大象传媒

After spending two years on HMS Matchless working mainly on the arctic convoys, in 1944 I received a travel pass to Greenock. It must have been late in the year as I remember it was very wet and cold. After a couple of weeks in Greenock I embarked on HMS Tyne, a destroyer depot ship I knew well from my days based in Scapa Flow. I recall one occasion from those days when we had gone onto the Tyne for a tombola session. I won about 拢35, a considerable sum in those days, but unfortunately the winnings comprised one 拢5 note, with the remainder being made up of silver and copper. I then had to make a precarious crossing over five destroyers to get to my ship all the time thinking that if I missed my footing the weight of my winnings would take me straight to the bottom.
It was pleasant as a young man to be joining a ship I knew well, and the march to HMS Tyne through Greenock was fairly low key. It was a wet and windy march although a few well wishers braved the cold to see us off. Some of the crew felt we should have had a Royal Marine band to lead us onto the Tyne. At that stage we had no idea of our destination but I suppose the issue of tropical kit should have given us a clue.
We set off and travelled past Gibraltar into the Mediterranean. It was certainly more peaceful now than on my previous visits. We followed the North African coast to Port Said where we stayed for a few days with shore leave available. Then followed a fascinating passage through the Suez Canal to the Red Sea and then the Indian Ocean, and then to Ceylon and Colombo. During this journey I received a letter from my brother saying that our father had died. There was no possible way I could have returned home at this point in our journey. We eventually reached Colombo and stayed there for several weeks waiting for a passage to Burma for the landings. Unfortunately our ship, which was fitted with all the latest gadgetry, was delayed with engine problems but we did arrive in time for the landings on Ramree Island. These landings were being fiercely opposed by the Japanese but they were being pushed back fairly rapidly.
After the landings I was sent to Akyab, a city in the Arakan division of Burma, where a group of us were billeted. The Japanese were at this time infiltrating the perimeter and their snipers were chained in trees to fire at any light or movement. A few of our group were killed or injured during the early morning visits to the latrines and wash places. Eventually a company of Ghurkhas were sent to join us and after a few night sorties we had no more trouble from the snipers. I stayed in Akyab for about four months and was then sent to Chittagong. Our transport for this journey was a tank landing craft, a cramped and basic vessel not well suited for the two to three hundred mile trip. To add to our discomfort the toilets packed in and we were all forced to hang over the side whenever nature called. At one point an officer lost his grip and ended up in the water and with the craft being flat bottomed there was a danger that if we came close he would be washed under the boat. Eventually after about forty minutes an inflatable boat was launched to retrieve the hapless man.
I spent about nine months in Burma in 1944 and I think it was whilst in Chittagong we heard that the atom bomb had been dropped in Japan. Shortly after the ceasefire we were shipped to Calcutta which to me was a real eye opener. Having seen poverty at first hand in other countries hadn't prepared me for the deprivation I witnessed in Calcutta. Hundreds, possibly thousands of people were sleeping on the pavements with nothing but rags for cover, and their larders were the dustbins of the hotels and cafes. There were begging patches which had to be paid for and some of the disabled had primitive trolleys to push themselves around on, whilst the blind and limbless were led or carried to their begging patches.
With the collapse of the war in Japan our time in Calcutta became almost a holiday. We were billeted in sea front hotels and bungalows and had very few duties. It became a case of marking time until your draft number for repatriation came up. My number was 50 so I had a wait of about nine months for shipment back to the UK. Having learnt to drive whilst based in Chittagong I applied for my Navy driving licence and passed the test. I then used to haunt the transport depot looking for any driving duties to practice my new skills. Although we now had peace the situation in India was volatile with the push for home rule and rioting was widespread. Any Forces building or vehicle was liable to attack and we lost two men whilst in Calcutta.
At the end of the war huge numbers of servicemen were applying for and being granted their demob whilst still stationed abroad, having found employment or girlfriends there. This situation was becoming such a problem that in the UK the parents, and in some cases the wives, of servicemen were complaining to the War Office that their men folk were not coming home. As a young man I had no dependants at home and had met and become attached to Eunice, the daughter of a local Police Inspector, who had been born in Calcutta. I had also been offered employment on a local plantation which I had accepted and intended to take up after my demob. I think my romantic letters to Eunice hastened my end in Calcutta. It was at about this time that it became orders that servicemen had to return to the UK for their demob, brought in, no doubt, in response to the many complaints the War Office had received. Anyone wishing to return abroad like myself would then have to pay their own passage and accommodation. My life could have taken a very different turn if my demob had been a few weeks earlier.
As it was three of us picked up our rail vouchers for the three-day rail journey from Calcutta to Bombay, eating and sleeping on the train. We stayed for about two months in Bombay in 1946. I remember the city appeared cleaner than Calcutta and there were fewer beggars, and whilst there we became involved in the Indian Navy mutiny. One day we were detailed to block all the roads leading from the harbour to the town. This would have been fine had we been armed but our only defence against mutineers carrying weapons were pickaxe handles. The officer in charge waved his about so wildly we felt we were more in danger of being wounded by him than by the mutineers.
My next stop was Madras having travelled there by train from Bombay however I have no recollection of my time there at all. Another rail trip then took me to Colombo and during this journey I developed a severe ear infection probably caused by swimming. Without the help of my mates I don't think I would have made it to Colombo. After about three months in Colombo we finally set off for the UK travelling on an aircraft carrier which had been constructed from a US merchant ship. Nearing the coast of England we passed the white cliffs of Dover and finally reached journeys end at Chatham. A tradition in the Royal Navy when leaving or entering a harbour is for the off duty crew to line the decks and on this ship our Scottish Captain also had a piper play as we entered. I received my demob papers and a rail warrant to Scarborough and so began the rest of my life.

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