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Bombay/ Lahore July 1943 (arrived 3.7.43)
Went into a transit camp called Worli. Walked at night along the beach to try and cool down.
Got a dose of dysentery, thinks it was called Beri Beri a good many of them did. Held there for further transit. Remember going into a market where all the Indians crowded round us, one guy brought a basket forward and produced a snake, dad couldn't even back off cos of the crowds. Had his fortune told but didn't want to hear it, said something a bit worrying, said dad would have an illness or something would happen in the July but that he would come thru it. wished he hadn't had fortune told.

Next was a long train journey to Lahore. The journey took something like a week. Dad was still with lads who he first joined up with, so that was good. Looks something like a thousand miles. Train had to stop for a cow at one point which caused problems him being sacred an all. Got to Lahore and joined the 307 maintenance unit. Dad settled in well at Lahore as the barracks were good - Kipling's period mid 19th century. Slept on a charpoi (wooden bed with rope support/ matting) and had punkawalla’s pulling a rope to operate large sections of matting to move and create a draft. The matting was the size of the backroom at 488 Chester Rd, the room they slept in was the size of six houses. The punkawalla’s were for each line of beds and would keep going through the day but not at night. The men had a bearer who looked after tidying up and looking after the washing. He took it to a ‘dobi walla’. This wasn't done thru the RAF, they paid him privately.

'They were very happy to work for us, we treated em well, we did'

Dad used to have a minor bird come and visit and sit on the bed, waiting for crumbs. They mimicked talk.

He became my friend he did that little bird, he used to come every day

Had 21st birthday in Lahore and the first Xmas overseas was spent here also. Went out in a gang on dads 21st, say four guys, went a little restaurant and had plenty to drink. We took over the band, dad played the drums and they were well oiled. The journey back to the camp was around 10 miles but don't remember the journey at all, by bus. Do remember feeling like the ceiling was coming in. Another time the gang hid, a party were marching to the maintenance unit and they’d been out late or something and managed to hide behind a train of camels. No one noticed them and they weren't punished. Whilst in Lahore, which was for 10 months. During the leave periods, dad visited Amaritsar and its golden temple, the Himalayan foothills - Nainital - went up there for two weeks up in the hills, interesting things to see there.Walked in the hills with mates - Taffy Williams and Jock Deacon.

'We were good mates'

Went for a walk and the dawn comes up like thunder, same at night - light and then dark like a flash. Coming up a hillside track, the terrain sloping, could hear rustling in the trees just half way dark, couldn't make this out at first but then could see that these were baboons following them thru the trees and stopped to look at this and then started to walk up the hill again when a bump landed behind. A baboon mother landed close with a baby on her neck, the greatest temptation to touch the mother. But resisted cos it would have been war. it was obvious the baboons were curious, cos no one ever went up there not the locals either. Walked round the lake, the locals lost someone in the lake while they were there. Also a tiger had taken a child the week before they arrived. Stopped in Lahore and dad was getting well bored. On guard duty one night a civilian who was imprisoned for his own safety put his hands throught the bars and grabbed dads coat by the lapels, dad asked him to let go but he wouldn’t, so dad banged him on top of the wrists and against the bars, with a yelp he let go. He then went backwards and forward along the wall, chanting Hip Hip Hurricane. He then stood on one end of the charpoi and let go, hitting his head on the other end and knocking himself out. He didn't come round for a long time and dad was worried, telling the guard commander. He got a couple of others who went in and picked him up. They took him outside for a so called walk but his feet never actually touched the ground. Dad had his first flight here, a test flight on a Wellington bomber. The first never left the ground, dad was up a short ladder looking out of the astrodome and the aircraft was bouncing nearly going off, when he suddenly slammed the brakes on, Dad came crashing down and hit the centre section - fortunately there was no serious injury. this was in the July so Dad thinks this broke the spell, of the fortune teller. The next day they went up and dad thoroughly enjoyed it. This was dads first flight ever.

You know as we turned round he slammed the breaks on and he turned round to see if I was okay, as we turned the plane round some kids came out and threw bricks at the plane, and of course it was only canvas covered.

A notice came up for anyone to volunteer for forward areas - meaning the frontline with the Japanese armed forces. Dad put his name down. This was to prove so basic in living but so wonderful in what dad saw and experienced from here on. Six men were posted to 117 squadron transport command SEAC.

May 1944 - Volunteering for Forward Duties
Dad leaves Lahore for Calcutta. Didn't know where they were going other than Calcutta, cos they had to report in there. The journey was via Delhi where they had a couple of days, maybe three days. Dad travelled with six people who dad had been with right from joining up, through the whole journey. All these men were in RAF, all in 306 Maintenance Unit 307 MU, maintenance for aircraft and nothing else.
Others - Clarrie Colwill from Devon, Bill, Ken Atkins from Leicester, Dennis Bills from Stourbridge, cant remember sixth persons name.

Delhi was well interesting and they saw the ViceRoy palace and stayed in services accommodation. Came back in a tonga - a horse drawn buggy and there was an attempted ambush of this in Old Delhi. Lots of Indian men around the buggy stopped the buggy and crowded round it. Old Delhi was officially out of bounds and the driver shouldn't have taken them through there. Dad took the whip of the driver, whipped the horse and got going to avoid the would be robbers. On arrival at train station they refused to pay the driver. At the station the platforms were crowded with people, some asleep on the platform. If you arrived at night, you would work your way thru the bodies to get out.

Journeying from Delhi to Calcutta, went across the Ganges at Allahabad, also saw Banares and remembers the size of this. Finally arrived at Calcutta and stayed there for a week. It took three weeks to journey from Lahore to the squadron. On arrival in Calcutta, didn't know where the squadron were. They were billeted in an old school house which rat infested, they ran around at night. Calcutta was bloomin awful, the poorest of the poor were there. The beggars on the streets lived out their lives under corrugated iron on the pavement. Some had their arms and legs bent the wrong way deliberately for begging.

'I saw the cast system in action and didn't like it, bloomin awful'

Saw a traffic policeman walloped a rickshaw walla holding his rickshaw up at the time, for stepping forward when the traffic was stopped at a junction. The rickshaw walla did nothing, they were used to being treated like nothing, he just picked himself up off the ground.

'Wherever you went it was Backshee Sahib’

Then there was the pimps chasing you to have a Bibi (woman/ girl). If you went in there you probably wouldn't come out alive or at least would get a dose.

The squadron were actually in a place called Sylhet in Assam region. The interesting journey was by train from Calcutta to a rail head on the Brahmaputra river - this journey took about 2 days. Children were begging for food at every station, then they realised that they were the same kids and had obviously been on the train from Calcutta. We gave them food from our rations and ran short ourselves. Remember staying in a basher overnight at the railhead, again accompanied by rats. Bored in the evening, the men went for a walk and came upon a hand operated trolley on a single track siding, so had a few rides on this up and down the track, until spotted. Carrying on with the journey and getting low on food - joined a side wheel paddle steamer. Got on a boat and where there were 300 Naga tribesmen all their families were there, kids and everything. They were heading to work on a road in Assam. There was one cabin so they had to toss up to see who would go in there on the first night. This journeyed for 3 days up the Brahmaputra. Dad lost the toss and had to sleep on deck - this turned out to be an experience, dad awoke to a burrowing feeling and woke up to see tat the deck was black with cockroaches, dad covered up completely in the blanket and rolled from side to side to crush them. Eventually they took off. The river was a mile wide in places, dad saw fish some three feet long which looked a bit like a porpoise. One day saw a wild elephant and baby running through the grass. On the paddle boat - the side wheeler, they had to eat the food of the Naga’s - rotis were the standard dish, cooked on what dad called the bowler hat - a cast iron affair with charcoal burner. Thrown on top of the convex of the ‘bowler hat’ was the chappatti mix, dad says it tasted like soil. Washed under the pumps on the boat and the Nagas thought this well funny. Although the Nagas would strip off and wash in the same way they thought it funny that whites did this too. they were heading for Nagaland after labouring elsewhere in India - they were all labourers. Got off the ship around Gauhati and travelled by road to Shilong. Then carried on to Sylhet, this passed thru the tea plantation, the smell of the tea was very strong, this was a fantastic journey, through the wettest place in the world - Cherrapunji. Arrived at Sylhet. Journey from Lahore to Syhlet was approx three weeks.

Arrived Sylhet around June 1944. Calcutta to Sylhet was some journey on that boat. Then began working with the Chindit brigade. These were Wingates special troops - a lot were ex 8th army, they were infantry. Wingate was known as the world’s first terrorists thru his tactics in fighting the Japs. They were to be flown behind the enemy lines. They were getting ready to do this in Sylhet. More were being flown in.Mules and equipment too. All were brought into there. What happened then altho they were never told, dad believes transport command - dads group, responsible flying the army in and all of their equipment for the offensive. Also responsible for dropping men and supplies behind enemy lines and then later to the ordinary army. The Chindits were a specialist brigade employed specially to cause havoc behind enemy lines. Some stayed in that area. Squadron was always on a rear or an advance party. For a short time the whole squadron the RAF squadron 117. 117 was dads squadron in Sylhet. Dad was left ton the rear party at Sylhet and looked after three aircraft which took supplies to the army, this would be to wherever the army were advancing - they were settling in at this time ready for the attack against the Japs. An aerodrome was built at Infal called Blackpool. The three supply planes were Dakotas. Dad was on H for Harry. Had a real responsibility for this one plane but had to refuel others and so on. 11 people were left behind to look after the plaes at Sylhet. One plane was lost, don't know what a happened. It was v sad and all the stuff had to go back to England all the personal stuff. They sent a man with the personal effects of the men lost to escort their belongings to go by ship from Bombay. In Sylhet dad first encountered leeches the first one going through his flies. He doesn't say where it attached itself. Were flying stuff to Kohima(?) where some of the worst battles took place

August 1944 during the Typhoon
Eventually dad moved to Chittagong. Remember being in a bamboo basher and the typhoon tore the roof off. Dad slid down the side of the hill holding onto his tin box, which had all his belongings in. Didn’t want to lose them. When in Chittagong (India, now Bangladesh) they wee flying straight out to west side of Chinwin. One mission dad had was to fly out with a spare wheel for a plane which had lost its wheel on a makeshift strip. They told dad the Japs would come over the Chinwin river that night, he doesn't know if it was true but it sure made him work fast. Chittagon was fascinating cos the airfield was right by the harbour. The planes would skim the funnels of sips in its harbour. Syhlet is now an international airport - it was a village when he was there. Had pet monkeys in Chittagong called Cecil and Ruby. It was great to thave the animals as it was a v boring time. Never really saw towns or whatever cos out in the fields. Boredom worst after the war. Took the monkeys everywhere from then on. Little Grey monkeys. Got to know Cecil v well. Came through window on to dads mosquito net, get onto shoulders and part hair v carefully, after balls of fat. If writing a letter say to mom, the monkey would stretch whole body down dads arm, legs anchored on shoulder and would watch dad writing, he would turn to dad as if to say what you doing? Gave him chose(?) when poss. Indians scared of Cecil. A cha walla came and Cecil opened his box, smiling as stole a cake, the Char walla did nothing thru superstition or cos of Cecil in particular. At 4 am every morning they had to drain the aircraft tanks of moisture, had to drain off a gallon of each tank - a mix of petrol and water, it went to the bottom. Had to be done before take off. Had to give the air crew a cup of tea, bottles were made into glasses by filling them with oil and then putting a red hot poker in to crack the bottle. This was for them to have a cup of tea. The fire, the brazier wasn't going very well. ‘One morning, a cockney kid said ‘Ill get it going’ - threw one of the drained tanks onto the fire and it went up bang 60ft. He was in the flames and dad never saw him again. Heard a heck of a scream there was only him and dad. There was no first aid training. He wasn't on fire, enveloped in the explosion - one big bang and then out. Burnt terrible arms chest and so on right down. Never saw him again.

Thefts
Thieving was regular and sometimes spectacular. In India and Burma they had to be aware of the Dakoytes who would raid the camps at night and take whatever they could. Then there were the inside jobs - a jeep driver who sold a troops bus to Indians, a group of men who stole a plane and flew off to China.

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