大象传媒

This story was recorded and posted by Mark Jeffers, with the author's permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
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I joined the Royal Air Force and like all young fellows in those days I loved the excitement of it. We had a blitz in Belfast in 1941 and I couldn鈥檛 get into the Air Force quick enough. In September 1943, when I was 18 years old, I joined up. My uncle was a warrant officer and that was an incentive to join.

From day one I was on active service. On top of your mail you wrote 鈥淥n Active Service鈥� and you didn鈥檛 have to use any stamps and your letters still got home. They were censored then of course and even the letters that were sent out to you by civilians were censored as well.

I was sent to Bomber Command in England, which in those days were bombing Germany and France; the big thing was to stop the V-bombers. I was an aero engine fitter attached to the Royal Australian Air Force which was quite unusual. I enjoyed that very much. I went through a thousand bombing raids from England over to the continent. That was where the war was taking place. There were many losses; fifty percent of the crews in Bomber Command were going down. The Royal Air Force was suffering casualties before anybody else. I then volunteered overseas and didn鈥檛 know where I was going. They said to me one day, 鈥淩ight you鈥檙e going overseas.鈥�

They sent me up to a place near Blackpool, the whole place had been taken up by services and I remember going to a small old building which was full of kit. They gave me what was called a pit helmet which was something the Foreign Legion wore made of cork, and a terrible uniform which was Khaki with red signs on it, and me being an Air Force man! You had no idea where you were going but I was fairly sure it would be the Far East.

I went through the Suez Canal and finished up in Bombay. Once you arrived in Bombay you threw all this kit in and they gave you a bush hat, which was your friend for life in the Far East. It was very effective. It took I think about two weeks on a train to get from Bombay to Calcutta and from Calcutta I went straight into Burma, knowing nothing. That was all the training I got, I was an airman. I was posted to a Dakota Squadron, which has become quite famous in the Far East and it was known as 31 Transport Command whose job it was to drop food and ammunition to the army in the forward areas. It was a different type of war from Europe, there was no front line, and the men were moving forward through the jungle near the coast where there were good roads. So we were based in a place called Ramree Island and we went down to Rangoon when the Japanese surrendered. We took an airfield there. Once the Japanese had surrendered we went down and got prisoners out from Singapore, Thailand, fellows from the railways.

From Singapore I went over Batavia in the Dutch East Indies, which is now called Indonesia. We had some casualties there with the Indonesians. We got locked out one night doing sentry duty in a downtown hotel, there was an English fellow along with me and we were in trouble, they had closed the gates and left us out and they were throwing petrol bombs at us. Being a hero, as I am (!), these Indonesians are coming screaming they鈥檙e heads off and firing shots. I stood up and shouted 鈥渕ordiga鈥�, which means freedom, and of course when they heard me shout 鈥渕ordiga鈥� they thought, 鈥淭his fellow is alright,鈥� so I saved my own skin and the English man was glad because we got back into base again. Quite a few guys were killed out there though, we had to travel a couple of miles each day to the airfield, and we were working in conjunction with the Dutch troops then. I enjoyed my stay out there and the people were great.

I was there when Mountbatten came down to tell us that we were coming near the end of it. I came home in 1946/7 straight back to England where I was demobbed and then straight home. I didn鈥檛 know what unemployment was because I was straight into work as I had begun an interrupted apprenticeship before I left. Four years of war time service. Active service.

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