大象传媒

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The 1939-1945 War 鈥� A personal Experience (Part 4)

鈥淎 NIGHT TO REMEMBER鈥�
The Japanese War had just come to an abrupt end and I was at this time, with a Royal Marine Detachment sailing to the Far East on board the troopship Athlone Castle. The Marines mostly from combined operations units and veterans of Normandy, jubilant that the war was over, soon settled down to enjoying what was now seen to be a pleasure-cruise. It was late at night when a message was announced over the ships loudspeaker system informing us, that we would shortly be disembarking in the port of Colombo. Our destination, we were told by Lieutenant Crawford was a camp near the Naval Headquarters town of Candy and that we would be taken so far by train, but there would be a march of several miles to reach the camp. After six week's at sea, and having very spongy land legs we were not altogether thrilled with the prospect of a long march. The train journey, although uncomfortable, was quite uneventful with the train finally stopping at a small junction. We stepped off the train into a rather dark but starlit night, the star's giving enough light for us to see a narrow road edged on both sides with huge palm trees. This I thought is my first impression of tropical Ceylon, as it was then known, and what a pity it was not daylight.
My thoughts were interrupted with a command from Sgt.Major Jackson "Get fell in lads鈥� and so began the last stage of our journey. The road, which was not much more than a dirt track, wound its way through towering palm trees, passing through small palm-leaf built villages, with hurricane lamps hanging over verandas. Occasionally one would hear the sound of Indian music drifting out from within the huts, mingling with the croaking of toads, and the screeching sounds of the tropical forest. We had marched for several miles, when Lieutenant Crawford ordered us to halt and fallout for a rest. Sgt. Major Jackson said, "This may be a good time to inform the men of some of the dangers that we may encounter鈥�. Among other things Sgt.Major Jackson explained, "Keep your eyes open for, snakes, centipedes, and scorpions鈥�. Sitting on roadside grass verges in the dark suddenly seemed not the thing to do; there was a slow but uneasy move back to the centre of the road. The march continued for another mile or two, when a Royal Marine Corporal carrying a hurricane lamp met us. He saluted Lieutenant Crawford and introduced himself as Corporal Phillips who had been sent from headquarters together with a Corporal Metcalfe to receive us into the camp. Having collected a blanket and a mosquito net, we were instructed by Corporal Phillips to form into two groups of twenty. "It is unfortunate" he went on to say, "that we have only two hurricane lamps so Corporal Metcalfe will take one group and I shall take the other, the camp is rather spread out on very rough sloping terrain, so stay close to me as there are lots of trenches which have been dug to carry the water away during the monsoon rains鈥�. Following close behind the Corporal we walked for about a quarter of a mile stumbling over dead palm leaves, and jumping over trenches. We arrived at what looked like a hut built entirely with palm leaves. The sides appeared to be open except for a low wall, and posts at intervals to support the roof. The Corporal escorted us inside explaining that there were twenty beds and that the camp had not been used for some time so we would have to get our own ruddy breakfast in the morning. Then he left taking the lamp with him, what followed was total confusion. Trying to find beds in the dark amidst a lot of swearing, striking of matches and lighting of lighters I finally found a bed, which turned out to be no more than a camp type bed with coco mat tops. Feeling gently over the bed for anything that crawled and after assuring myself that I was going to be the only occupant I proceeded to try to fix the mosquito net. This proved to be quite hopeless in the dark so I lay down on the bed fully dressed and covered myself with the net. Tired as I was, sleep did not come easy, but eventually I settled down. I was just beginning to fall asleep when I heard a scuffling noise, looking to where I thought the noise had come from. I could see two very big bright eyes; they seemed to be moving around the beds. I immediately broke out in a cold sweat and froze, being afraid to move or say anything, for fear of attracting the eyes to me. Suddenly there was another scuffling noise, and the eyes appeared to vanish. At this point there was a chorus of twenty voices shouting "what was that" no one could answer, but one voice said "whatever it was, the ruddy Sgt, Major had not told us about it鈥� Taking comfort from the fact that I was not the only one that had been afraid to speak or move, and that no one had been carried off I settled down to sleep. I awoke to a glorious sunny morning and was quite relieved to see our surroundings in daylight, mainly that there were no snakes hanging from the roof. Breakfast turned out to be an organized shambles. But we did finally sit down to bacon and beans and it was over breakfast that there was much discussion about the roving eyes. A camp worker overhearing our conversation explained "Oh yes, wild dog's often invade the camp hut's at night", after the roar of laughter had died down there was total agreement that, that was a night to remember, and that a foe in sight is not as frightening as your imagination and a wild dog at night. We were left very much to our own devices apart from an occasional sentry duty and keeping our kit in good order. There was not much to do, we did take it in turns in the kitchen and I drove the water tanker to collect water from the village.
Our stay in this camp was interrupted, when we were sent to Colombo and were put on to a navy frigate and sent to stand off the coast of Sumatra. It appeared that there was some internal disorder, we never got to go ashore and the problem was seen to be over so, back we went to Colombo. From Colombo we went to a Fleet Air Arm Station called Ukussa it was about five miles south, along the coast from Colombo. This was to be our station for the rest of our stay in Ceylon. Our job was to guard the entrances to the station. We were split into two groups of twenty and I was in charge of one group. We would all work a four hours on duty and eight hours off.
The post I looked after was on a road outside a village, and would be guarded by a Corporal a Marine and a Ceylonese policeman who acted as the interpreter. 0h I nearly forgot the trained dog complete with a collar with a Marine badge. This dog would only respond to any one wearing a Marine beret. We soon settled down into the routine and the station had a good NAAFI with a bar and a cinema. We were also able to go into Colombo now and then and also to play plenty of sport. My favourite pastimes were swimming and badminton; apart from duty time life was pretty relaxing. I was at the sentry post one day when I saw a six-foot long animal that looked like an alligator with a lizard鈥檚 head and tongue. I was more than surprised to see some children chasing it with sticks. They told me later that it was harmless, unless you got in the way of its tail, and that it was a protected species. We used to allow the village women and children to come in to the station to collect firewood, as this was their only means of cooking. This concession was strictly against the rules but as long as they kept within our sight and no officers were around I allowed it. On one occasion, I had to stop them as we expected the Major. One of the husbands, who was pretty drunk, got upset and came at me with a knife. I took my belt off and used it to disarm him. I then proceeded to chase him into the village. Suddenly I realized that I was being plain stupid, and got back quick. I was called in front of the Company Commander he wanted to know why, as a Corporal I had never put anyone on report I explained to him that I felt I had the respect of my squad and that I believed in leadership rather than placing men on report for petty pranks, If any of my squad were insubordinate or broke the rules he could rest assured that I would deal with it. After that I was given another post, it was a remote coastal radar station. I was sent with six Marines to guard this rather remote station. It turned out to be quite a holiday; we had brick built quarters with a cook and a cleaner. The station was right next to a lagoon, so we were swimming every day, and the sentry would sit under a palm tree. The only problem was we were not allowed off the site. For me that was no problem, it was like having a six-week holiday, and that is what it was. After six weeks we were relieved and went back to the main station. At this time most of the unit were taking leave and going to the tea plantations, where it was a lot cooler. I decided not to go and to let my leave accumulate for when I got home.
All the leaves were now over and the Sgt. Major called the Corporals together. He said that he thought that the men had got sloppy, and that we were to report to the parade ground every day for drill. He went on to say that when the squad was up to the standard he wanted, he would finish the parades. "So鈥�, he said, 鈥淚t is up to them how many parades they do鈥�. I told my squad exactly what I thought we should do. I said to them that no one wanted to parade in this heat and that if they really went for it on the first parade and drilled like they did back at Lympstone. I believed the Sgt, Major would keep his word. The day for the first parade came and I took the squad to the parade ground. For myself, I hated having to drill men, but on this occasion I had no choice. I drilled the squad for about 20 minutes and when the Sgt. Major arrived I handed the squad over to him. He really drilled them for half an hour and I felt quite proud of them my message seemed to have got through. The Sgt. Major turned to me and said "well done Corporal Small I am very pleased with your squad, they are very well turned out you may dismiss them and tell them that they do not need to parade again鈥�. The Company Commander who had been stood watching said to me, that he remembered our conversation, and that he thought that I had proved my point. The other squad had to parade five times before being let off.
The Station was being run down, most of the aircraft had gone but not before I had a ten-minute flight in a Fairy Swordfish Torpedo Bomber. I cannot say I enjoyed it very much; it was very bumpy, especially when it landed on the steel mesh runway. Rumours were saying that the station was soon to be closed and handed back to the Ceylon Authority. The rumours turned out to be right and by mid April and just after my 21st birthday we packed our kit and went to a naval base on the East coast of Ceylon. We performed guard duties on this base until we could get a passage home. The base was in a region called Tricamalee and we were there until about the third week in May. We were told that we would be returning home on an Aircraft Carrier named HMS Formidable and that we would be working our passage home. The ship was carrying all sorts of service personnel, and my duties were to provide and post guards on the Officer's, Wrens, and Nurses quarters. Also to provide Marines for cleaning and polishing anything that shined. The Commander was known to dislike Marines and matters got worse when he was remonstrating to a Marine for not descending a gangway fast enough. He then demonstrated how it he wanted it done, and as he turned back to the Marine the Marine accidentally poked him in the eye with his brush. Another time two Marines were charged for being on deck out of hours. They were up before the Commander and I mentioned that I had given them permission to leave their station to get their fruit drink. The Commander turned on me and said, "You are supposed to charge these men not to get them off鈥� I replied that I was also supposed to be honest. He stormed at me saying 鈥測ou had better look out or I will have those stripes off your arm, before we get back to Blighty. Another time we were all enjoying a Mediterranean evening sitting around on the flight deck and a Petty Officer was drilling the defaulters. The Commander was on the bridge and using his loud hailer he shouted,鈥� That Marine Corporal get up and show the Petty Officer how to Drill those men". So he really put me on the spot, and I became the highlight of the evening entertainment. I said to the defaulters, 鈥淪orry lads it鈥檚 me he's really after so I am going to have to make you sweat鈥�. They understood so, reluctantly I drilled them really hard with lots of running with rifles over their head, and that sort of thing. At the end of the session the Petty Officer said," he's a right so and so," I said that I already knew and I intended to keep out of his way for the rest of the trip. That is what I did, it was not a very happy trip and we were all glad when we docked in Plymouth. The customs came on board and checked our kit and we went ashore to the Stonehouse Marine Barracks. It took several weeks to go through the demob procedure and it was near the end of July when I walked out of the barracks to catch my train home.

(Continued in part 5)

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