大象传媒

I was called up when I was eighteen years old and conscripted in the REME whose Commanding Officer was Lord Louis Mountbatten. Six months later I was sailing to India where I served in Poona and Bangalore.
During my service in India I was promoted to Staff Sergeant/Armourer and was responsible for servicing all sorts of weapons, including flamethrowers and automatic weapons.
I was flown home in 1944 to attend a course on flamethrowers and returned by sea.
We would often put together bags of pistols which we had serviced and which were then dropped to our forces behind enemy lines in Burma.
The flamethrowers were dangerous weapons to handle and use, and the original ones (lifebuoys) had steel fuel tanks. These sometimes split with disastrous results to their users. After some time the steel tanks were replaced with aluminium ones which were a bit less dangerous.
While serving in India I sometimes flew to Ceylon where I was required to check over captured arms. Since these were unfamiliar weapons, we were very cautious testing them.
We tested the rifles by taking them to a firing range, packing them with sandbags and discharging them from a distance just in case they blew back on us.
I was also involved in the conversion of the Bren Gun mountings on LCAs to accommodate twin Browning machine guns and I devised a bracket that enabled the Brownings to be mounted instead of the Bren. In fact I still have the blueprint at home!
After the war was over, I remained in India and was there in 1947 at the time of the civil war. This was a very frightening time as you did not know who you could trust. I used to sleep with a pistol under my pillow.

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