we possessed a weapon which nobody could snatch. It was a weapon which was reinforced from within. It was Netaji's spirit living on in our slogans which boosted our morale in those trying times:

Sher-e-Hind aage badh
Marne se tu kabhi na dar

Chalo dilli naara inquilab ho gaya
Netaji ka elan ho gaya

The resonance of our united voices used to echo miles and miles away.

Our retreat from Kohima was torturous. We had to cross a nalla which was in flood due to the rains.

Waiting for the water to subside was difficult because of the incessant rain. We put up two poles on either side of the nalla and tied a steel wire between the two poles. And then two or three men would get into a trolley and it was manually pulled by ropes onto the other side. While some made it to the other side, there were thousands of soldiers who were washed away in the swirling waters…

But Netaji was such a dynamic leader that nothing, nothing could deter us. We had forgotten our family, our brothers and sisters. One goal to achieve: march ahead and free India. And when our soldiers died we used to move on, one line on our lips:

Hai khushnaseeb who jagah
Jis jagah pe tu shaheed ho
Shaheed tere maut se hai
Tere watan ki zindagi

(Lt. Harbans Singh served as an electrical engineer and commanded the base workshop in the Azad Hind Fauj . He fought on the Kohima front in 1944-1945)