大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War website by Julia Shuvalova for GMR Actiondesk on behalf of Stanley Applin and has been added with his permission. The author is fully aware of the terms and conditions of the site.

I went to the army when I was 19. In 1943 I joined the Sheffield Regiment. I started my training at Richmond, in Yorkshire. From there I went to Lincoln. I spent there eight or ten weeks and was then given 14 days of vacation leave. After twelve days I was called back and had to return immediately.

We went from Liverpool by sea to Southampton, where we picked up more people and went to Grenack in Scotland. From there we went into the Mediterranean in convoy. We were attacked by two or three submarines, but were left unscathed.

It took us 10 weeks to get to India. We landed in Bombay and were given a special booklet called 'Welcome to India'. My vividest impression is that it was very hot there. We spent six weeks in India before going to Burma.

From Bombay we went to Deolala (still in India) where the officers seeded the soldiers to the divisions. I was seeded into the 25th Indian division. On paddle steamer we went to Commilla in Burma, and from there we had to travel through the country on foot. The only transport there was the mills for transportation of heavy goods.

We stopped at different places: Bathedon, Coxs Bazaar (a small village with a hospital). We went up north to Arakan where we conducted several military actions. Burma is a hilly place: Columbay mountain was 1501 ft above the sea level. If the guns fired, we would go down to the ground, but always tried to identify where they fired from.

In Burma, it was hot and humid, and dysentery, malaria and typhus consumed many soldiers. We had absolutely no time for acclimatisation.

I spent six months there, then I received ten days of leave, and when it finished, I joined the regiment again. I spent two and a half tours in Burma in total (15 months).

During the leave I went to Darjeeling. I spent a lot of time at Ootacamund, which was famous for its horse-racing. We were given 12 rupees per week, which made 15 shilling. Betting was around 16 rupees, which was about 1s 4p. I had beer and ate at the Indian restaurants, all the basic food. Cigarettes were available.

Rivers in Burma were called 'chaungs', but were in fact bigger than a river. Navy called for gunmen, and raided the Japanese on ships. Boats were called 'sloops and belonged to the Indian Navy.

We landed at Akyab Island, together with the marines and went to the place called Foul Point (further up north along the Burman coast). We had a severe fight there; then we moved to the arriereguard. We had losses, because sloops could only carry twelve men. Many people drowned; some of them could not even swim, as they were the infantry soldiers.

I met the Victory Day in Madras.

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