大象传媒

I answered the call in 1939 which was a silly thing to do of course.

We all joined up in Bridgnorth, from the factories and offices, everywhere, 180 of us personnel. A lot of people deny this, but at this time was had a bounty of about 拢9.00, which was a fortune.

We went to Weston-Super-Mare Camp. We were sent to different parts of the country, some went to Ireland, some went to Jamaica, some went to South Coast. I travelled all down the South coast with the KSLI. Whilst I was in Weymouth I was able to pass a test which made out that I was going to a special unit that was being formed in Hereford. So 1942 I came to Hereford and ran for 3 months.

One weekend they said you鈥檙e going abroad, so that weekend I hitchhiked from Ludlow to Bridgnoth which took me 4 hours (22 miles). The next Sunday I was half-way to India. I didn鈥檛 tell my parents. Out of that 180 that joined up, there is about 7 left in Bridgnorth. A lot got killed in the war.

Whilst in India we were reconnaissance regiment. A special regiment formed during the war and it was the most heavily armed unit in the British army. Every man had a machine gun, whereas in the ordinary regiments they had one per 10 men. We went 2000 miles across India by train. Our first home was this big open space. No tents, nothing, they dug a big trench and that was our bath. We all stripped of naked and got in this trench, they hosed us down. These were our toilets for the month 鈥� rough days.

One day we had a tornado, we saw it coming. We put our tents up, and it hit us. We held on to our posts and shut our eyes. Those who weren鈥檛 prepared were thrown into the air, but we were prepared. It鈥檚 the only one I鈥檝e ever seen.
We moved about different parts of India. We went to Dimapur and Lord Louis (Mountbatten) came up to us 鈥淕ather around men鈥� nice chap, sent us into the jungle.

Five days into the jungle I had dysentery. Before that I was with another Regiment and I鈥檇 caught dysentery then and had to travel 200 miles to hospital. When I came out, that original regiment had gone into Burma and had been ambushed 鈥� all my mates had been killed, my life was saved.

I came out and joint this regiment called the Chindits 鈥� Wingate - everybody had heard of it. He was a great man 鈥� he had a vision of how the war should be won, and he won it 鈥� his section. We went on these manoeuvres and we were crossing a river and a mule drowned in the river. Before we could be out and get dressed the mule was thrown on the bank and down come about 50 vultures 鈥� dirty great big things 鈥� and they鈥檇 picked it clean!

Every day there was something happening. Seven men were crossing the river in a boat, the boat sank and they all drowned. 15 men were marching through the jungle and another 15 men were practicing shooting and shot all the legs of them. I was fit the whole time 鈥� about 9 months and a 1000 mile walk. Month after month after month.
The Brigadier was about 6 foot tall, a real proper battleaxe. There was another chap, he was a Scot 鈥� come to think of it they both wore monacles. The Brigadier was ambushed I think, but he must have survived because he was in Berlin after the war.

We attacked a village which was full of Japanese. They fired mortar bombs on us and we retreated around the back and used our wireless two hurricanes to come over. They flew about 20 feet above our head and bombed this village to hell. We advanced into the village and they鈥檇 all gone bar the dead.

We stayed there a month and in that month the local natives kept bringing bodies in on poles like pigs. They鈥檇 cut their heads off and we鈥檇 give them two bob and a parachute. They were all headhunters- and they were our allies. All over India and Burma have a commissioner and they have a red blanket. It went on like that for a long time.

April, May, till November and as we came out of the jungle we all had beards and lousy. We had no food, the aeroplanes dropped food and it drifted away so we had no food. I had a biscuit on a Monday, a biscuit and a bit of beef of a Tuesday, nothing on Wednesay on Thursday and that鈥檚 how it went on. I lost four stone in 8 months. Funny way to slim. Fat men went to slim men, slim men kicked the bucket. I think about 1200 from my ship about 200 got back. There are 1001 stories.

We slept with our boots on of course and every morning we had to take our boots off and de-leach them. They just get on your leg and suck your blood. We all smoked cigarettes 鈥� well you just put a cigarette on the leeches and they drop off. We did that every morning. They get all over you. I don鈥檛 know how they got through your clothes! If you pull them off the poison got into your system. Some of the water was horrible out there. We had tablets to put in the water so you take a dead body out of the water, put your bottle in with a tablet and it would kill everything then you could drink it. I caught dysentery twice and malaria five times 鈥� I got over it. If you caught it six times you could fly home!

When I came out we put our names down in a raffle. One to come home, one to a Rajah鈥檚 palace. I was lucky, I won a Rajah鈥檚 palace ticket and went over his property 鈥� four of us. We were guests of honour for four days. We were waited on hand and foot in this massive castle. We came back to camp for training to go into Siam. New recruits came from England. We were training to jump off gliders and trucks doing 40/50 m.p.h. We were preparing to go to Siam (now Thailand) when they dropped the bomb 鈥� that meant that war was finished. We thanked God for that.

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