大象传媒

At the age of 28 Uncle Frank was reported to the infantry regiment for Liverpool Kings basic training. After basic training he was then chosen to join the artillery. He later trained at Harrogate and Cromer which lasted for just over 1 year. After training uncle Frank was sent out to join the field regiment who were then in action in Burmah, just south of Chitagong. A few days later he started with the regiment down through the Arakan and finished when the Japanese surrendered just outside of Rangoon. The conditions were hard, the water was rationed, they were only allowed one water bottle per day even when marching all day in the jungle. If they wanted more water, then tough, they didn't get more. The food was rationed and when on the move they lived on water and hard biscuits. They sometimes got baked beans, corn beef and Buffalo meat, which was very leathery and tough. On the way down through the jungle they fired guns at the Japanese and they fired back. The experience involved a seaborne raid on Akyab island. Uncle Frank was on the observation post in forward position looking for the enemy in the jungle. After the war, they were posted in Southern India. Uncle Frank survived another year in India before being sent homw. He was in the army for about 4 and a half years. They went out on a ship (liner) called The Orantes in 1942 and came back when he was 32 on a ship called The Ortranto, it took 10 days to travel between the two countries. They landed in Somerset in 1947, this was when Uncle Frank finished serving in the army.

Great uncle Frank nearly died from two deadly diseases called Malaria and Dysentry. Everone thought he was going to die, and because he was in forward position uncle Frank is now deaf from the shells exploding all around him. When they were going downstream in the jungle, they used to get leaches atuck to them, so they had to burn them off with matches.

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