大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with William Telford at the Ballymena Servicemen鈥檚 Association, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was David Reid, and the transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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After the Battle of Mandalay, we had been in action from the 1st April to the 26th June. We were Combined Operations training, and the trawlers were manned with Royal Naval Reserve. Elderly men, they had these blue chokers, but they weren鈥檛 in uniforms. And they manned the Lewis guns that were in the trawlers. This elderly fellow had fallen down and dislocated his hip-bone. And we were waiting to land on something or other. The Petty Officer in charge of the trawler come and asked Mr Bunker, that was the officer in charge of us at the time, 鈥淎nybody here can handle a Lewis gun?鈥�
Well, 90% of them couldn鈥檛. I says 鈥淚 can handle a Lewis gun鈥�.
He says, 鈥淲here did you?鈥�
I says 鈥淭he RUC. I learned to handle a Lewis Gun鈥�.
And the Petty Officer says 鈥淐ome and show me, Corporal鈥�.
I went up with him to the twin Lewis gun, and I says 鈥淲hat do you want me to do?鈥� and he says 鈥淚 want you to fire one of the guns鈥�.
I says 鈥渨hich one do you want?鈥�
He says 鈥淔ire the left-hand gun鈥�.
And I fired 5 rounds from the left-hand gun, and he says 鈥渢hat鈥檚 all right鈥�.
I reached up to lift the magazine off, and he says 鈥淭hat鈥檒l do. You know that if you fired 5 rds out of the left-hand gun, and an aircraft came over and you had to fire twins, the right-hand gun would stop firing after it fired the first 5 rounds鈥�. When he saw me check the magazine 鈥�
Well, anyway. The petty officer was pretty fond of me, and he said 鈥淧addy, you look after them guns. And it鈥檒l pay you in the long run if an aircraft comes over. I got the magazines and all, I used to take the cartridges out of the magazines. And Peehee the cook let me put the mags into the oven to let me dry them out. If you put dry rounds into a wet magazine, it jams. And this petty officer who was the armourer, he says 鈥淧addy, I鈥檓 gonna peehee you. Can I claim that?鈥�
鈥淐laim what?鈥�
鈥淲here did you learn that?鈥�
鈥淚n the RUC鈥�
鈥淚 never thought of that.鈥�
He claimed that, and it would get him promotion. He thought of it, it wasn鈥檛 me.

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