To mark the 80th anniversary of VJ Day on Friday 15 August, Kenilworth Nub News is sharing a short series on the town's connections to the Second World War and the war in the Pacific. The town will mark VJ Day with a short service at the Abbey Fields war memorial at 11am on Friday.

This latest feature shares the story Anthony Edward Gordon

Anthony Edward Gordon was born on the 24 July 1922. Both sides of his family were military.

When World War Two began, he was 17 and joined REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers).

He never saw service in Europe but was in North Africa and when VE day came he was in Burma with three more months of fighting ahead of him. By then he was a Chindit.

Created by Major Wingate, the Chindits were a special operations unit for long range penetration and operated behind the Japanese Lines.

The Chindits badge was based on the fabulous lions which guard the entrances to Burmese pagodas. There were involved in two main campaigns in Burma.

Tony never talked about the horrors of the war. He was a Roman Catholic when he joined the army, taking a small bible and rosary beads with him, but lost his faith in the horror of the war.

Tony did enjoy mentioning some of the light hearted events:

He was in Tobruk during an air raid. Stukas were dive bombing, so he dived under a tank for cover. When the air raid had finished, he got up and hit his head on the tank, which to his surprise moved upwards as he hit it. He discovered that he only went and took cover under a dummy rubber tank.

Tony's Uncle Simon Austin was in the Black Watch troop and when they started to push Rommel back, the Black Watch was at the front. The were known for leaving the "water holes" quite dry when they moved on. So, Simon would buy a pint for Tony at every water hole as he knew his nephew was in the following group.

During the Chindits second campaign they used gliders to transport the troops and equipment to their starting points. The Chindits used Mules to carry equipment, but in Tony's glider one mule became agitated and started kicking holes in the glider, but there was nothing they could do. The gliders were made out of wood so they just had to fly with a massive hole in the side. After that, Tony never had a good thing to say about Mules.

When the war in the Far East ended, his service wasn't over. He was part of the early British atomic bomb tests where the only protection he had was the advice to turn his back to the explosion.

Tony was awarded an OBE for his military service, but he turned it down saying he did what he did was for king and country, not for his own benefit.