大象传媒

Explore the 大象传媒
This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving.

15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

大象传媒 Homepage
大象传媒 History
WW2 People's War Homepage Archive List Timeline About This Site

Contact Us

Enlisting and the Journey to India

by Caroline Forster

Contributed by听
Caroline Forster
People in story:听
John Vincent Forster, Eric Sier
Location of story:听
Kendal, Blacon Camp, Aldershot, Carlisle, Gourock, Sierra Leone, Durban, Bombay
Background to story:听
Army
Article ID:听
A4678554
Contributed on:听
03 August 2005

On the 6th March 1941 I enlisted at Kendal and asked to be put in the infantry, preferably the Border Regiment. Later that month I got my orders to join the Royal Engineers at Blacon Camp, just outside Chester. So I became Sapper 2148082 and started on drill, weapon training and fieldworks, including explosives. With army cadet and home guard experience I got into army life quite easily. At the end of the first week we recruits were all given several injections and most spent the weekend feeling poorly. We were confined to barracks anyway. We spent hours polishing our boots, they had to have a shine like a mirror. A lot of what we did was interesting. Some lectures were not, and I have always liked the poem 鈥淣aming of parts鈥 by Henry Reed because it reminds me how my mind used to wander during some dull lecture.

When we had finished our basic training some of us were put through various hoops to see if we had potential to become officers. I was amongst the final few who were possibles and had to go before a Board of Colonels for interview. It was nerve wracking and I shall never forget fluffing one question fired at me about yellow wagtails. (I had put down ornithology as an interest). I had also put down comparative philology as an interest but they avoided that.

Anyway before any development about officer training suddenly the whole intake, just newly trained sappers, were transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps and sent to Buller Barracks in Aldershot. Most were then posted to various RASC units but the potential officers stayed on. I became an Acting Unpaid Lance Corporal and helped with recruit training, particularly drilling squads on the barrack square. I enjoyed that and thought I made a good job of it. It was great to see a squad of men turning as one to commands even at some distance across the barrack square. This went on for some weeks and some of our small group were getting a bit impatient to move on. An officer came to see us and said that if we volunteered to serve as British officers in the Indian Army we would see some progress a lot sooner. So I and some others volunteered; some didn鈥檛. Shortly after that those who had volunteered and those who hadn鈥檛 all met in the transit camp to start our journey to India.

One night we were taken by coach to a station. There was strict security but as the train pulled away a lone piper played a mournful tune. The train trundled along through the night an there was no way of knowing where we were 鈥 no lights, no place names anywhere.

As dawn broke on a grey, rain-lashed desolate landscape I knew we were on the Settle-Carlisle line. Sure enough we stopped at Carlisle for char and a wad, and then we reached Gourock on the Clyde. We were taken by small boat to a ship called 鈥淢aloja鈥 which had been converted into a troopship. We went below to the messdeck, crammed with fixed tables and benches which you hardly move between. That was also where we slept as well, in hammocks, on tables, under tables. That evening the Maloja sailed in convoy. It was a beautiful sunset as we passed the Isle of Arran, and I wondered when I would see such scenery again. Night fell and when dawn broke we were on our own, not another ship in sight. We could only guess where we were. Some said we were in the Bay of Biscay- it was rough and the sea looked decidedly unappealing. One by one people became seasick, until on our messdeck only I and Eric Sier had any appetite. Eric thought the best way to prevent seasickness was to stuff yourself with food. He ate as much as he could of the others鈥 food and it seemed to work for him. I never felt seasick at all 鈥 I think now that it must have been because of my mariner ancestors in Brixham but I didn鈥檛 know about them then.

Some people passed the time by playing housey-housey, others played bridge. I liked looking at the sea and the sky. Our group also had to learn some Urdu from a book.

Days passed, no other ship was seen but the weather began to get warmer and flying fish appeared. Our first landfall was Freetown, Sierra Leone. We didn鈥檛 get ashore but it was great to look at some lush African countryside. But we were soon back at sea, getting scruffier and scruffier. There was no fresh water to wash in, and salt water makes you and your clothes horribly sticky. Once could sleep on deck when the weather got warmer. The latrines below had stopped working and one had to use sort of troughs fastened across the ship with running sea water in them. If the ship rolled to one side you could get a wet bottom! And then we caught a glimpse of Table Mountain and one evening some days later we docked in Durban. It looked like paradise, the streets were ablaze with light, cars rolled along between the palm trees. We had come out of darkness, no lights on deck, all portholes closed, and it was amazing. We went to a camp a few miles outside Durban but were able to get into Durban quite often in the month we were there 鈥 it was like being back in peacetime. Of course we did get some training done, and I can remember our Colonel emphasizing that no apartheid based on colour existed in India and he didn鈥檛 want anyone to pick up the wrong idea.

After our month in Durban we boarded a converted French liner, the Isle de France and that took us to Port Tewfik near Suez. We were there a week in tents I the desert before we went on to the worst ship of the lot, the Ascanius. It was small and dirty, the food had insects in it and it rolled horribly in the rough seas we had all the way to Bombay. It had taken us three months to get to India!

A bit more about life on board the Ascanius. The sea was rough with 40 foot waves and we were approaching Bombay (Mumbai as it is now known) with the monsoon. They baked their own bread on the ship so it was always fresh. We thought at first it was currant bread but the currants were dead weevils. But one day someone cut a slice and a live weevil strolled out. I have never worked out how it could have survived. Perhaps it nipped in after the baking. Years later a member of the crew told me that there had been slugs in the stew.

When we went ashore, past the imposing Gateway to India, we were taken to Bombay railway station - and my main recollection is of the swarms of people 鈥 and scruffy as we were we were soon moving, but it took us five days on that train, partly spent in sidings, to get to Bangalore. So you can imagine how scruffy we were then by then. Then we were taken by coach to the OTS (Officers鈥 Training School), attractive arcaded buildings beautifully lit, with very smart uniformed servants, gliding about. I felt even scruffier then!

Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.

Archive List

This story has been placed in the following categories.

British Army Category
India Category
icon for Story with photoStory with photo

Most of the content on this site is created by our users, who are members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of the 大象传媒. The 大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of any external sites referenced. In the event that you consider anything on this page to be in breach of the site's House Rules, please click here. For any other comments, please Contact Us.



About the 大象传媒 | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy