大象传媒

By 1944 George Johnston was an Royal Artillery Lieutenant. He went on the conversion course for Artillery for Colonial move to Nigeria. This course was held at Dunbar over Christmas 1944.

There was little option about this change for Colonial duties - by this time they were cutting down on Light Ack Ack, as less was needed. So all batteries were having to shed a number of Officers, and as George was one of the latest arrivals he was nominated and he was not physically unfit. The other thing that was happening was that repatriated and wounded officers were taking over in that role. George went on this course, eventually arriving in London at the centre for dispatch. Why London is unclear - it was a bit vulnerable - but they had hotel accommodation to deal with the large numbers. It was at Marylebone at the station end of the old station.

After course was finished they made up the Drafts from there. They were posted each evening at 6pm., before dinner, giving directions for the next day or the one following. Then in the morning you examined the lists again for any changes and reported to the Adjutant's Office - if there was nothing for you the rest of the day was yours - there was nothing to do but wait. In fact George thinks he had already had embarkation leave, but he had a further four days at one stage. Eventually George was posted to Nigeria, and sailed from Glasgow at the end of Feb 1945, out into the Atlantic to the other side, and back to Gib, and down coast to Nigeria.

When serving abroad, Artillery Officers had to be attached to a field regiment. George was with the Worcester Regiment (12 Batt, 3 Brig, 81 Division of the West African Frontier Force. This Battalion was brought in as Chindit reserve.)

George then went to India to 12 Bn of the Nigeria Regiment (81st Division) which was part of the Chindit force. We were replacements for the losses incurred in the Wingate drop into Burma, when the regiment reformed to go in again. There was a Nigerian Brigade, a Ghurka Brigade and an English Brigade. In fact we did not go, but were held in reserve. We became the Line of communication troops for the Madras Area and got all the odd jobs eventually, like George doing the signals for the Engineering troops that went across to Burma. The Japs had collapsed but they did not trust anything so they went ahead. While in India he was attached to the Military Police for a fortnight to supervise the cricket match of the immediate post-war England touring party at Madras. This was an easy number, after checking with the sergeant that all was OK the rest of the day was spent in the Members' pavilion.

During his time in India, the equivalent of the ATS there held a Ball, and the saris were of very thick expensive silk.

In India, George failed to get his Class B release. He was offered a class B release - an early release. You lost certain privileges connected with your pay and leave, but as Derby authority had been paying me, and you were entitled to this as a schoolmaster to get back - George accepted, the Adjutant said "Prepare quickly as the last one we had was only 5-6 days warning". So George cabled his wife Mavis and got ready. Then a signal came with all George references re class B release, which said "Does this officer posses a dog licence?" Seems crazy, but India as far as English troops were concerned (and George was considered to be that because his records went back to England) to be still on a peacetime basis in many ways. Many were going back home and some were taking pets, but the regulations were strict. Adjutant queried whether he was taking a dog back. George replied "No why should I be taking a dog back". "Look at this". It was an immediate signal, very high priority: So they sent a signal back: "No dog, no dog licence". George never heard a further word about it after that. Within a week or two they got orders that we were going back to Nigeria, so George did not really lose much time anyway.

At the end of the war George became sick with Malaria while in hospital with a skin infection (the treatment for the skin infection was with silver nitrate). There were 4 nurses in the almost empty army hospital, and George became very thin, and this worried his wife Mavis when she saw the emaciated photograph. A nightly whisky was part of the treatment.

In spring 1946 George returned to Nigeria taking the Nigerian troops back and demobilised them. George took a happy party of demobilisation troops down to Enugu. One fell off the train and he ran up the track: fortunately the train had to stop frequently to take on wood and he caught it up. Someone came to tell George as he was train commander, it was a special train with 700 on it, and George had 1 officer and 2 sgts. They did not know that they were not under military discipline: they had been demobbed but did not know. There were a number of NCOs from George's own unit on the train. These were the less disciplined of the Nigerian soldiers, they were Eboos.

On one of the ships on the way back from India, the first officer came round, and said that the Captain was very keen on hygiene and liked to smell disinfectant. He suggested it was not a bad idea to keep a little can of Jeyes fluid, and have an orderly with a tin pour it neat in the toilets.

George returned home to England in May 1946.

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