大象传媒

This Story has been submitted to the 鈥楶eople鈥檚 War鈥� We Site by Betty & Don TEMPEST of Lancshomeguard on behalf of Mr Hugh WALLACE and has been added to the webs Site with his permission.

鈥楪uarding the Ammo鈥�.

In 1942, I was a Gunner in the 139th. Royal Artillery, and I was posted to India. When we arrived in India, we were sent on a Troop Train to Bombay. We then had to spend two days in the Himalayas to get acclimatised.

We then moved down to the plains in Nowshera. We trained there for three months on 3鈥� Mortars. I was in the 7th. Indian Division, and we were covering about 1,000miles. We moved into Burma after our training, to a place called Coxes Bazaar. Then from there we went into action.

The whole Division was up against a 鈥楥rack鈥� Japanese Division, who intended to invade India. Even though we had 3鈥漨ortars, jeeps and trailers, the Japanese caught our battery and we had to run for it, I had no shoes on.

When this happened we were in Araken, in a valley and we had heard gunfire and people were running past. What we hadn鈥檛 realised was that the Japanese had surrounded us. One of our drivers was next to me and we looked up and there was a Japanese soldier. The driver got shot. I put my arm round him and led him to an ambulance.

As I have said, the Japanese had surrounded us. They long guns and were difficult to catch as they kept going into caves, For three weeks we were kept under fire and we had provisions dropped by air, mainly at night. It was a terrible three weeks, but managed to start pushing them back and then the 2nd. British Division came to relieve us.

After about two weeks were in Imphal and had made our way to Kohina, which had also had a terrible battle, but by the time we got there it had been relieved. We were then moved to Calcutta for a fortnights rest, then we went back into Burma to chase the Japs out. We had a long slog right down to Rangoon and in the process the 33rd. Brigade captured the oil Fields in Chalk and Yen Anyoung.

On the way down we supported the Beach landings over the Chinwin. During that time we stood guard over our ammunition, first thing in a morning and last thing at night, because they were the vulnerable times.

My Sergeant and I were standing guard duty over the ammunition one night when a bright red light appeared from out the darkness. It suddenly exploded, and so did the ammunition. My Sergeant had said 鈥楧uck鈥�, and I did and we were both lucky to survive. We were in a slit trench, fortunately, otherwise we would have been killed. We returned fire with grenades we had with us in the trench and there were a lot of explosions, and I was 鈥榙eaf鈥� for three days.

We were later visited by General Slim and he asked us how we had managed to transport the guns, and we told him.

We were later called back to the 139th Royal Artillery, to the end of the war.

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