´óÏó´«Ã½

This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Dunstable At War Team on behalf of Gerald Wheatley and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

My brief military career began when I joined the Army Cadet Force of Dunstable School on 1st September 1939. Two days later, the Second World War commenced.

We might have been mere schoolboys but we knew the serious nature of the situation. For years our weekly visits to the cinema to see such favourites as Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy were spoilt by the newsreel coverage, which reported the expansion of Hitler’s Nazi regime.

One by one, formerly independent nations were taken over until finally in 1939, Hitler’s army invaded Poland. After years of appeasement our government decided that this was the final straw and war was declared. Germany was well equipped for war; for years her military strength had been built up to unacceptable peacetime levels. Apart from the newsreels, the first Nazis I actually saw were a hockey team, which came over in 1938 from Düsseldorf to play against our school

At the end of the match our team captain called for ‘three cheers for the visitors’. To our amazement and horror, the German team sprang to attention, gave the Nazi salute and shouted ‘Heil Hitler’.

Later when the war was underway, the Luftwaffe were able to pinpoint important industrial sites such as Vauxhall Motors at Luton. They were able to do so because their visiting ‘hockey team’ had expressed great interest in the London Gliding Club, which operated from Dunstable Downs. They were treated generously and were taken up for flights over the area. When we were eventually at war, it was clear that their innocent interest in flying and gliding had a more sinister nature.

I shall never forget the sense of horror and outrage that I felt when I witnessed their barbarian demonstration on our English playing field.

By the time I left school in 1943, I was a cadet sergeant in the corps and was equipped with a War Certificate ‘A’, which testified to a basic knowledge of musketry, field-craft and map reading.

On leaving school, I worked for a few months as a junior assistant in Luton Public Library and at seventeen and a half years of age, I volunteered to serve in the Army for the duration of hostilities and was enlisted in the General Service Corps in September 1943.

Initially I was to serve in The Reconnaissance Corps and after primary training at Bovington, Dorset was posted the Recce. Corps at Catterick in Yorkshire. Here the training was very thorough and required a certain amount of technical ability. The latter was not by any means my major attribute and it was suggested that I should apply for an infantry commission. This I did and to my surprise, after various physical and mental tests, was accepted.

In 1944 I was posted to India as an Officer Cadet. The course at Bangalore took six months and included all the usual subjects plus training in Jungle warfare and a compulsory component was instruction in Urdu, which was the language of the Indian Army. The first Gurkhas I met came aboard our ship at Alexandria on our way to India. They were such a cheerful bunch of lads that I decided if ever I had the opportunity, I would feel privileged to serve with them.

At O.T.S Bangalore (Officer Training School) subject to good reports, we were able to state a preference for the regiments in which we wished to serve. I was very fortunate for I requested ‘The Royal Sussex Regiment attached to The Gurkha Rifles’ and in July 1945 to my great delight, I was commissioned in The Royal Sussex Regiment (my county regiment) and attached to The first Gurkha Rifles.

Whilst at O.T.S, the end of the war in Europe was announced in May 1945. The surrender of the Japanese came a few months later in August, while I was attending the Gurkha Jungle Training School at Hardwar near Dehra Dun. It was here that I was instructed in the use of Gurkhali language.

Because hostilities had ceased I expected to be sent home to the UK. After all I had volunteered for ‘hostilities only’. This term however, was liberally interpreted to include all areas of unrest in the Far East. So I found myself posted to the 1st Battalion of King George V’s Own Gurkha Rifles, which together with the rest of the 20th Indian Division was expected to disarm and repatriate 70,000 Japanese troops who had formed the army of occupation in French Indo-China. They outnumbered us 3 to 1. But our Commander, General Gracey would not repatriate any Japanese who did not assist him in his other task of returning Indo-China to French colonial rule. The situation was complicated by the fact that, apart from the large fully armed Japanese army, the local population did not wish to return to French rule. So they formed insurgent roaming bands to oppose any attempt to support the French. We were caught in the middle for what was really the start of the Vietnamese War and were ambushed on many occasions. However, our Gurkhas were marvellous and all our convoys up-country got through.

In October 1947 I was a spectator at the surrender of the Yamaguchi Battalion of the Japanese Army to my Indian Army Gurkha regiment. Soon after this, I was ordered to attend a course at the Tactical Training Centre in Clement Town, near Dehra Dun in India. As I received late notice of the course I was allowed to fly from Saigon to Calcutta. The aircraft was an old Dakota fitted with a few bucket seats. It was fascinating to fly right across Thailand and the Burmese jungles, which had been so hostile to our troops only a few months previously. My Gurkha orderly who had never flown before, was also taken with the view. He said that it was just like a map.

Whilst I was at Clement town the First Gurkhas were also posted back to India and at the end of the course I was sent to the Regimental home at Dharmsala in the Himalayas.

At the Regimental Centre I carried out various jobs such as interviewing our Gurkhas who had been captured at Singapore about conditions in Japanese POW camps. Some of their stories were appalling. I also served as Unit Education Officer. This was a job that I enjoyed.

But by July 1947, my release order was imminent and I was ready to return home. By the time it did come through in August 1949, India had split into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India. The border between the two new states had been decided fairly arbitrarily; both sides were disappointed by the final demarcation and both sides retaliated by butchering their neighbours.

The worst task I had in India was to cross the border near Lahore on several occasions as a courier from the Regiment. So bad was the carnage that all trains were stopped and I decided that since I could not get out I might as well stay and help where I could.

I was put in charge of Lower Dharmsala, a small township with a platoon of Gurkhas to keep the peace. We managed to do this but we were unable to prevent an attempt to burn down a Muslim hotel in the middle of the night. We did put out the fire and were able to save the lives of the occupants who would otherwise have suffocated from smoke in their sleep. We received no help from the locals because they were of a different religion.

In September 1947, at long last, my release number was announced and I reported to Deolali transit camp near Karachi in Pakistan.

We sailed for home on 12th October 1947 on the SS. Franconia, a lovely gracious ship. We docked in Liverpool on 31st October 1947 and after demobilisation at York I was about to return home to Leagrave.

That Christmas at home made it all worthwhile and it was only recently that I discovered that I was on the Reserve List until 1959!

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.