The public is invited to turn out and support ex-soldiers from a now disbanded regiment which won a crucial battle against the Japanese during the Second World War.

Former servicemen from 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales’s Dragoon Guards) and serving combatants from its successor regiment, The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, will parade at 11.15am this Sunday from Bridge Street, Chester, to the cathedral where a commemorative service will be held.

The 3rd Carabiniers recruited in Cheshire and North Wales during the 1950s and 1960s.

Sunday is exactly 70 years since the Battle of Nunshigum in Burma on April 13, 1944, which saw the Indian Army, supported by B Squadron from 3rd Carabiniers, recapture a vital airfield on high ground.

Among those parading will be Richard Teese, 90, from Heswall, one of only three surviving comrades from the battle.

Co-organiser Tom Coates, a former sergeant who served with 3rd Carabiniers in the 1960s, explained: “It was the first time that the regiment had ever tried to take tanks up a mountain and they couldn’t go up through the jungle in line abreast, which is what tanks normally do because it terrifies people.

“They had to go one after the other and the ground was so steep that the drivers couldn’t see where they were going.

“The commanders then had to open the hatches and raise their seats, so that their shoulders and their chest and head were out of the turret.

“The Japanese saw this but they waited for the tanks to go past and they killed all the officers because they just shot them in the back of the head.”

The attack would have foundered had not Squadron Sergeant Major William Craddock and one of the battalion’s subadars taken over command.

Explaining the significance of the battle, Tom, from Huntington, added: “It was crucial because where they were stationed was Imphal in northern Burma, right on the border between Burma and India and the British had never been able to stop the Japanese until then.”

Every year, former members of 3rd Carabiniers commemorate the Nunshigum anniversary with B Squadron marching on parade under the command of the squadron sergeant major, with no officers present, as an acknowledgement that all the officers were lost.

This Saturday there will be a commemoration dinner for 160 former and current service personnel in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Chester.