大象传媒

This story has been submitted by Margaret Payne of the Lancashire Home Guard on behalf of John Casey and has been added to the site with his permission.

I was born in 1918 and lived in Hackney, London. In 1939 before the Second World War began, I went to Devises and there I was sent to northern France as a conscript. This happened to thousands of men my age 鈥� they called up all the 20 year old鈥檚. We sat there in France for quite some time doing absolutely nothing. We had nothing to do until April when the Germans started their tactics. We were defending an imaginary line and the Germans came through Holland and Belgium. We got caught up with the retreating French, the Dutch and the Belgium鈥檚 and all those families fleeing as refugees. We were helping these people wherever and whenever we could, but we were being chased by the Germans before we made it to Dunkirk. We were on the dunes for two or three days before somebody in boats could pick us up. Safe back in Dover and after reformation, I found I was doing radar courses in central London, Regent Street Polytechnic 鈥� on completion of courses we were attached as a workshop unit and were attached to a heavy Ack Ack regiment. I was despatched to India where over three years was spent in Assam. Big problem, of course, the Japs were somewhere but we didn鈥檛 know where! Most of us were suffering from diseases, ie malaria, dysentery and skin conditions that never seemed to heal. 98% of my unit were suffering from malaria except two people, including me, who was painfully thin. We were up in the north of Assam giving support to the deep penetration squad 鈥淲ingate Marauders鈥� 鈥� the formation of the 14th Army was all their Divisions becoming in good formation under Field Marshall Bill Slim and Mountbatten鈥檚 arrival as Supremo. In talking to the troops in various areas, Mountbatten said, 鈥淵ou call yourself the forgotten army, but in truth, no-one鈥檚 ever heard of you鈥�. This attitude did raise our spirits! This was giving us more confidence. The real turn around was at Kohima, where we really managed to take hold. One of the turnarounds was the 66th Heavy Ack Ack regiment who turned their ack ack into field guns instead of using them as aircraft guns. The only big disappointment then was that we couldn鈥檛 travel to Mandalay because the Royal Navy came and took Rangoon which was the end of the war.

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