大象传媒

BEST OF TIMES, WORST OF TIMES:
SERVING IN THE FAR EAST -JANUARY 1943 to JULy 1946
BY THOMAS E. NuTT
---~

I felt very depressed at one stage. I had been away from home about two years. My only sister had got married and two of my brothers had got married -I of course was unable to attend the weddings. At that stage I just couldn't imagine how I was going to spend another two years in this, as I thought, terrible place. I got over it and I suppose most people went through the
same phase.

We are now into the spring of 1945. The Japanese were on the retreat in Burma. Again we were very busy dropping supplies to forward troops. We were sharing Agartala with an American squadron of Liberators -a large clumsy looking bomber. These bombers hit targets in Burma as far south as Rangoon. The Japanese were mostly cleared from Burma by the Spring of 1945 and it was marvellous for us in 31 st squadron to hear of the heroic fight put up by the Ghurkha paratroopers we had helped train on the North West Frontier.

Early in 1945 about 20 airmen of all ranks, and including myself, were posted to Bangalore, Southern India, to do a course on radar. The navigation aid was going to be installed in the planes of the various Indian squadrons. Again this experience was a complete contrast to what we had been used to: the climate was pleasant, the food good, far from the war zone and the locals considerably more prosperous than those in Bengal. Most evenings we walked into town from the camp and enjoyed a meal.

Every Sunday evening the Catholic church ran a club in a church hall and because I was Irish it was assumed that I was Catholic and that I too would attend. Keen for an oportunity to relax and socialise, I didn't make them any wiser about my religion and went along every Sunday with an English friend who was Catholic. We were very well looked after and the evening included supper and entertainment. I asked the Anglo-Indian gentleman who ran the club why all the Christians in India seemed to be Catholic. His explanation was very simple. He said the original missionaries were Protestant and they came to India and converted a good number of Indians to Christianity but did very little else for them. Later, when the Catholic missionaries came, as well as preaching they gave the people food and clothes and provided them with schools and hospitals. It only took a short time to convert the Protestants to Catholics. But he added that at heart most of the Indians were still Hindus or Muslims.

Many of the girls who attended the club were high class or Anglo-Indian. One of my friends got friendly with one girl. The friendship was so strong that he asked her to marry him. Of course before a serviceman could marry an Indian he had to get the permission of his Commanding Officer. The CO did not give his permission. He explained the various pitfalls and emphasised the colour bar. My friend said that there was not much difference in their colours. He was as brown as she was. The CO told him that when he went home in a short time he would lose his suntan but she would remain brown. We moved shortly afterwards and he soon forgot the girl.

When the war in Europe ended there were plenty of surplus airmen, including radar personnel, so the course was terminated and apart from two or three men we were sent back to our squadron. It was also decided that overseas tours of duty would be cut from four years to three and a half for single men to three years for married men.

A few months after the end of the European war the Americans dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war in the Far East ended in August 1945. I don't remember any celebration. Although no one had any love of the Japanese, most of us felt the price they had to pay was too high. We believed that the wiping out of two cities was too much. The argument that this brought the war to a speedy end so saving the lives of many service personnel didn't seem to hold much water.

When the war was over we had plenty of free time. One trip I will always remember was a shooting expedition to a remote part of Bihar state. It was organised by one of the officers who got in touch with the District Commissioner -prior to the war the area had attracted shooting parties from Britain and Europe keen to hunt tigers. Fortunately that was not our aim. We agreed not to shoot tigers or any other large animal.

This was not because we were concerned about conservation. The word only came into prominence in more recent years and as far as I can remember was not an issue in the 1940s. Instead the reason we did not shoot tigers was that we were told that if you shot and wounded one you had to get down on the ground and go after it. No one with any sense wanted to do that.

We travelled over very wild country and rough roads for days, cooking our own food and sleeping in the lorry. Eventually we arrived at our destination and were welcomed by the District Commissioner and shown what he described as the guest bungalow. It was a bamboo and thatch building and very comfortable. We parked the lorry in front of the bungalow -and it soon became an object of admiration and curiosity among the locals. They gathered around to look at it and some were brave enough to go up and touch it. Through the District Commissioner we tried to find out more about them and about what they knew about the outside world. It astonished us to find out that they did not know there had been a war. They had never heard of Churchill, Montgomery or even Ghandi. They were very isolated, had practically nothing, but seemed happy and content.

The day after our arrival a shoot was organised. The machans (shooting platforms) were still in the trees. We climbed up with our rifles and ammunition, two of us to a machan and the beaters drove the animals towards us. We saw a number of tigers but did not shoot any. One man shot a bear and one a deer. When the shoot was over the beaters carried the bear and the deer back to the bungalow. They all gathered around the headman of the village who after the animals were skinned, cut them up and gave a portion to each beater. How big the portion depended on the size of the man's family. Our payment for the beaters was what we shot, less a portion of the deer for us, plus a bag of salt which we had brought with us. Salt was very precious to them.

In the evenings we climbed up the machans and watched the animals by moonlight in the clearing. We stayed in the area for a week and had a very leisurely time. The squadron photographer was with us -we relied on him to take photos so none of us took our cameras. He took plenty of snaps but when he came to develop them they did not come
out. It appeared that the film had got damp. He was not too popular for a while.

On the way back to our base one of my friends remarked to me that he supposed that it would not be long before some misguided foreigners would "civilise" these people and introduce them to the twentieth century. He thought this would be a big mistake as a group of people so happy and content with their lot was seldom seen.
Christmas 1944.

I read recently in William Dalrymple's book The Age of Kali that anarchy in the state of Bihar grows worse month by month. Law and order has completely broken down, major criminals sit in parliament, crime is completely out of control. Violent offences such as armed robbery, looting, murder, abduction and kidnappings take place on a massive scale. I hope the area in which we spent a very relaxing time in 1945 has missed all this upheaval.

From the beginning of 1946 some of my friends were going home, back to Blighty. It was sad saying farewell to people we had got to know very well and would almost certainly never see again.

I was due to go home in June 1946. We were supposed to be back in England at the end of three and a half years. Unfortunately in May 1946 because of the unrest in India - "Ghandi and the Quit India Campaign" -all home postings were cancelled. It was a dreadful shock to those like myself who had been looking forward so much to returning
home. There was much talk of it at home and questions were asked in Parliament.
Pressure was applied, a promise was made that troops would be shipped out to India and the men would be able to return home as soon as they arrived.

As it was in July 1946 I sailed for home on the Cape Town Castle, another large troop " ship. This time there was no need to worry about enemy submarines and it was a very
pleasant voyage. We came through the Suez canal which had been recently reopened.
Our only stop on the way home was at Naples. In the bay there were a large number of German ships which had been sunk by Allied bombing. We were not allowed out at Naples but we did get a good view of Pompeii and the Isle of Capri. On board were a few soldiers who had been Japanese prisoners of war who had been in hospital in India since being liberated in Burma. They were very thin and emaciated and sat about on the deck
not communicating with anyone. They suffered from a skin disease, possibly scurvy and consequently scratched themselves monkey-like all the time.

The journey lasted two weeks and finally we docked at Liverpool. After a few days in a
transit camp, where we were given a thorough medical, I was on my way home. We were lined up one morning to have a free from infection examination. We got quite a shock when in came a young woman medical officer who began examining our private parts.

While I was overseas I received a letter from my sister Elsie every week and every month a letter from Dr Waddell, the minister of our church. He gave local information and also news of other service personnel whom I knew. I had an occasional letter from Dalriada, the school I had gone to in Ballymoney. The girls in the upper forms were encouraged to write to someone they knew who was abroad. On my 21 st birthday I received a small parcel from my mother and in it was a signet ring with my initials on it. I wore it for years until the band got very thin. These were the type of things which stopped people from going mad.

My parents came by taxi to Larne to meet me off the ferry. My father came up the gang way and gave me a great welcome home.
At the time I suppose no one thought that 31 squadron was very different from any other squadron. But now when I look back on it, I think it was unique. We did not drop bombs or go out to shoot down aircraft. Our main duties were saving lives -evacuating sick or wounded soldiers, dropping supplies and occasionally evacuating civilians from war zones.

After all these years I still look back on this time of my life as being the most interesting and exciting and of it I have many happy memories. I was lucky to come home without any major mishaps. I was very thin -only eight stone ten pounds -but I soon made it back to my normal eleven and a half stone. One of my brothers thought my hearing was affected. He was probably right.
It is now over 60 years since I joined the RAF. Names and faces fade but the overall memory has stayed with me. My time in the services was in the main happy and I believe it gave me a sense of independence which over the years still remains with me.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.