大象传媒

It was suspected that Lieutenant Lucy was slightly crazy. He had a home-made canoe, which the ship's crew would lower into the water by lifboat hoist. The Lieutenant would then paddle out and shout to the troop carriers that they were going the wrong way.

Trawlers were being used as Mine Sweepers, keeping the channel clear off the coast from Liverpool, but they engaged in covert trawling, whilst mine sweeping.

During training in Chepstow, a particularly memorable lesson occurred when the soldiers were runnung back from the sports field and a German bomber flew low, gunning them down.

It took 2 months to reach northern Burma, on a captured German banana boat, sailing in convoy from Glasgow, through the Irish Channel.

In Rangoon, Mr. S's division occupied 2 warehouses, which had been taken over for war purposes. For nearly a month after Rangoon fell they stayed inside, mostly for safety, but on one occasion, out on Spark Street, there was a terrible cacophony of noise and someone waving a banner with the words: "Bullets for Britons". Mr. S. wondered for what the Burmese had been saved.

At the end of the war Mr. S. returned from Burma with POWs and internees, and was welcomed home by a blast of "Land of Hope and Glory" from a military band, and a cup of tea, which was his most frightening experience, as it came in a paper cup, when he'd been used to a tin mug.

(These reminiscences are the property of a "Catch 22" fan, but I suspect they are based loosely on fact, rather than fiction.)

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