大象传媒

Part 2 of 3 parts

Continued from A8119000

Dad went to his normal duty one day with the Americans from his RAF billet, did a day鈥檚 duty, came back, and the entire squadron had gone; men, planes, officers, vanished. They鈥檇 been ordered out at short notice, and he was on his own! (Well, I didn鈥檛 know whether they鈥檇 gone out by boat or what they鈥檇 done, but apparently I heard later that they鈥檇 gone out to Magwe, which is north. I went back to a billet, which was a girl鈥檚 school dormitory. I went back at night, and there was the whole dormitory empty, all the kit bags and everything gone, mine down the end, just on its own. And I slept in that dormitory that night on my own. I didn鈥檛 dream much, I tell you! I didn鈥檛 sleep much that night). So in the morning, he thought the only thing to do was go back to the Americans.

All the transport had gone so he started off walking. A lorry came along and he hitched a lift and he reported to the Americans who, you remember, were not his service, weren鈥檛 even regulars, they were Mercenaries, and he told them what the situation was. They were very short of skilled radio mechanics. They didn鈥檛 have anybody who could actually service radios. They had very skilled operators, for sending and receiving Morse but no technicians. And so they latched onto him.

Their aircraft were ordered to fly back into China, not to India, into China because remember they were serving the Chinese. Their ground crews and their equipment was put onto a convoy under the command of Chaplin, AVG Chaplin who had been a missionary in China before the war and could speak Chinese. And they set out to go north through Burma over the mountains, over Burma Road, into China. (I was given the radio truck to drive. I鈥檝e got a photograph of myself beside it. The convoy was a very mixed convoy. There were all their equipment and their radio trucks but there was a pilot鈥檚 girl friend, there was one chap who was actually under arrest for murder, one bloke, an American, had been arrested because he had shot a waiter when he was half drunk down in Rangoon. He was released from a prison).

They were short of stores and food and stuff for the journey, so dad was sent with some of the Americans in a lorry down into Rangoon to try and get some stores. The whole population had run for it. The shops were being broken open; there were looters everywhere. He went down to the docks. Nobody challenged them. They found a warehouse full of food and loaded it on the lorries. (I remember when we got back we opened it. It was full of tins of sauerkraut; things like that. When we got back we put it on their lorries to take with them for food on the way up).

Anyway, they set out back towards China, they tried one way first of all, and found that there was a Japanese road block 鈥� (where they鈥檇 sent up patrols of about a dozen Japs, because they live in the jungle and everything). The initial breakout from Rangoon waited around until a squadron of Bren gun carriers came through and cleared the Japanese roadblock, and then they were able to get away from the city

The first route they tried, they couldn鈥檛 because it was too far east, so they came back round and went up the western side of the hills through Magwe and Mandalay. (All oilfields in the Burma oilfields were set alight, and we were instructed not to leave the lorries because we may have to move off at an instants notice. I saw an RAF officer about a hundred yards away, I ran out to him, because I thought I could talk to him to see what I should do. I told him I was on loan to the AVG. He said, 鈥淚f those were your last orders, carry them out鈥�. I thought I鈥檇 go and join the RAF, you see, I thought there was some in the distance, but no, that鈥檚 my last orders from the RAF I got).

So they carried on up through Mandalay and Pegu until they came to Lashio which is on the Burmese end of the Burma Road which ran over the mountains, high over the mountains into China.

Dad was only Aircraftsman. (I was an AC2. Most of the Americans, being Americans, were commissioned, the rank of Lieutenant or Captain in the Chinese Air Force you see, so they were commissioned officers). So most of the places where they stayed were reserved for officers, but dad by this time was wearing American uniform. They鈥檇 given you some clothes, American clothes鈥� (Mine had gone鈥�) So he went in places where you were assumed to be an officer. (I said 鈥淚 can鈥檛 stop here, this is for officers only鈥�. He said 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 leave the truck, you come in as our Flying Tiger Officer because you must be prepared to move at any moment鈥�).

Dad was welcome at most places because he had the radio. (I had the radio, see, which ran off a six-volt battery, and I used to plug it in and listen to World Radio at night, so my bed space was surrounded by officers when I used to tune to World Radio to hear the news. They were all frantic to find out what was going on back home you see).

Anyway, at the border there was a bit more skulduggery because Paul Frillmann who was commanding the convoy had to sign all his men through, and the Chinese authorities would not allow British personnel into China. They were very anti-British because in the months preceding the Japanese war, Britain had closed the Burma Road, which was their only supply line. It was all part of the diplomacy. The British were trying to put off the evil day when Japan declared war. They were trying not to give the Japanese a reason to declare war. The Japanese were already at war with the Chinese and the Japanese wanted the Burma Road closed off, so it happened. The Chinese were feeling very upset about it so British personnel, in theory, weren鈥檛 allowed into China. Dad was by now pretending to be an American. Paul Frillmann did all the paperwork and dad was signed through as an American.

Then they had a tremendous drive over this mountain road. Very remote country. They crossed a couple of bridges where the big rivers, the Me-kong comes down out of the mountain. There was only one lorry at a time allowed to go over it. A couple of days after they crossed the bridge they blew them up so the Japs couldn鈥檛 come up. There were lots of Chinese vehicles on the road as well, traders running black-market stuff for wartime shortages, and they would hold the middle of the road. The vehicles were very slow because they were absolutely loaded down with stuff. The Chinese wouldn鈥檛 pull over, or couldn鈥檛 pull over because the road was too narrow, just a shelf in the side of a mountain, and the Americans just say 鈥淩ight, off the truck鈥�, and they just pushed it over the side, or to make them pull over, they鈥檇 just fire their revolvers at the wheel arches. There were all sorts of things going on.

They got to one town where they were given a feast by the local Chinese officials, the local Mandarins, lovely food and that, but on that night there was a Japanese air-raid and all the Americans took shelter behind the big trees in a Chinese cemetery.

Anyway, they ended up arriving in Kunming after driving across some very remote country. Kunming was one base for the AVG and they went into a hostel there. The very first morning dad came down to breakfast, he鈥檇 been away from home for - seven months, nearly, - no mail, and not able to send any messages home either so mum wouldn鈥檛 have known where he was, he didn鈥檛 know what was happening to mum at home, the first morning he came down to breakfast having arrived in Kunming, American canteen, very good food 鈥� coffee, eggs and bacon, doughnuts, they did themselves very well. They wouldn鈥檛 have worked for the Chinese under any other conditions. And in walks General Chennault. Well, he came to sit at the same tables. And of course, the Americans took it for granted. Dad, being RAF trained, stands to attention. General Chennault says 鈥淲ho are you? What鈥檚 going on here? Sit down and take it easy鈥�. Dad explains to him what the situation is, and the General says 鈥淲ell, go down into the town to the American Express office and send a cable home. Charge it to the American Volunteer Group鈥�. He鈥檚 got the original telegram that I sent. Here it is鈥� 鈥楽afe and well in China鈥�.

That was the first message she got from me since I left in November. Mum remember, had been working in Brighton at the Town Hall. She was terribly anxious and the whole village was wondering what had happened to dad. Mum arrived home from work in the evening, and the postmistress hadn鈥檛 been able to keep it to herself. She told everybody. The whole village knew in the morning. Laura didn鈥檛 get home until the evening and everybody was waving to her then and she couldn鈥檛 make it out until she got indoors and picked up the telegram that said 鈥楽afe and well in China鈥�. At least they were back in contact. And because dad was with the Americans, his letters home weren鈥檛 censored. They didn鈥檛 have to go through a censor. (I just handed them into the office and they were posted). So all his letters home while he was with the Americans are quite detailed. (I鈥檝e got them upstairs actually).

Later on when he got back to the RAF of course, all his letters were censored and he could say very little. General Chennault obviously had very many problems being the commanding officer of the whole Air Group but one of his problems was radio communication. His defence against the Japanese depended upon radio communication. Of course, he didn鈥檛 have radar. This was too early. Radar for the Battle of Britain, yes. In China, no. So his whole defence was based on observer stations way out in the countryside, linked by radio back to his squadrons, and one of dad鈥檚 jobs was to fly out and service the radios in these remote observer stations. They had an old light aircraft with no engine cowling, twin-seater, one behind the other, and dad used to sit in the back with his tools and a Tommy gun across his lap. They would have stood no chance at all if the Japanese aircraft had showed up. When they got out to one of these different observer airstrips they had to look to see that there was a particular signal on the roof to show that the Japanese hadn鈥檛 turned up and occupied it, and then they knew it was safe to land. So he got in and serviced the radio and came back.

Another of General Chennault鈥檚 problems was the failure of his communication with Washington, which had to go via India because he didn鈥檛 have any long-range transmitters himself, and this was a political thing. His communications were being filtered out. He wasn鈥檛 being able to talk to his political superiors in Washington, and he wanted above all things to establish that communication in order to get the support in Washington to get the men and supplies that the Chinese needed. He was being short-circuited. It was politics. It was inter-service rivalry through American high command. So he asked dad if he could set up a long-range transmitter to talk to Washington. (He gave me permission to go to any of their dumps to examine them, and there was one dump I went to and I saw a two-kilowatt transmitter. It was an RCA transmitter actually but it belonged to the Chinese, and it had been put on Yo-Yo poles and taken into one of their compounds for storage. I saw it and I said 鈥淲ell that one will do鈥�, and they brought it back and I set it up and gave him direct communication to America).

2150 words

End of part 2 of 3 parts

For part 3 see A8119073

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