THIS TAPE HAS BEEN RECORDED ON AUGUST 2 1978 IN THE ENGINE HOUSE AT BANCROFT. THE INFORMANT IS ERNIE ROBERTS, TACKLER AND THE INTERVIEWER IS STANLEY GRAHAM.
Right, well, last week we left you in Liverpool digging up unexploded bombs and robbing gas meters!
R. That’s right. That must have been 1940, summertime, June July would it? Aye it must have been.
You hadn’t started your training then had you?
R. No, not training really. I was still in the Royal Engineers but they had had that many bloody disasters, it were come hither, go thither and everywhere. From Liverpool, when things quietened down a bit we had to go to Warrington, then there were a blitz on Manchester and we went to Winnick Hospital, stretcher bearing and like helping as well as we could. From there, there were some raids going on in them days you know, we went to Scarborough. This were the whole section, of us that had been together from Skegness. From Scarborough we were going abroad somewhere, we didn’t know where. Eventually we set off and it’s the only time I’ve ever been to Scotland, straight through to Greenock and they took us out in little boats to a ship called the Strathmore. Eh, I did have a bloody headache. That were January 1941 and that impressed me most of all, me headache! I thought bugger me. Anyway we got on board this ship and oh dearie me, it were crowded. Eventually we set off, we must have sailed down t’Clyde in the dark, out into the North Sea would it be?
No, you’d be in the Irish Sea.
R. Well, Irish Sea then. This convoy must have formed up and there looked to be hundreds of ships. We set off and I don’t think we’d been going so long and I were sick. I were, well, t’first meal we had on board was Mulligatawny soup, so I made me way to the toilet to be sick and I were up to me bloody knees in Mulligatawny. I weren’t the first. Well, it went on, I were sick, sick, sick, sick, day after say, oh a few days. Somebody said Go to the sick berth and see if you can get sommat. So I go to the bloody sick berth and I were on me hands and knees. I knocked on the sick berth door and the man opened the door, looked about and shut it again, I were down below! So I knocked again and crawled up, sticking to the knobs and that and they gave me a couple of pills and I started bucking up. We were on that ship nine weeks, they reckon we nearly went to America and back again, zig zagged all over the bloody world. Well, eventually we got to Capetown in South Africa. Talk about being in bloody heaven! Everything lit up, all Europeans, hell, you’d have thought we were kings way they treated us, nothing too good for us.
And like until then, you’d hardly left Barlick in your life?
R. No. I’d been to Blackpool, I think that’s about as far as I’d been. But I mean, Capetown, they treated us like lords, marvellous it were, but I didn’t realise until later that they didn’t want us mixing wi’t niggers, that were the prime factor, ‘Don’t let these soldiers get mixed wi’ the niggers. But I mean, it didn’t bother me. I think they were as good as me as far as I know and it didn’t bother me whether the bloody fellow were black or not. I could have stopped there, there were some beautiful girls you know and there were one took a fancy to me but she were married. Her husband were a jeweller and he were travelling all the country. They called her Mrs Giddens, all them years and I remember her name. Come to my bungalow she says and oh, we had a great week there. She tried to talk me into deserting and then I thought, bugger that, I don’t want to desert. Not that I wanted to be a soldier, it were my heart were still in Barlick. Anyway, we left there after about six or eight weeks , I think sommat had gone wrong wi’ the ship and they were mending it. So, we’re coming down from Capetown and we’re going across the Indian Ocean and suddenly t’convoy’s split in two, half went left and the other half went right. This half that left us went to Singapore and all the bloody lot were locked up. [Feb 15th 1942 Singapore falls to the Japanese and 70,000 British and Australian troops were captured.] But my half went to Bombay and we disembarked there, they call it the ‘arsehole of India’ you know, Bombay.
I didn’t know that Ernie.
R. Well aye. And my first impression of India, when we got on the dock there were a wog and he had elephantiasis. I’d read about this elephantiasis and I looked at this fellow and I thought Eh, elephantiasis. Anyway, we got on a train, I think it were 18 men or three horses on like a notice. We set off then and we went for bloody miles and miles and we landed at a place called Mhow. [Near Indore, 300 miles NW of Bombay.] It’s far up India that and we started training there. I had been in the army since May 1940 and this’d be April 1941 before I did any training. They made me into, I were what they called an OWL, operator, wireless and line and I missed a good chance there. They interviewed you you know to see what you were fit for, a long line of blokes and when it come my turn this officer said to me ‘What do you know about pigeons?’ I were like flabbergasted, it were coming out of the blue these pigeons, I knew sommat about pigeons but I didn’t like to take advantage you know, of this question, I must have laughed or sommat. Anyway, the bugger that got that job went back to Bombay, they made him a sergeant and put him in charge of a pigeon loft and he were there about four years! What a job that’d have been if only I…
Were them pigeons like, you know, for communications? Like homing pigeons, carrier pigeons?
R. That’s what they were.
They were still using ‘em?
R. Oh yes, aye. Eh, I wish I’d have said aye, of course I wouldn’t have been telling a lie, I’ve allus known a bit about pigeons. Where are we now? Mhow?
Yes, they’ve just made you into an operator, wireless and line.
R. Oh no, they haven’t made me yet. I had to, it were oh, six months training, diddy-dahhing and Ohms Law and, oh, it were very taxing, I didn’t know whether me bloody arsehole were bored or punched! Terrible. Anyway, finally the penny dropped and I could send Morse and read it you know so I were ready for action. Well, we left Mhow and where did we go? Ahmadpur (?) Oh, I couldn’t spell it! There were cannon balls in’t walls from when the British were conquering India, I fancy they were firing cannon balls. Aye, they were sticking, stuck in the walls. Seventeenth India Division they were forming and I were like wireless operator. Wireless and line, see they had different instruments. Well, oh we stayed there a fair while and I got attached to artillery, 25 pounders they were. See, Signals were sent all over the place, to any of the regiments, well in fact I were with all three services, I’ll come to that. Anyway, I went to this artillery, 25 pounders, I forget the name of the regiment but it were Royal Artillery anyway. And we used to go out on schemes you know, practising. For some reason or other, I always seemed to be in front of the bloody guns and these shells were flying out you know and I thought ‘It’s a bit dangerous this! One morning one of the sergeants came into these, we were in tents. I think it were the Sind Desert where we were, it were a desert anyway. ‘Can anybody cook?’ And I thought cook? Aye, I can cook, why? He says ‘Well, they want a cook in the sergeants mess’. I thought well, it’ll be safer than operating this bloody wireless set in front of the guns! So I said I’ll have a do. So I were the cook then and I enjoyed it for a few weeks, a couple of months, I liked it. A lot of these sergeants were jumped up squaddies you know, thinking they were gentlemen, and I came from Barlick. So, t’sergeant major came to this little tent one morning while I were clearing up after breakfast. He says ‘No dinner today Roberts’. I thought Oh, that’s good, I’ll have the afternoon off. So dinner time come and I’m laid on my back in the tent having a smoke and looking at a book. There’s such a bloody noise, it’s this sergeant major, ‘Where’s the lunch?’ I said ‘You told me this morning, ‘No dinner today’. He says ‘Dinner is in the evening. Well, it had always been dinner at lunchtime before then. So I were in bother for that, anyway, I survived it. Oh, and we used to, I’ll tell you where it were near, where were it near? I forget now but we used to go up at weekends sometimes and have a few drinks. It were where old Ghandi used to hang out, Poona, not far from Poona it were. It’s a funny thing about the Signals, they were welcome in most places, they must have had a good reputation, before I got there. There were some smashing brothels there, one or two good bars, you didn’t need much money. Well, we didn’t have much money but you didn’t need much. Aye, now where did we go from there. I’ve gone from Ahmadpur (?) to artillery haven’t I. Back to Ahmadpur (?) , this 17th Indian Division’s nearly formed. What the hell happened next?
How much money are getting paid a day then? That’s a funny thing about the army isn’t it, it were always how you got paid, per day, weren’t it?
R- Well, when we got to India first it were five rupees a week we used to draw, that’s five times one and fourpence, six and eightpence? [33p.] We were poor, when you’re trained and you are a tradesman then, you get extra money, not much, but extra. I don’t know how much. I forget now but we made it do. You could get a tin of cigarettes, fifty cigarettes for a rupee, one and fourpence. [six and a half new pence]
How much were the brothels?
R- Oh, it were amazing! You could go in a brothel in Poona, and there were girls in there, the most beautiful girls you’ll ever see, I don’t care where you go. One rupee and no hurry, one and fourpence. That were before the Yanks arrived.
Oh, did they spoil…..
R- Oh, t’job went to pot straight away. But that’s what it were, one rupee, lovely girls.
Aye, it makes you wonder how long that had been the going rate. It were happen from the First World War, from the Indian Army anyway, between the wars.
R. Oh more than likely. But I saw the last regimental brothel. Somewhere near Poona it was. They put two old biddies in there, good enough for ordinary soldiers I suppose. I went to have a look, but it didn’t appeal to me.
When you say Regimental brothel, set up by the regiment?
R. That’s right, official, official.
Inspected by the MO then? [Medical Officer]
R. Oh yes. But you know, if you listen to these lectures. But still, they were all young virile men, healthy, what the hell can you do?
Oh, got to be some outlets.
R. Socially, we were outcasts, there weren’t a cat in hell’s chance of ever getting what you might call a decent woman. It were like sergeants and upwards.
Why were you an outcast do you think?
R.- I don’t know, it were always a mystery to me. I reckon meself to be as good as the next man. But it must have been a reputation earned by the old-fashioned soldier.
Are you talking about the European women who were out there?
R. Oh, they were absolutely taboo. One of my mates got put on a charge for saying good morning to the bloody sergeant major’s wife. And where would she come from? She’d be bugger all in England.
Aye, that’s it. Well, there you’re running up against the old Indian Army aren’t you. I had a mate in the air force who was in the Indian Army and he said ‘You talk about class distinction? You’ve never seen anything like it was in India.’ And class distinction between the natives as well.
R. Aye. There were certain places where there were a bit of social life, organised by the Salvation Army. A bit of a dance and a jig about and happen get a dance with the captain, jam jar glasses on, so they all looked beautiful!
Did you come across the Church Army at all?
R. No, I can’t say that I did.
It’s funny, because you used to come across the Church Army where the army were. I don’t quite know whether they were an organisation that was sort of connected to the army but I know that at the old barracks where we were there were nearly always a Church Army hut somewhere. Sommat like the Flying Angel, you know, the merchant seamen’s do.
R. Well, in the cities there were always , what did they call it, the YMCA.
Aye, wives and families?
R. It’s a place where you could go and stay. Anyway, I used to get leave occasionally you know. I’d been in India a fair while now, nine months happen and I got leave to go to Calcutta, to an army leave camp. And it were alright, only trouble were this bed I were allocated, I finished up sleeping on the floor. Full of bugs. Early morning, the matron came in, it were a kind of ‘buck you up’ camp. Oh, and I had dysentery, that were it, like a convalescent home. it were, just for a week there and this matron come in at t’morning and I were on’t floor and she pushed me wi’ her foot, ‘Get up!’ she says. So I got up and I gave her a dressing down because of these bugs and she were sorry, she thought I’d come in drunk and collapsed on the deck. ‘A rotten bed full of bugs , this place is lousy!’ So, I got a clean bed for the rest of me stay.
What were conditions like in the barracks in them days? Were you in hutted caps or tented camps most of the time?
R. Well, where I did me initial training in Mhow it were a military camp, it were barracks. All t’walls were about five feet thick , aye, everything spotlessly clean. But no comfort at all, well, there were no comfort in the army was there? You didn’t expect it. We used to sleep under mosquito nets, there were like mosquitoes to deal with and things like that.
Like, your education ‘ud be fairly going on wouldn’t it? I mean, coming out of the mill in Barlick……
R. Oh yes.
I mean, you find yourself in the middle of India, you know?
R. Oh yes, it were expanding left right and centre in every way. I mean, I were seeing things I’d never seen before, never. Blackpool were’t furthest point I’d been up to then.
Can you remember now what sort of impression it made on you? Did you soon get used to it or did you keep taking it in.
R. Oh I were taking it in all the time. I’ve always had a sense of humour, a perverted sense of humour may be, even a bloody accident I’ll laugh at. Little disasters that used to happen, they used to tickle me in one way or another, so it never got me down. I used to think about home and letters, well, when you got letters, that’s a red letter day. But in a way I enjoyed it.
Where were Fred at that time?
R. Which Fred?
Your Fred.
R. I think he were building a munitions factory at Morecambe. They hadn’t called him up yet. It were later on when they grabbed him.
How about Wilson, did he go in?
R. Oh Wilson were on the beach at Dunkirk. Oh aye, he were in England. Lieutenant Colonel Bankier took a fancy to him. I don’t mean…. he were a smart lad, well he said I were the sloppiest soldier he’d ever seen in his life but he were the smartest. And this Lieutenant Colonel Bankier had him as a personal servant all through the war. They went to France together and he came off [the beach] first, I mean, he were a Lieutenant Colonel, but they hitched up again and they were together all during the war.
Aye, so when you come to think about it, I know we’re going back to the socialist bit again but you’d been working for the gaffers in the mill like hell, and then they’d sent you out there and you were fighting for ‘em. It’s one way of looking at it you know.
R. Well, that’s the way it were. Well, we were fighting for King and Country weren’t we?
I don’t know, what were you fighting for? What did they tell you you were fighting for?
R. Well it’s hard to explain Stan. I mean when you start playing t’band and beating the drum you get a bloody funny feeling. I’m an Englishman and that bugger wi’ the little moustache were threatening us. I went into the army with a good resolution. Well, it weren’t so long like before I realised it were going to be a wasted effort.
Now what makes you say that? How long were it before you realised it were a wasted effort.
R. Well, I told you about that bugger pinching me shiny boots?
Yes.
R. There were some bloody scoundrels to deal with you know. Jumped up NCOs, they used to get my back up, and officers. Not all of them but them buggers that came up, like from the lower grades, that had been promoted, they were the worst. And I were always a bit aggressive I think, I’ve always bucked against authority I think. I know I remember an incident when I were at t’South Lancashire Regiment at Warrington, just attached there. I were t’room orderly, my turn to clean up. Well, the section hadn’t gone out on parade, it were about nine o’clock and I’m looking at a paper while the lads are getting ready to go on parade. The sergeant walks in, sergeant Foulds. ‘Why haven’t you cleaned up Roberts!’ I said I’m waiting for these lads to go out on parade. ‘Say sergeant!’ ‘Say sergeant?’ I says. He said ‘sergeant!’ I said Yews sergeant. [He says] ‘You’re on a charge!’ Just like that. I knew he wanted to get his knife into me and so I went in front of the CO. [commanding officer] I don’t know what he called it, insolent and….., I’d done nothing. So I were coming off the square, from these offices, across this big square [and he was] catching me up. ‘I did that to show you who is superior’ he said. I says ‘You’re my bloody military superior and nothing else. In my book regular soldiers are either lazy buggers or bloody thieves and you’re a regular soldier.’ He said ‘I’ll get you.’ I says well, you can get me if you want. he puts me on fatigues in the NAAFI [Navy Army and Air Forces Institute] and there were a right nice cook there, she used to fill me up with good grub. And I found out later that this Foulds had been after her. But he were a regular soldier, jumped up. Anyway, we were moving out of there to come to India , we went up Scotland, no, Scarborough first and then out. I were having a drink down in Warrington at Friday and they were moving out Saturday and he wanted to buy me a drink. I said ‘Piss off!’ I wouldn’t have pissed on him if he were afire, I hated that fellow, that’s why I’ve remembered him. And do you know, as we were moving into an operational area all these old regulars were discovering piles, ruptures, appendix, bad hearts, you’ve no idea the bloody illnesses they suddenly developed, and they disappeared. There were only the militia and one or two regulars of course but there were a lot of them disappeared. So they were crafty buggers, they’d been living it easy for twenty years or more some of them and as soon as it came to earning their salt they were off! Where have I got to now?
Well, we’re motoring round a bit. Anyway, you were with the 17th Indian Division.
R. Aye, they’re forming up.
They’re forming up and then something happened to you.
R. Aye, what happened?
It’s a blank spot is that. Never mind, it’ll come back to you. Where did you find yourself later that year? That’ll happen trigger you back into it.
R. Well, I must have moved away. I must have moved away with the 17th Indian Division, on us way to Burma, or the Japanese had moved, were moving. Well they had taken Singapore and were moving up to Burma so this 17th Indian Division set off to like stop them.
Did you know you were going to Burma?
R. Oh aye. Oh, we had gradually moved into Bengal and the first line of defence were Kamilla, that’s like Eastern [Bengal] they call it Bangladesh now I think. Now that were a very nice place Kamilla, friendly people. They were all waving at us as we were travelling, all these fancy bloody Europeans living in their fancy houses. We went , oh, hundreds and thousands of miles, they knew where we were going an all. Well, we got to Kamilla and that were the first line of defence so everything were set up and the Japs were moving in. And parts of this division went into Burma, my part didn’t, anyway they got chased out, what were left. Back to Kamilla. So one or two mates of mine had been in and out you know and they came out puffed! They didn’t half do some bloody running, across rivers, up mountains and through jungles and God knows what. They told some bloody harrowing stories. I went soldiering on and there were an armoured train turned up. So one morning, it must have been the Orderly Officer called Signalman Roberts out and Signalman McNulty and signalman Straw. ‘You have to go on this armoured train, wireless operators. So, well all right, and away we went. And this armoured train used to go up to a place called Chittagong and then back to Dakar. Well, there were a lot of political unrest you know in India at that time. I think old Ghandi had been in bother a time or two. It [on the train] were a real job. There were McNulty and me and Straw operating this wireless set. Then we stopped, ‘stabling’ they called it, when we stabled at night. We used to get signals and flashed ‘em out, on to Dakar and back to Kammilla. They had a cowcatcher on the front [of the engine] and I used to sit there while we were travelling. We were going through a station one time and there were a bloke holding a bamboo loop up and I put me arm through it. All t’brakes came on. So I got bellowed at for that, I weren’t supposed to do it, it were the clearance for the next stage see? [single line working with tokens] Anyhow, it were after three months that, and we must have broken down, well, like we were back in barracks, we were under canvas then. So we were back to Barracks, McNulty, Straw and Roberts and we weren’t there long before another job turned up. We had to go to Chittagong and join a little ship sailing up the river to Rangamatty. So I says to this mate of mine, Straw, I says It sounds bloody fishy this. He says Aye, it does. It started off, ‘Roberts and Straw fall out, you’re wanted at the Orderly Room’. So I went in and this bloody officer says to me, ‘Can you swim Roberts?’ So silly bugger me says ‘Yes’. ‘Oh, go through there’. And Straw came next, he could swim and all, and this bloody McNulty could swim and all. Up to Chittagong we had to go and get on this little ship. We’d joined the Navy then! Well, it were a real job but the instructions were, Japs were still coming up through Burma you know, They expected them at any minute at Chittagong. We set sail up the river to this Rangamatty, there were a security man on board and a Sub-Lieutenant were captain, Sub-Lieutenant Pike. They were all right, grand fellows, and there were a section of Lewis Gunners, Rajputs they were, and we were all on this little ship, as happy as bloody kings. Up the river, all on the left hand side going up, you see there might have been some Japs on the other side, calling on all the villages, looking for Japs. Oh, it went on a fair while like this. When we got to Rangamatty there were tea plantations there and we just stopped there one night. We always had a good dinner up at this, he were an Honorary Colonel commanding that area. It were in Assam that and he used to dish us up a good meal. Then, four in the morning, back down the river. If we heard a signal the bridge across this river had been blown, our instructions were to sink all the sampans and march through the jungle to Kammilla. It were about 500 miles through the jungle! It were the best holiday of my life that were, it were great.
How long were you on that?
R- Oh, three months. Aye, up and down the river, we used to sing like buggery and do a bit of fishing but we never caught owt. There were no luxuries aboard, the toilet was the river! There were these two iron handles and you used to hang on the back, and these bloody propellers churning up the water underneath you know, a bit frightening., I used to cling on like grim death. We had decent grub and all, we used to get Navy rations when we come to Chittagong you know, we’d get all the rations on board and away we’d go again. Anyway, that job finally come to an end. Japs had been held up somewhere, they must have got blisters on their heels, and the Division was moving into Burma. So we eventually all go down on a boat to Cox’s Bazaar, this is going on to Arrakan (?) and we gradually moved in. There were Lancashire Fusiliers, Punjabis, mountain artillery, Bofors guns and some Valentine tanks. Oh it were like a conquering army but we didn’t get so far. We come up against some opposition. We got to a place about ten miles from, they called it Foul Point, I’ve looked it up on the map since, and it’s on t’map as Foul Point. It were like a little peninsula going into the Bay of Bengal.
You were still on the boat?
R- Oh no, we had been marching now for……. Marching and riding a bit. You know how they were, Divisional HQ, Brigade HQ, Regimental HQ. And all these places were manned by Signals personnel. At that time I were operating, I were an Operator, wireless and line, a line instrument called a Fullaphone, it was supposed to be foolproof. Same as, it were a line instrument but anybody plugging into the line wouldn’t know what was going on. I don’t know why but it must have distorted the signal or sommat you know. Well, we had lots odd scares and a few skirmishes and one bloody thing and another.
When were the first time you actually saw one of the Japanese Imperial Army? Had you seen one by then?
R- No, I hadn’t seen one! There were plenty of air raids. I had seen, the only Japs I’d seen up till then were in Chittagong hospital, pilots that had been shot down, and they had guards on them, they’d have done themselves in if they hadn’t been watching them. And at Cox’s Bazaar there were a prisoner of war cage. Oh, to look at it, it were like ten acres as far as I could see, not a bloody soul in there, only a nanny goat or two. And I were two years in and out of there, that area, and I never saw one prisoner. Not one. Anyway, the first time we went in, I finished up at Divisional HQ. You used to get stints you know, few weeks at Div. HQ fairly quiet, up to Brigade and then a week or two there and up to Regiment, forward observation. That were a bit of a scary job that forward observation. You could look through t’glasses (?) but that’s when I saw some Japs, looking through t’glasses. Down on this Foul; Point. We were stuck there a long while. And then everyone packs up and we can get out. So we got back to Chittagong, but I had had one or two sick does before then, I had dysentery a time or two. I’d been up at Chittagong in hospital and then back again and a funny thing happened. I had been in hospital and I were on me way back to my post, on this little ship that went down to Cox’s Bazaar and I could speak enough Hindustani to make myself understood you know. And I could eat Indian food so I thought I’ll see Baboo in the cookhouse. And there were lots of soldiers on this boat. So I asked him like ‘Connor?’ So for about eight annas [one sixteenth of a rupee] I got a plate of rice and curry and a chapatti or two. But when I were sat outside on this hatch cover, waiting, a voice said, ‘Do you come from Barnoldswick?’ I turned round and I said Aye, Billy Demeline’s son? ‘Yes, that’s right! ‘What are you in?’ I said ‘I’m in the Royal Signals’ ‘Oh, you’ll get paid for that won’t you.’ I thought I’ve got a real one here! He’s a chip off the old block! I said Yes, we get Tradesman’s Pay. He says ‘Well, I’m a signaller, but only Regimental, I don’t get paid’ And in any case I shouldn’t be here, I left me juggling kit on Bombay’. He were a bloody juggler! Entertaining the troops he did! He got on the wrong boat! Well he blasted me all the way down to bloody Cox, was I ever glad to get rid of him, eh bloody hell, and he were old Billy Demeline’s son.
Who were Billy Demeline?
R- he were a barber on Church Street. The one I used to be lather boy for. Aye, but what a small world! Eh bloody hell. And since I come home, I were going on t’bus at one time to Burnley and he were sat in the opposite seat. I looked at him and he looked at me. I said ‘Juggling?’ He wanted to know how I’d gone on. I said ‘Oh, all right. Hunky Dory.’
Aye, survived, apart from the dysentery.
R- Oh, dysentery, ulcers, prickly heat, danky fever, I catched everything but bloody VD and that’s one thing I should have catched. Aye, owt there was going I catched. Oh, I’ll tell you another little story. I got dysentery, and I were being sent out for treatment and at the first clearing station, like an ambulance station, they wanted a sample so they could test it under the microscope. So I went to this little tent and put a sample in a little pot and there were two Lancashire Fusilier lads in there giving samples. They looked at this of mine and one of them said ‘I’ll give you five rupees for a sample like that!’ I says, ‘Give us the bloody money!’ They both gave me five rupees apiece and I gave ‘em a sample in two pots. Well, I don’t know how they’d go on when they gave their sample to compare it but I made ten rupees there! Aye, it were more precious than gold, ‘cause there were nothing coming out of me arse but bubbles and blood, I were real poorly that time. Anyway I survived that and went back again. We were still there, two years we were there, Seventeenth Division and they use to go on patrols into the jungle.
Where were this, Cox’s Bazaar?
R- Oh no, further in than Cox’s Bazaar, Tisli, (?) you can see it on the map, always on the coast, always in the sound of the sea. Aye, it weren’t so bad really when things were quiet. We used to go swimming in the By of Bengal sometimes when it were quiet. Nobody could make mo advance at all, they were stuck in that place for a long, long time, never got down past this Foul Point. The Japs used to come over regularly, well, every day, bombing and strafing and acting the bloody goat until they got some Bofors up there. Things were bucking up I think, supply-wise, I mean, we kicked off with nothing and these Bofors chased the buggers off. They used to come in and do just what they pleased. Finally, the Seventeenth Division got relieved for once and out we came. We all got leave, I went to Calcutta and then they re-formed, I had a good rest and more training. It were the Twenty Sixth Division that went, that relieved us. Where did I go from there? Well, I survived the Burma Campaign I think I went to Ceylon then, getting ready to invade Sumatra.
I think I once heard you say something about seeing Wingate when he were….
R- Oh well, that were in Burma itself. We were paraded at mornings you know, even on active service, you’re still on bloody parade! And we were all stood in lines at attention and ‘Stand At Ease!’ and this officer were giving us a pep talk I thought. They used to come regular giving us pep talks. This Wingate, he wanted some volunteers. My mate says ‘Eh, I’m sick of this bloody lot, I want to volunteer’. I says ‘Keep bloody still and say nothing. Never volunteer for nothing!’, he looked like a bloody nutcase to me. And he were, he got some volunteers and they went marching into Burma and dropping by parachute and making forts and acting t’bloody goat in general. I don’t think they did much good, not for t’volunteers, there weren’t as right lot of them survived.
That were Chindits weren’t it?
R- Aye, give ‘em a fancy hat apiece, one of the Australian bush hats.
Is that right?
R- I’d have looked a bugger with that on with me bow legs! Anyway, they didn’t get me, I’m still unscathed.
SCG/20 February 2002
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