´óÏó´«Ã½

We have such laughs in our family about my service A/C 8788 Mobile Signals Units from Imphal ? to Rangoon when Viscount Hun ? sent Horohito scuttling back to Japan to concentrate on electrical goods at which the Nips are really good. If only you had consulted a few of us; there’s me, Lt. Col Jack Rowbottom opposite our bungalow, and at least one more fine old gentleman in Bassingham.
You never mentioned histrionic Mountbatten who used to come down about 5 a.m. at Imphal where we had been standing since dawn. It is not very hot all of the time. Mountbatten used to come floating down in a white Dakota with curtains at the portholes. He was to tell us to break ranks and gather round to listen to his sales pitch. Stan, who gathered together the motley crew, was always on the spot directing men to put some effort into whatever he thought was necessary like fielding our own little navy to cross rivers safely. All the urban men with little sheds at home were only too pleased to put their D.I.Y. skills to good use.
Yes, what a shower Chang Kai Chek, Hirohito and the Mad men with the clock. The Yanks built all “ Merrill “, the roads and our fields. Thank you for the American farmer types.
I used to deliver signals by Indian motor bike and the Yanks had superior cotton goods to what we were issued with. We did some useful trades. Another big laugh was the Sten gun. From the farm I was used to shot guns with fabulous workmanship. The Sten gun was made out of old tin cans and you could see the bullets falling out a few yards away. I would be under a lorry surrounded by smiling Ghurkas with newly stropped Kukris ? After all I was an old married man, a technician with denque fever and jaundice.
My other memory of Imphal is surely a Flying Fortress on the Strip. Thank you U.S. — all those Dakotas, heavy machinery for strips and roads and gliders. West and East Africans, glum Indian lorry drivers , Lashio Scouts, Chindits, etc. A million forgotten men in a forgotten army.
The Burmese had enough to put up with life in the jungle and mountains. They were so tired of looking after us.
You could have been much better prepared for discussion of this new book. There was a magazine printed in Calcutta by Frank Owen that was very rude like most of us subjected to Ray inspired officer class speaking and strong language. No wonder Nehru declared independence A.S.A.P. Don’t knock the mail tellers !
My family were on my charping ? without fail in the morning. The best of it was that there was nothing to spend money on so the rupee went straight from the paying office into the bank. I saved no end of money. When on leave the tea planters gave us carte blanche to the Clubs where you could sit in front of a log fire drinking whisky until you went off as happy as one could be 12,000 miles away from Lincolnshire.

Frank Seward Hoare I/C 8788 M.S.U. S.E.A.C.

1. I have the Mountbatten Report to the Chiefs of Staff S.E. Asia 1943/45
2. Don’t forget the flying mikes ? — another brilliant idea from Clockman mad as a brush.
My uncle was at Gallipolli 1917. He said when the Germans machined the males taking wounded and dead to safety they gratefully ate it. Trust the French to keep things tidy. I have his diary and his identity disc. I have my father’s U.S. Elgin watch that he used to listen to in four years in the trenches 1914 — 18
War is crap why not admit it. It encourages men to be very rude and call for mummy when dying

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