大象传媒

On Commissioning I reported to the R.E. depot at Halifax and was given 14 days embarkation leave and told to join draft RGFYY with no indication where we were going except we were issued with Topes. Our convoy sailed due NW. out of Greenock before turning South. The ship we were on was built for the North Atlantic Route and
was hardly suitable for the Tropics. We soon broke down, and all the convoy except one destroyer sailed on out of sight and we were left with our one destroyer circling around. When we could we rejoined the convoy and some thing soon ran into us. Then we caught fire in the hold and the flames leapt up out of a ventilator. This was much more spectacular from the other ships in the convoy. Once more we broke down and were left all on our own. All the other ranks had their water bottles filled once a day and the officers had a jug or water on the table at meals. When we were off Freetown we were on half water rations but the tanker soon put out and came to us before going to the other ships.

We were put ashore at Durban and waited for another ship to take us to Bombay. On arrival I was told I had been posted to Madras Sappers and Miners, and was given a Railway Warrant to Bangalore a day and night鈥檚 journey away. They posted me to 36th. Field Squadron at Sialkot, who were at a Bridging camp on the Frontier. So I was given a Railway Warrant for two days and two nights. When I arrived at the Frontier, I found that the next day they were returning to Sialkot and all the Officers had found an urgent job, so I would be in charge. I asked if I could requisition a map from the office, only to be told 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 need a map; go straight down the Grand Trunk Road for 200 miles and you will come to a wall on the left. At the end of the wall turn left and our lines are at the end of the road鈥�.

At this time Field Squadrons were being increased from two to three Troops, I was to form a third Troop, and the next morning 80 Sappers (Engineer Privates) were paraded in front of me, all in identical uniforms, although some were much more creased than others. About three were much darker than the others and three had fairer complexion. I thought I should never get to distinguish between them, but in less than six months I knew them all and the idiosyncrasies of each. So back along the Grand Trunk Road to teach them, in six months, all it was necessary to know about water supply, demolition and bridge building. They all spoke Tamil, about 70% spoke it as their native language, about 20% were Telagoo speakers the rest either Malialums or Kanarese. When I got back to the Depot, people said how fluently I spoke Tamil. The only trouble was I had no idea whether I was swearing at them or asking politely.

When I got to the Bridging Camp I found that a Company of Terre Guwalls was also there. They were not a part of the British Army but belonged to one of the Princely States. They were a camel Company that the Maharaja had decided to convert to a mechanised Company so on parade you saw a line of camels laden up with vehicle spares and camouflage nets.

Unlike in the British Army, in the Indian Army every sapper is a tradesman. At the end of six months they finished their Engineer training and it was my duty to allocate each man to a trade. So they went into workshops for another six months. One surveyor, two draughtsmen, two painters, about six plumbers, six blacksmiths eight carpenters, fitters, bricklayers, electricians, and motor mechanics etc. I thought the surveyor was the most abstract, so I got a cube of wood, chalked a cross on each face and asked how many crosses there were. Only one got it right first time. He became a surveyor, the two who got it right second time became draughtsmen. While they were in workshops I became quartermaster and had to learn in idiosyncrasies of the vocabulary. When I indented for lamps, hurricane it came back, stamped 鈥楻esubmit with correct nomenclature鈥�. They were called lanterns, hurricane. About this time the store men were told to correct invoices if the meaning was clear and we were told to write off deficiencies of up to 4%. My next invoice, for a dozen bifurcated rivets, was altered to the correct accounting units of hundredweights, so I got a hundredweight of rivets! When I wanted graph paper I found it could be divided into twelfths for architects using feet and inches, eighths for carpenters using eighths and sixteenths, or metric. I asked for a dozen of each. This completely foxed the storekeeper, so he cut a dozen sheets of graph paper into eight, a dozen into ten, and a dozen into twelve, I received 36 small pieces of paper.

At last we were ready for war and as the Jap was expected to land in South India we were taken out of our formation and sent to Trichinopoly. It took two troop trains, one for all our lorries, each with a driver and mate, and the other one for everyone else. We had a sweepstake as to whether we would do it in a week; in fact we did it in ten minutes under. The guard had a time table and we pointed out to him each evening we were early, would he see we were not late for breakfast. He always said he would go off duty at midnight but would tell his relief. We invariably arrived two hours late. When we stopped for breakfast we went into the restaurant where it was all prepared for us in answer to a telegram we had sent the night before. The Havildar Major (the Indian equivalent of Sergeant Major) fell the men in and, if we were near a river, they all went off for a swimming parade; otherwise they went off for a cross country run or did P.T. on the platform. In the meanwhile the quartermaster Havildar unlocked the ration truck and got out all the food required for that morning which was cooked with boiling water drawn off from the engine. Then he bartered with a contractor for vegetables which had been bought in answer to another telegram.

We were met by the Commander Royal Engineers, who told us one troop would be commandos, one road builders and one bridge builders. When I became a bridge builder I asked what equipment there was. I was told 鈥楴one; go into the bazaar and buy what you want鈥�. I bought all the steel girders I could lay my hands on, a lot of 7/8 reinforcing rods for bolts, and lots of 1 1/8 square bars for nuts, which was the best I could get.

I remembered reading a book 鈥楢cross Africa in an Austin Seven鈥�. When they came to a river too deep to ford, they wrapped the car in a tarpaulin and carried it into the water. If only I could carry my lorries. Then it occurred to me put them in the water first and afterwards pump out the water. The O.C. was not very keen and thought it might capsize. I assured him that with a beam of seven feet and a draft of five inches it could not. I thought of all the possible snags. Obviously there must be a frame underneath. When I made this I was careful to make sure there were no sharp corners to snag the tarpaulin and no gaps. At last I was ready my Havildar (sergeant) came to me and said 鈥楾he lorry won鈥檛 float, Sahib, the tarpaulin won鈥檛 float. I remember in the training battalion we made rafts with petrol cans. Let me fill the lorry with cans. I will cover them over so no one knows, and then it might float鈥�. The next day we spent raking the river bed to make sure there were no stones which could tear the tarpaulin. We pumped it out and it floated. The Havildar came to me and said 鈥楳y leg has been pulled most unmercifully. May I take a truck and bring the other senior N.C.O鈥檚 and show them?鈥� When they and most of the Squadron returned, he had them lined up and the river bank and harangued them and said that is what C Troop does.

At this camp, our well had a snake swimming around in it. We were told that it would not be there if the water were contaminated. In the dry season we decided to deepen the well. We started by pumping the water out into a canvas tank but there was no snake. The well was about three feet in diameter so when we had a flexible drive for the pump with its delivery hose, a pneumatic hose to drive the spade and a rope to haul up the waste sandstone there was only just room for two sappers to work in the bottom. I went down to see, how the work was getting on. When my feet were level with the sappers鈥� heads, I found where the snake had gone into the stonework of the lining, but I was just so far off that when he struck at my face he could not reach me. My other encounter with a snake at that campsite was when I had a bath. Each night a snake would make his way from left to right in the undergrowth about six feet away. It was impossible to see its length but he looked about three inches diameter. One night he came out and shed his skin. It was about eight feet long.

After about 18 months we returned to our formation and one of the other O.C鈥檚 said 鈥業 understand you think you are fairly good at bridging. My men will challenge you to a small box girder race鈥�. (the old bridging equipment before the Bailey) I told him my men had never seen a small box girder bridge, but if he let us put it across twice in the morning, we would accept his challenge in the afternoon. This was agreed to. His unit were sheiks, average height 6鈥� 2鈥�. My Madrasis were about 5鈥� 2鈥�. Their idea was that to put a pin in a hole, you used a sledgehammer; my men made sure the two holes were in line first. We had a lorry across before they had launched their first girder. We had been warned on the boat going out about intertribal riots between castes. That was the only time I felt scared.

I then went back to Bangalore as bridging instructor at the Officer Cadet Training Unit. All the cadets did a fortnight鈥檚 training in the Mysore Jungle. Where they learnt, among other things to work with elephants. When they wanted to fell a tree the elephant would push it over then he would dig up the roots with his tusk stand it up again and push it over the other way so he could dig up the remainder of the roots. If the tree was more than about 9 inches diameter, it was necessary to cut part of the way threw, the elephant pushed as before, but he knew that the butt would kick, so he jumped back, with all four feet off the ground. When a draft of Officers arrived from England someone thought it would be helpful if they came and saw us. So they put an extra sleeping coach on the train, and up they came planning to return the next night. Halfway back the train split into two, the first four coaches went to Mysore and the other four to Bangalore. That night the shunters had an extra coach they did not know what to do with. So they put it in a siding, where the officers found themselves the next morning with a 24 hour wait with no food. A fine introduction to India.

My next posting was as Staff Officer to Commander Army Group Engineers, part of 14th Army, which at that time was over 2/3 Indian Troops, The remainder were British or Colonial. On the whole they got on well together. Although on most occasions British Troops looked down on Indians. One case was on the crossing of the Chinwin where the only ferry was a tank landing craft provided by the Indian Navy. This of course caused congestion; the tailback reached for miles. But a Bridge Company Convoy, came up which a number of addition ferries. The Havildar in charge wanted to go to the head of the queue but the British Military Policeman, insisted that he joined the back of the queue
And take his turn like everybody else. He then left his convoy in the queue and walked up to report to me. I went back about a mile and told the M.P. that what ever his orders were he was to allow these vehicles to go to the head of the queue. On another occasion, we had two DUKWs driven by British Privates. Now the DUKW is an excellent vehicle it goes very well on land and in the water. If you try to drive it in shallow water over a submerged sandbank, it stops and is stranded. We had a Company of DUKWs driven by Indians, who were continually going to tow the British Drivers off the sandbank. Although this was the only option, the British drivers always disliked having to ask an Indian to come and help.

Our objective was to build a road for about 5000 vehicles and to capture Rangoon before the monsoon broke. Our road could then be washed away. Two and a half days behind us came SEAC, they were working on the Monsoon breaking before we captured Rangoon, and the Army could no longer be supplied by road or air as the ceiling at which our aircraft could fly would be lowered and they could no longer fly in supplies from India. First they built an all weather road as far as the Irrawaddy, then they flew in two forestry companies and one boat building company so that on an eight day turn round they could feed the 14th Army by boat down the river to the rail head, which they refurbished, while we had special railway wheels made for jeeps so that they could run on railway lines towing three ten-ton trucks.

In the early days we had a section of Bridge Building Elephants under command. This consisted of a British Officer with his orderly and 14 elephants with their mahouts. I felt sorry when the British Officer went sick and they sent a replacement straight off a ship from England. The Elephants had been trained by Burma Forestry Department before the war. When they trained a collection of Elephants one or two would always stand out as smarter than the rest. These were sent for further training as bridge builders. When we came to a river the elephants would lay two 15鈥� diameter logs parallel to each other and then on top of these two more at right angles, and repeat this process until the had a pier about a foot deeper than the depth of the water. The elephants then towed it out into the river. The next move was to line up a 15鈥� log; one elephant held one end on his tusks, whilst the other nudged it forward with his toe, the first elephant walking sideways all the time. This was repeated a second time, then the first elephant stayed in the water while the other one slid the third log across supported on the other two. The elephant in the water raised his trunk while the one on the bank gave it a mighty kick sideways the other one bought his trunk down on it so as to prevent it rolling off. This went on until they had a roadway eight or ten feet wide. They then levelled the surface off with smaller trees and earth. Another pier was towed into the river and the whole process was repeated. Tank transporters were meant to unload before crossing but the seldom did. We could not persuade the Elephants to ride on a tank transporter so they had to be abandoned as they walked too slowly to keep up with us.

One day when we were going forward the Colonel said to me. 鈥� Now we shall see 36 Field Squadron I have heard so much about鈥�. We came to a most efficient ferry and went across. The Colonel said to a naik (Corporal) 鈥榃here is your officer?鈥� 鈥楬e went forward with the Gunners.鈥� 鈥榃here is the Havildar?鈥� 鈥楬e went sick.鈥� 鈥榃ho is in charge?鈥� 鈥業 am in charge.鈥� When we came back, another unit had leap froged and taken over. and it was impossible to realise how they had got the whole set up in such a mess. We waited an hour to cross. The Colonel again asked where the Officer was, and found he had given up, and was in his tent on the edge of the woods.

One associates jungle with mud. We never saw any, our trouble was dust in dried up river valleys, which when it got bad stopped everything other than four wheel drive vehicles. Tank Transporters found it very difficult. They each consisted of a tractor and trailer which had four small wheels on each axle which could not be worse in dust. Their line of march consisted of two tractors connected to two tanks with ridged tow bars, then a trailer with another trailer loaded on top, repeated for the whole Squadron several hundred yards long. Then if any vehicle started to slip it was pushed from behind and pulled from in front, so the whole squadron snaked its way across.

When we came to the Irrawaddy, it was about eight miles wide with a wet gap of a mile and a quarter. We laid a steel mesh road across the sand and construed about a twenty landing stages. Numbers one and two would take light vehicles, at the other end they would take anything. Someone on the top of a tower called out through a loud speaker: 鈥楾he jeep coming down the road to landing stage one; the ambulance behind it to landing stage six鈥�, repeating it in Urdu. Medium guns had to be loaded in the middle of the ferry and we did no waste the space behind under the muzzle of the gun, so we tried to load a jeep there. On one occasion two Australian were sitting in their jeep and took the handbrake off, in readiness to disembark but when the gun got off they freewheeled backwards and the jeep went straight to the bottom, putting that landing stage out of commission until we had cleared it.

This struck me as a war for Engineers, with the medicals and signals playing their part. The infantry and tanks came far behind.

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