The Fourteenth Army attempts to reach Rangoon before the onset of the monsoon, and arrives in early May. A victory parade and a naval review are held in June. A final amphibious operation is planned but again is thwarted by lack of equipment. Mountbatten has his first experience of the rising nationalism in SE Asia - the Burmese request the reinstatement of a Civil administration and he reluctantly complies. While the US forces in the Pacific advance slowly, Roosevelt dies (Mountbatten remembers him as a friend), and the Potsdam conference is held, at which Mountbatten's sphere of command is increased and he is told to prepare for the Japanese surrender after the atomic bomb. Meanwhile Churchill is voted out of office (rather to Mountbatten's disappointment) and Attlee takes over at the conference. The re-occupation of Singapore (and relief of the POWs) is delayed after the Japanese surrender until the formal ceremony in Tokyo; Mountbatten eventually takes the official surrender of Singapore on 12th September.