大象传媒

Part two of an edited oral history recording of Major B. B. Coward鈥檚 WWII experiences made at an outreach event of Bedford Museum at Turvey Village Hall on Monday 17th October 2005.

鈥淎nyway the next thing is I was then left behind, they cancelled all transfers to the Air Force and they cancelled all transfers to anything else and they eventually as I was keen to go to war they sent me to an Internal Security Battalion in India. I went to Lahore and we went round the coast 鈥� anyway we sailed 鈥� you don鈥檛 want to hear all the nonsense about sailing in boats and eventually I got to Lahore. I was then posted as a Company Commander 鈥� my transfer to the Air Force had obviously gone out of the window 鈥� no more transfers - so I became a Company Commander in the 2nd Suffolks. My first experience was to go into my Company Office and I had a low wall and on the other side of the wall there was a Company Clerk and a Company Runner. I heard this conversation, the Company Runner says, 鈥榊ou seen the CO this morning?鈥� and the Company Clerk says, 鈥楴o, but I鈥檝e seen her husband!鈥� Laughter! This is one of those rare occasions.

Anyway the thing is I was with the Suffolks and we messed around here and there and eventually the Suffolks went into the 5th Indian Division. In the meantime I had developed some wretched disease like jaundice, it was infective hepatitis and I was sent to a hospital in Poona. When I got to Poona there was a huge ward for Officers and the thing that struck you about this was the tremendous number of Parsons there were, they were Parsons not in bits but patrolling and trying to get you through the Pearly Gates. There was a Catholic and there was an Anglican and there was a Presbyterian and there was a Methodist and oh, I didn鈥檛 know there were so many of them, there were lots and lots of them. Anyway they hadn鈥檛 asked me because I was picked up in Bombay and put on this train and they hadn鈥檛 asked me my religion. After I鈥檇 been a couple of days there or the first day I was there I suppose, they asked me what my religion was and I鈥檇 seen these Parsons and I said, 鈥楶lymouth Brethren!鈥� So they put me down as Plymouth Brethren, that was fine because they don鈥檛 have any Parsons so I lived a quite nice quiet life getting on and I made some very good friends with the chaps in the nearby beds. And then a Catholic on the other side of the ward got a beer and I didn鈥檛! Then a Presbyterian got a beer and I didn鈥檛! And an Anglican and I thought well there is something very wrong about this so I asked the Sister, I said, 鈥楲ook here, if these other chaps are getting beer why can鈥檛 I get a beer?鈥� 鈥極h,鈥� she said, 鈥榊ou are Plymouth Brethren and you don鈥檛 drink.鈥� I thought Oh, God, I didn鈥檛 realise that this could happen to a chap, you know 鈥� sort of innocently. Anyway I took a quick conversion, I converted back to C. of E. and I got a beer immediately!

I spent my war years in Burma. Oh, yes went to Imphal. I was in the 5th Indian Division and our first show in Burma was in Arakan and we came out of Arakan thinking we were going on holiday and what a good idea it would be to have a nice bit of leave and instead we were transferred to Imphal. Actually I was in charge at that time of the mules. I had 50 odd mules and we flew them by Dakota from Dohazarri to Imphal. When we got to Imphal we arrived on the Palel Road and we marched sixty five miles or seventy miles in three days with all our kit and one thing and another including these damned mules. And when got to the Head Quarters of some Corps we were told we had to 鈥榙ig in鈥� the mules. Now, just imagine the brain power needed of the Staff Officer who decided that the mules should be 鈥榙ug in鈥�! You imagine, you dig a hole for yourself you only need it so deep and so long. But a mule, it stands as high as you do and it puts its head up anyway and the head is the thing you have to keep 鈥� and you have got to dig a down pit and an up pit! I mean it would need two bulldozers per mule! Laughter! That was the sort of thing we had. As you know we had a battle in and around Imphal and then I managed to get myself transferred from the Suffolks back to the Norfolks so I joined the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Norfolks as we crossed the Irrawaddy and went to Mandalay. 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolks, yes. It was a ruddy fine Battalion, a marvellous Battalion. By this time I Commanded an ordinary Rifle Company, I was a Major at that time. I was a Major in the Suffolks and again in the Norfolks.

From somewhere around Imphal I got some leave at some stage or other and I managed to get airlifted back to Calcutta and got on a train and went all the way to Kashmir. You see you travelled from Calcutta, through Delhi, up to around Murree and then you get a taxi cab and you go about 120 miles up to this place, Srinagar which is in Kashmir, it鈥檚 beautiful, especially coming out of Burma where it was very unpleasant anyway.

You see Burma was unlike any other war, you were completely isolated. You were in the jungle, you had your soldiers around you, you had the Japanese around them and you knew what a nice lot of chaps the Japanese were. They were damned good when they were dead. We always felt that we were doing a good job to get these chaps through the Pearly Gates so they could meet their maker. Well you got the opportunity every now and then, when you had the opportunity you killed him, it didn鈥檛 happen every day, anyway it was a bit of a nasty war.

Anyway there we are - we go to Srinagar, there are three of us and we have a beautiful houseboat and one of the chaps, one of the three meets up with an American nurse, very attractive. Anyway she has two friends, beautiful girls and we get them on a houseboat and we get the houseboat moved next to ours and everything is very promising. I don鈥檛 like to mention this but we were young men on leave. We were keen dancers so we decided we鈥檇 take these girls to breakfast in the morning and then lunch and then we took to the dance in the Nagin Bagh Club. The thing was, we thought now what shall we get them to drink? And somebody suggested absinthe because absence makes the heart grow fonder and I felt (irrespective of the cost) it was damned expensive, it was about 4d a glass! There were places were you could get it for 3d but 鈥� We lashed out on this absinthe and do you know it worked, the girls became more and more adorable and more and more loving the snag was they were three lesbians! Laughter! Don鈥檛 tell me we were upset, well we felt that we had wasted a lot of time and money. Laughter!

I mean we were all young and you were used to disappointments, I mean we鈥檇 been through a war which was very disappointing at times! After our leave we went back to Burma.

We eventually, we鈥檇 all been overseas for so long - we were going to do the landings at Rangoon. We trained for that but then they found that we鈥檇 all been overseas for four years or more and it was decided that we鈥檇 be brought home. So we came home on the Strathmore and we arrived in Southampton, I suppose it was September/October 1945, when we arrived in Southampton. We got to the docks about 6 o鈥檆lock in the morning and various people came to see us but we were not allowed off the boat and on the quayside there were a dozen or so American Military Policemen with their white hats on. Now just imagine there were we arrived from Burma and we arrive back and we are kept on the boat by ruddy Americans, you can imagine, we weren鈥檛 very keen about it. We didn鈥檛 give them three cheers. There was one chap there who was a Southampton lad and he was in the Royal Scots, the Royal Scots were in our Brigade, we knew them very well, they were a damned fine Regiment. Anyway this chap wanted to go ashore because his wife and his little baby boy of about 18 months old or whatever it was, who he鈥檇 never seen. He wanted to go ashore, he wasn鈥檛 allowed ashore 鈥� he had to get in the train and go to Glasgow or Edinburgh to get his railway ticket to go home and when he got his railway ticket to go home he was allowed to go home! He had to go all that way to get the ticket to go back to Southampton or Portsmouth. As we were Norfolks we were put on a train and sent to Dorchester and when we got to Dorchester we had to march up to the Barracks.

Off we go to Dorchester and then we marched through the town, it was very nice they had the Band. I marched the Second Detachment of the Troops, of the Battalion, I was at their head and I could hear all the chaps behind me chattering, they shouldn鈥檛 have been, they should have been marching to attention and so on. I looked round and some girl came along and offered to carry my bag or whatever I had, I said, 鈥楧on鈥檛 be silly鈥� I looked round and everyone, all the chaps had handed out their rifles and everything else to be carried. Laughter! Anyway it was jolly nice and we all got home. I don鈥檛 think we lost any rifles. The next day we got our tickets and we went to London and that was the end of the war as far as I was concerned. Well I did actually did go afterwards to Berlin in charge of the Regimental Band but that鈥檚 another story.

But I was greeted very well. When I went, we were wearing bush hats you see and when I got to London, I got off the train and went into the pub as I was thirsty and dry, I went in to have a beer. A chap said to me, 鈥楥or, a ruddy Australian, have a drink!鈥� you see. So I said, 鈥業鈥檓 not an Australian鈥� so he said, 鈥榳ell you can buy your own ruddy drink!鈥� Laughter! It was all good fun. Actually the thing about the war was that we all had different experiences.鈥�

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