大象传媒

Service in the Chongs of Burma in an HDML, 1944
Transcribed from a video recording

This is 1944 now. I was promoted sub-lieutenant, I had to leave Renown then, and of course I wondered where I was going to go, they put you anywhere, you see, they thought I was suitable for coastal forces, and they put me in command of a HDML, which is a Harbour Defence Motor Launch, timber 鈥攂uilt, diagonal planking, if that means anything, 72foot long, and we were directed to go Achiab, which is in Burma 鈥� all these names you hear more about the Army being there than the Navy 鈥� but our job was to patrol the Chongs, they鈥檙e like creeks and rivers which weave their way through, proper network, all over the place, in Burma, and the Japs 鈥� getting towards the end of the war now, - were trying to get back into India across these waterways, and our job was to stop that, which we did. That was that part of it. We finished that, or finished that tour of duty there, which was great fun really, we never did catch any Japs there, but it was a tricky business, you never knew what was around the next bend. We came through that all right , but we had engine trouble. So we went right down through the Indian Ocean from there, to Calcutta, to dry-dock, and we were in dry-dock in Calcutta for about six, eight weeks, I think. but anyway, the work was being done by Italian prisoners of war, very clever engineers, the Italians, working on the engines. In their spare time, I don鈥檛 know how they did it, they had got hold of blocks of aluminium and they were making cigarette lighters out of this aluminium, and flogging them 鈥� they did very well. Nice blokes they were, I鈥檝e nothing against the Ities. I had to stay there, with nothing to do, and I happened to get friendly with a chief petty officer in the Royal Indian Navy I bumped into, we got very friendly, unusual for me, for in those days we considered ourselves 鈥渟uperior鈥� 鈥� which is all the wrong attitude today, it wouldn鈥檛 do today we thought we were the cat鈥檚 whisker, we were important, anybody else that didn鈥檛 have the right stripe鈥� you know. 鈥� very nice chap. Moslem, we use to go to all the places he knew. Great, you see, what meals to order, great.

Gordon Richmond

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