大象传媒

Eventually the Division was ready to join the fighting in Burma. There was a very long road journey to somewhere near Calcutta, and we boarded a ship to Cox鈥檚 Bazaar, as our sector was the coastal area of Arakan. On the way the next ship to us in the convoy blew up and rapidly sank. The convoy carried on but one ship stayed to pick up survivors.

When the monsoon came conditions were difficult. You could not get dry and one鈥檚 boots turned green overnight. I had an interesting time with an animal transport unit which used mules to carry supplies to otherwise inaccessible places, and rode my own 鈥渃harger鈥�. Every night our artillery would do its best to see that the Japanese didn鈥檛 get a good night鈥檚 sleep. All the local inhabitants had disappeared.

When the Japanese had been driven down the coast our Division was sent back to India to prepare for the attack on Malaya. The day before we embarked for our amphibious attack Japan surrendered. However no one was sure that the Japanese commander in Malaya would order his troops to lay down their arms so we had to go through the original assault plan from landing craft. Unfortunately they had not got the tide times quite right so we had a longer wade through the sea than expected and some of the Gurkhas in front of me disappeared briefly right under the waves. Luckily none of the crocodiles we had been warned about put in an appearance.

When I look back at what I wrote about my experiences in the Arakan I see there is a lot left out, such as being bombed by a Japanese plane, - it was nothing to the London blitz 鈥� being promoted from lieutenant to captain, moving to different places and units. At one location, by a river but only accessible from our lines by a rocky mountain pass, one of my responsibilities was a covered dump of ammunition and explosives. I had been told that some of the explosives were in a very bad state and might explode spontaneously. Early one morning as I walked to inspect the dump I met a throng of apparently panic-stricken Indian troops running the other way. Things became clear very soon as shots were fired and the mortars came into action. The running Indians were actually butchers who had been given a place on the other side of the river to prepare meat for Indian troops. A party of Japanese had crept up and put them to flight. For some hours we were surrounded and things got quite lively but the Japanese were eventually driven off. There is so much more I remember about the Arakan campaign but it would take too long to go on!

And now back to Malaya.

Malaya, even after the Japanese occupation, was in many ways a more developed country than we had been in before. The people were absolutely delighted to welcome us as we landed, overjoyed that the harsh Japanese rule was over. After adding ashore we were all wet through so paused for a while before we marched on and I still remember the delightful drink of fresh coconut when a local man slashed the top and gave it to me. It was very hot. That night I slept on the concrete floor of a school but the following day we reached Kuala Lumpar and better quarters. It was here I saw a sigh that haunts me to this day 鈥� a surviving (but only just) prisoner of war 鈥� just skin and bone and unable to stand without assistance. At that time the full extent of Japanese atrocities was not know, though the local people, particularly the Chinese, were telling us something of what the Japanese had done in Malaya. When a bit later on one of my duties was to see that the Japanese, as prisoners of war, were properly fed, it galled me to think that they were treated so infinitely better than they had treated their prisoners. Later I was pleased to deliver three Japanese war criminals to prison. I still have the receipt for them.

The war was over and the army began to revert to peace-time practices. I was promoted to the rank of major and found myself now in an administrative job.

I was fortunate to be able to see much of the western side of Malaya, from Singapore to Penang. English was widely spoken but I learnt some Malay, not the high-class Malay, but 鈥渂azaar Malay鈥� used as a 鈥渓ingua franca鈥� by the varied population, mainly Chinese in the towns with Malays in the villages, though the Malay nobility wielded most authority. My tour of duty was extended until a replacement was found and then I was on troopship again. The ship called at Colombo, Bombay and then went through the Suez Canal. The Mediterranean seemed chilly and I caught a cold.

Liverpool looked very unattractive under its mantle of grubby snow and I was charged duty on some of the souvenirs I brought back. Soon I was demobilized and I saw my mother and grandmother again. My father, who had continued to live in the City of London and did ARP duties in his spare time, had died while I was away.

During my six years I had seen many different lands and cultures, there had been some excitement and adventures, but also periods of tedium and discomfort. The army had made a lasting impression on me but now a different phase of my life began, when I travelled to Windermere and married the Home Guard platoon commander鈥檚 daughter, whom I hadn鈥檛 seen for five years.

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