大象传媒

Mr Horner was in Royal Artillery Association 1st West Lancashire Territorial, changed to 1st 136 Field Regiment. In 1943, he spent time in Burma. He was also in India and was in Cape Town for eighteen months where he picked up deserters.

In Burma, Mountbatten came to visit on one occasion when the Japanese had started shelling. Mountbatten asked 鈥淲ho ordered you to be in this position?鈥� Major Blair responded 鈥淚 suppose you did, Sir.鈥� Mountbatten replied, 鈥淚t鈥檚 too hot for me here and too hot for you [referring to the Major and the troops].鈥� And he promptly ordered that the troops be moved from that position there and then.

Over a six-year period, Mr. Horner saw Mountbatten at least 3 times. Mountbatten never forgot a face, and his driver would confirm this. Mountbatten was a toff, a real gentleman and he would never ask anyone to do something that he wasn鈥檛 prepared to do himself. There was no edge to him. He was down to earth too.

Mr. Horner was at times out of camp in a hygiene water truck. Once he was pulling up into the camp, saw Mountbatten and stopped to get out of the vehicle. Mountbatten instead indicated that he would come over to the truck instead. He also said to the Major, 鈥淚鈥檓 talking to him (ie. Mr. Horner) not you.鈥�
Mountbatten was also known to say, 鈥淲hen I say that I鈥檒l see you again, I mean that I really will see you again.鈥� In other words, he really meant it.

Once, Mountbatten was standing on a platform amongst the men and wanted them to smoke. He took a packet of twenty Players, took a fistful out and flung them for the men to catch. If someone ended up with more than one, he said, 鈥淵ou鈥檝e already got two, let someone else have one of them.鈥�

Mr Horner recalls a place in Burma called Nacidor Pass where the bends in the roads were so sharp that you had to reverse the vehicles in order to get round them.

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