大象传媒

Recorded by Denis Price of the 大象传媒 People's War Team, the 大象传媒 Open Centre, Hull.

My father of the same name died aged 95, five years ago. He was a colourful character who'd lived a colourful life and this is my attempt to recall some of his anecdotes, not least those from his army service with the Devonshire Regiment as part of General 'Bill' Slim's 'Forgotten' 14th Army.
Although born in Hull, Dad emigrated with his family to the US immediately following the First World War. Their home was Brooklyn, New York City, an area mainly populated by Jewish and Sicilian immigrants. His first job was as a runner for a bank on Wall Street, later he moved into the theatre industry where he worked for several years at the former 'Roxy' theatre where he met several of the old time cinema stars such as Harold Loyd, Edward G. Robinson and the musically talented Gershwin brothers. He also watched in the theatre as a totally exhausted young man in a leather flying jacket was helped onto the stage to a rapturous welcome after flying the Atlantic, it was Charles Lindbergh.
Throughout this period, which was at the time of Prohibition, he became involved in the transportation of 'bootleg' booze and the manufacture of dubious whisky which went down very well with the Irish immigrant community. He even helped supply the Brooklyn Synagogue with 'bootleg' sacrificial wine' which together with eating sponge cake was the custom at ritual circumcision ceremonies.
His life changed dramatically just prior to the Second World War when he made a trip back to Hull to see his mother who had returned to England some years earlier. For reasons unclear to us to this day the US Embassy refused to renew his visa to return to New York. As he had never bothered to become a US citizen we assumed this was the reason. In any event he was stranded in another culture and another land where differences in lifestyle were far greater than they are today. He remembered reading all the detail of the King Edward and Wallis Simpson romance in the American newspapers only to find that it was a complete mystery to the population in the UK when he arrived.
Buckling down to a job in Hull as the assistant manager of the Criterion Cinema in George Street he'd already met and married my mother when in 1939 the Second World War began and I was born shortly after. After a summons for breaching 'blackout' Regulations and being fined 'ten and six' at their house in Wold Road he decided to pre-empt the call-up and volunteer for the army. this was a bold move for a man eighteen years older than the average twenty- year old recruit. I often asked him later why he didn't join the RAF in a more sedentary capacity but I never got a sensible answer.
His eventual unit was the Devonshire Regiment, what he described to me as 'heavy infantry'. His training in 'A' Company, 1st Battalion which began in 1941 was from barracks at Honiton, Devon and I believe in Exeter. The unit left by troopship for the Far East where he recalled that when on shore leave in Durban the luxury starved troops fell on the abundance of exotic fruits and 'goodies'with the result that most spent the rest of the leave locked in the nearest lavatory.
On arrival in India many months were spent training in preparation for conflict with the Japanese. He always repeated the story of how 'intelligence' officers would brief them on the shortcomings of their enemy. 'They're all short with bad eyesight from eating too much rice so don't worry too much'. This proved to be either morale boosting fibs or just ignorance or a bit of both as his first encounter with the enemy demonstrated. After a Japanese assault on the Burmese hill his unit was occupying was repulsed after heavy night time firing, they gingerly approached a number of enemy dead.Not one was under 5ft 8 and one was over 6ft, they were members of an Imperial Guard Unit and very impressive even when dead!
His war was by all accounts a hard miserable one where leeches penetrated everywhere and everything was in short supply, food ,
clothing and equipment. He described the terrain to me as being like a mass of hills rather like the one Scarborough Castle is on with constant taking and re-taking of them by the Japs and themselves. Death came in different guises and from unexpected sources. He Had little time for the RAF whose ground attack Hurri-bombers suffering from poor communication would attack British positions newly captured from the enemy out of ignorance, killing and wounding the new occupiers. He felt that attack from the air was a cowardly business.
When in India before entering Burma he'd formed a trio with him as pianist and singer. He'd always played the piano and when they were offered the chance to leave their unit and join ENSA the entertainments service he declined. When I asked him why as it would have spared him much later grief he told me that he'd trained with his friends and it would have seemed like desertion to take the easy option.
Other anecdotes were when he danced with General Slim's wife at a 'do' and how at a place in India where the American Army Air Force were flying supplies in DC3's over 'the hump' as they called the Himalayas, he met a bunch of Yanks from New York who dressed him up in one of their uniforms taking him into more luxurious establishments.
By this time he had 'done the course' and become the Company signaller under Lieutenant Lynch, known to all as 'Benny' after the boxer of the time. His war came to a close at a place or hill called 'Scraggy' just before the Battle of Kohima when shrapnel from an enemy mortar pierced his tin hat giving him a severe head injury. He always said that the helmet saved his life in taking the brunt of the shrapnel. He was flown out of the jungle by the Americans in what he thinks were called 'flying jeeps'. Very small light aircraft with short take-off and landing capability which needed great skill to fly they saved the lives of many British wounded.
When the war against Japan ended he came home. To me as a five year old he was a complete stranger, these circumstances were replicated all over Britain. When we all came together as a family the war left its mark in many ways. I can remember him for several years afterwards with a doctor in attendance as he sweated and shouted in a malarial fever, it was always the Japs and they were always coming. I never thought he would live to be 95, but thankfully he did.

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