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With Calcutta
as the main re-supply station for the Burma and China Front the city was full
of military personnel from all countries of the allied cause. Many were away
from home for the first time and although due to military regulations they
often stayed apart from the general life of the city, they nevertheless have
vivid memories of it. For many it was only a starting point for or a rest
station from the actual war on the front in the East. Nevertheless Calcutta
made an impression on them and they on Calcutta.
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(source: A6990069 "THE WAR DIARY OF A ROYAL
ENGINEER WITH THE FORGOTTEN ARMY" (Part 2: 1 August 1944 to 1 June 1946)
at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
Died. Major Francis Yeats-Brown, 58, handsome professional
soldier-author (Lives of a Bengal
Lancer, Lancer at Large), distinguished poloist and pigsticker (hunter of
wild boars), practitioner of Yoga; in
London.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Time Magazine)
You have had proper military conduct drummed
into you a hundred times by now. Some of it should have stuck to most of you.
And all of it holds good here, just as it did back in the States. A brief
refresher:
Act, dress, and feel like an American soldier -
and remember that the American soldier is the finest on Earth. Obey the curfew
law which requires you to be back in your quarters by 0100. carry your pass,
furlough, or leave papers. Wear those dog tags. Check any arms, knives, clubs,
or other weapons at the M.P. Headquarters - or at any other safe place. Drink
only indoors. Restrain the impulse to strike anyone. Keep that uniform spruced
up. You are on constant dress parade in this area. BE THE BEST. YOU ARE.
Saluting. You are expected to
salute. And it is only fair to tell you why. Way back in basic training certain
"tough" individuals called sergeants went to work on you to make you
into alert, well-disciplined, well-trained soldiers. You became just that. You
were alert, you were well-disciplined, you were well-trained, YOU WERE READY.
You saw an officer in a crowd, caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of one
eye, and you automatically tossed him a high-ball. Over here, those of you who
have already seen combat know that, similarly, you get a quick
"gander" at a Jap or a German and away at him all before your mind
has had a chance to think over the situation. You are alert. You respond
instinctively, automatically. Earlier training in eye-alertness has saved your
life and cost the Jap or the German his.
Keep saluting. Be ready. Remember: saluting is a
daily exercise in keeping eye-alert.
(source: “The Calcutta Key” Services of Supply
Base Section Two Division, Information and education Branch, United States Army
Forces in India - Burma, 1945: at:
http://cbi-theater-12.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-12/calcuttakey/calcutta_key.html)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
THE Indian Army, now numbering well over
1,000,000 men, all of them volunteers, forms an important part of the United
Nations spear head against the Japanese in Asia. Indian units have made
brilliant fighting records in the fighting in Libya and other fronts. Because
you will be fighting side by side with these splendid soldiers, you may want to
know something about the Indian Army and the men in it.
[…]
The Modern Indian Army. Starting
in 1921, the Indian Army was reorganized, with infantry troops divided into 19
regiments of roughly five battalions each; the cavalry was divided into groups
of three regiments each. Each infantry regiment had one battalion set up whose
sole job was to train new recruits.
Also at this time some Indian officers were
granted the King's Commission and an Indian Military Academy to train Indian
officers only, was established at Dehra Dun. The Indian Air Force was
established during this period.
In 1938 the Chatfield Committee, appointed by
the British government to study this Indian Army and make recommendations,
proposed that as far as military operations are concerned, India's frontiers
should be considered extended to Egypt on one side and Burma on the other. An
external defense force for operations in these areas was organized. The
committee also recommended that the whole of the cavalry be mechanized and the
infantry, and other arms, equipped with modern weapons.
At the beginning of the war, the Army of India
consisted of 177,000 Indian troops and 43,000 British troops. New volunteers
are being taken in as fast as they can be equipped. Since the war, India has
sent about 300,000 men to overseas fronts.
In December 1940, an Indian division defeated
the Italians at Sidi Barrani and took more than 20,000 prisoners. The same
division, plus another one, smashed Italian resistance in East Africa. In April
1941, and heroic Indian brigade, fresh from home, held a superior and heavier
German force under General Rommel for 3 days, allowing Tobruk's defenses to be
manned. Besides Libya and East Africa, Indian troops took part in operations in
Syria, Iraq, and Iran, and bore the brunt of the fighting in Malaya and Burma.
(source: “A Pocket Guide to India” Special
Service Division, Army Service Forces, United States Army. War and Navy
Departments Washington D.C [early 1940s]:
at: http://cbi-theater-2.home.comcast.net/booklet/guide-to-india.html)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
IN today's Indian Army, there are three
types of officers - European and Indian officers, who hold the King's
Commission and wear the rank insignia of the regular British Army. These
officers command, or are second in command of companies and higher formations.
The third group are holders of Viceroy's Commission. When addressing Viceroy's
commissioned officers say "Subedar Sahib" or "Risaldar
Sahib" as a matter of courtesy. "Hey Buddy" is not the best way
to approach either an officer or a noncomm.
(source: “A Pocket Guide to India” Special
Service Division, Army Service Forces, United States Army. War and Navy
Departments Washington D.C [early 1940s]:
at: http://cbi-theater-2.home.comcast.net/booklet/guide-to-india.html)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
I left
school at age 14 in 1936. Times were hard and I decided to join the Army; the
Staffordshire Regiment were in Blackdown and at the age of 15, I tried to
enlist but was turned away until I got the forms filled in. My mother wasn’t
keen as she had already got several sons in the Forces, but eventually my
father talked her into it.
I joined on 7 December
1937 in the First Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment. At the age of 15, I
was a boy soldier and so went into the band as a bugler — we did no proper
infantry training at that age, apart from medical duties, stretcher bearing
etc.
In March 1938, I was
transferred out to India, still as a boy soldier. I was in barracks at Calcutta when war was declared on 3 September 1939, and became a
full soldier at age 17½, when I was issued with a rifle and started normal
infantry training, although I was still in the band.
I returned to the UK
in mid-1942 and joined 7th Battalion, North Staffs which was an ack-ack unit. I
was posted to a little village between Southampton and Portsmouth, as air raids
were heavy in that area. I had no experience but was sat down at a Bofors gun,
pointed it at the sky and fired when enemy aircraft were overhead.
(source: A7695525 A Proud Normandy Para. at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
After a while I was
hospitalised with an elbow abscess and went to convalesce in Darjeeling; I was
downgraded medically so could not go back to my old job. However, I was chosen
to be the ADC of GOC Bengal District and went to Calcutta. I worked in the
plush surroundings of Flagstaff House supporting Major-General Douglas Stewart.
It was a fantastic experience for a twenty-one year old son of a Methodist
minister; there were certainly things I had to learn fast, such as how to pour
a brandy and soda! I met all sorts of distinguished and interesting people,
including the parliamentary commission which was looking into the future
independence of India. Calcutta was the staging post for
Singapore and places beyond and we accommodated all those passing through. I
sat at the table with Woodrow Wyatt, Edwina Mountbatten, the CIGS, General Sir
Alan Brook - I had to search the bookshops of Calcutta to find a book
about Indian birds as the CIGS was a keen ornithologist.
From one point of view
it was an unsatisfying posting: I wanted to get on with doing things and to
have more responsibility. Later on in my civilian life people would ask me
where I had done my management training, expecting me to name a university,
but, of course, I had learned everything in the army. Dinner with the Chinese
Ambassador and mixing with Maharajahs at the Calcutta races certainly
helped!
It was also a somewhat
lonely posting for me; I hadn`t been brought up to go out on the town, so to
speak, so I saw less of the off-duty social life than I might. I did spend
quite a lot of time writing to my fiancée!
(source: A4255427 Early Promotion at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational
research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
In Nov 1941, although only 16, I joined the
army. After basic training in Brecon, South Wales, I moved to Norfolk. Whilst
on battle training, I was cought between 3 exploding grenades and hospitalised
for three months. Rejoining my unit, I was attached to a fresh batch of
recruits passing through the training again. After embarkation leave,
travelling to Liverpool, we boarded the 25,000 ton Marnix van st. Aldergond.
After laying off New Brighton for 2 days, we joined convoy KMF 25 A, we sailed
in Oct 1943, and after a rough passage down the Atlantic, we entered the med.
80 miles past Gib, we were hit by a torperdo. Warships closed and evacuation
began. When only our draft was left they decided the sea had become too rough
and it would be safer remaining aboard overnight. at dawn, we were taken on a
corvette. The last I saw of the Marnix, she was right down by the stern and
going fast. Taken to Phillipville in north Africa, we were re-equiped and on
the MV Derbyshire, after sailing alone for 2 days, we caught up with a convoy
and within hours were attacked by bombers, we didn't get it.
Reaching Bombay, we
spent a few weeks at Deolali, before moving across India to Calcutta. It was a time of famine with corpses lying in the streets
waiting for disposal. Boarding a little steamer, we moved onto Chittagong and
then rode to Cox's Bazarr, from there it was on foot to join the 1st batt
Wiltshire Reg. in action in the Arakan, western Burma.
(source: A4035377 My Bit Of Excitement at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
At the end of that
time there were still no Gurkha jobs so I was sent to 14th Army HQ at
Barrackpore on the outskirts of Calcutta. The buildings were imposing. It
seemed like twenty steps from the ground up to the entrance of one of them
where I was the last of about 30 officers to be interviewed by a brigadier and
a regimental sergeant major. The vacant appointment was, we understood, that of
officer in command of a Laundry Unit and entailed promotion to lieutenant.
After my interview I had descended nearly all the steps when the RSM called me
back. All the other officers shouted with relief — none had wanted this job.
Cursing my bad luck, I re-entered the interview room to be told by the
brigadier that I had been appointed, not to a mobile laundry unit, but to 17th
Indian Division as Staff Captain Ordnance, the first such appointment in the
Indian Army.
(source: A8573934 Officers' Training School In
India And My First Appointment at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct
2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
I was born in
Calcutta, India. My grandfather was Portuguese. I joined the British Army Royal
Warwickshire Regiment in Meerut (where the Indian Mutiny too place in 1857) in
India. I joined as a private but after some training and on recommendation, I
was promoted to sergent and joined the 17th Indian division in India. After
some preliminary training sailed from Calcutta to Rangoon in 1942.
(source: A3608697 Burma with the Warwickshire
Regiment at BBC WW2 People's
War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
I left Alex in Delhi
and travelled by train for another 36 hours to Calcutta, the capital city of
Bengal built on the river Hooghly. It is India’s largest city and one of the
world’s most populated. Notorious for the deaths of over 100 prisoners housed
overnight in a small guard house, hence the “black hole of Calcutta.” While I
was there thousands died in a cholera epidemic.
Our base was in a
large, flat roofed detached house in a fashionable suburb Known as Bolly Gunge.
I was working with the special communications radios and transmitters destined
for use by British agents operating behind Japanese lines.
I had many experiences
during my two year posting to Calcutta such as
(a) seeing a Royal
Signals captain, after a drinks party, parachute without his parachute on.
(b) The successful
parachuting of an RAF warrant officer who then tailed to keep contact, we
believe he became too involved with the local Burmese girls.
(c) A haunted bungalow
used for training and located some two hundred miles from Calcutta. We had
sightings of an immaculately dressed Indian bearer (they were never immaculate
at that time of day), we challenged and he ran — then vanished. We had sounds
from an ageing staircase when ours was new in solid brick and other unexplained
noises around the bungalow. This was only believed by our people visiting the
bungalow.
(d) My dilemma when
driving an open truck 100 miles south of Calcutta in the jungle at night when a
tiger strolled across the road a few yards from the vehicle. Should I
accelerate or brake? I braked and the tiger strolled off back into the jungle.
(e) Walking in the
jungle with a colleague and looking up at the overhanging trees to see whether
bananas hung upside down or grew up in clusters. Fortunately I noticed a large
python coiled up in the sun on the narrow path immediately in front of my
friend, I called to him just before he was about to tread on it.
(f) Towards the end of
my posting the locals were rioting in the city and we had to take turns to walk
the perimeter of our large transmitter site at night during this state of
emergency. A colleague and myself walked on an elevated bank and were
silhouetted in the moonlight. To my consternation we heard a fusillade of shots
and then an American soldier shouting “Hey Limey, what are you doing up there?”
(g) We had bamboo
poles planted in tubs of sand on the flat roof of our offices to support an
aerial system. One morning a pulley jammed on top of one of the poles on a
corner of the building and I decided to climb up to release it. Half way up the
pole, which had rotted in the sand, gave way and fortunately fell back onto the
roof rather than thirty feet over the side of the building to the street below.
My lucky day!
(f) The most important
event occurred when I purchased a diamond engagement ring and sent it home to
the girl I left behind, I entrusted it to the care of one of our officers who
was being returned in disgrace to the U.K. To my relief she received the ring
and happily agreed to marry me, we are still happily married.
(h) A period spent Charoinge
installing communication radio equipment in motor torpedo boats destined for
use behind Japanese lines along the Burmese coast was also very eventful.
The dropping of the
atomic bomb on Hiroshima signaled the end of the war with Japan and I was repatriated
to the U.K. in 1946 via New Dehli and Bombay sailing on board a ship the City
of Paris and traveling with a good friend Bill Evans to be demobbed in Glasgow.
(source: A2397350 India experiences: Special
Communications Unit at BBC WW2
People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)
June 28th Returned to
BULLOCK BOX prior to proceeding to CALCUTTA and NEW DELHI.
June 29th/30th At
BULLOCK BOX.
June 31st Left BULLOCK
BOX for DIMAPUR.
Aug lst/2nd Travelling
from DIMAPUR TO SEALDAH (CALCUTTA).
Aug 3rd/5th In
CALCUTTA.
Aug 6th Reported to No
42 War Office Selection Board (Permanent Commission) at No 3 G.H.Q. TALLYGUNGE,
CALCUTTA.
Aug 7th/8th In
CALCUTTA.
Aug 10th Left HOWRAH
(CALCUTTA)
Aug 11th Arrived DELHI
& reported to Rear H.Q. 11 Army Group.
(source: A6494817 Burma Campaign, 1st Bn The
Seaforth Highlanders, 23rd Indian Div (CHAPTER 3 of 3 - 1944) at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
I joined the army in India during World War Two.
I worked in the Officer’s shop, as everything was rationed then, so after a
year I joined the army. I worked for three years in army headquarters in
Calcutta, firstly as a civilian and then as a uniformed soldier. I joined the
army in the late 40s, and worked under Sister May. Her husband was a jockey and
so was her son, so she used to know all the ways in which people could lose
weight.
Three years later I became a sergeant and got my
three stripes. There were a lot of women in the army at the time, but I didn’t
work alongside men initially. At army HQ I was in charge of record-keeping for
my unit, and I was in charge of the female staff in my platoon.
At the end of the war we were asked what type of
trade we wanted to take up, and I loved working with hair so I got training as
a hairdresser. The army paid for me to take a six month course, and I became a
hairdresser in Calcutta, my home city. I got the best of all worlds. Although
everything was rationed, in the army you were able to get most things, and I
got a trade from being in the army as well. Later on, after my marriage, I came
to live in Northern Ireland in 1955.
(source: A3677989 Irene Agnew's army life in Calcutta at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
John ("Tommy") Tucker in 1941
Our main radio station in the East was in the
military area near New Delhi. This worked not only to London but also to
various parts of the Far East, such as Ceylon, Calcutta, Kunming, Kweilin and
Brisbane.
This was early in 1945 and the war in Europe was
expected to finish fairly soon, after which all efforts would be devoted to
finishing the war against Japan. This involved us in building a new main radio
station in or near Calcutta that would be very much bigger than the New Delhi
one. We designed it to have a capacity of 24 circuits, though with only 12
circuits at the first stage.
It was a tremendous amount of work. First, it
was necessary to have completely separate receiver and transmitter stations
because, once more than about two circuits were operating in the same room, the
transmitters would “block” the other receivers, or even put them out of action.
So an additional site was found about 10 miles away, on the north side of Calcutta.
We could only be allotted six pairs of telephone lines between the two
stations. This was a bit of a problem for us, as we had to remotely control up
to 12 transmitters, and we needed one telephone line for speech, and we wished
to keep one line spare in case of breakdowns. Eventually we were able to borrow
some VF (voice frequency) equipment from the Americans in New Delhi. This could
use four lines and give us eight circuits on each line! The other important
thing was to have a mains electric supply for the transmitter station. This was
organised with great help from the Calcutta Electric Supply. Finally, we needed
20-24 masts, 100 feet high, to carry all the different aerials that we would
need. We managed to get these from the Indian P&T Dept. By this time a very
good old friend of mine — Robin Addie - had arrived from Bletchley, and he and
I spent most of out time on this new station.
(source: A4211759 Radio installations in MLs for
secret operations along coast of Burma at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
We weren't popular. British soldiers just were
not popular in India at all. And I think it was due to the fact that the
peacetime army in India created the native population rather badly. Cantonment
areas for officers and their wives were notorious in the way they created their
Indian servants and what not. […]
I think my own political awareness, awareness of
problems in society, was being aroused by what I saw and experienced in India.
We come across old soldiers in different regiments who had been peacetime in
India and they were equally as bad as officers. I'm not just blamin' officers.
These soldiers treated the natives like rubbish, they really did. For instance,
there was one place—I can't remember where it was—but you lay in your bed and
the Indian lad came round and shaved you while you were lying in your bed. A
soldier doesnae need tae be shaved. He shaves himself. But these soldiers were
throwin' them a couple o 'annas, which would be about 2d. or 3d. And these old
men, you know, shavin' lads. To me it was all wrong. I couldnae accept it.
Other guys took it for granted and that was it. That was the way o' things and
that was it. I can understand why they had so much trouble in India. They had
risings, didn't they? They had all sorts of rebellions in India. Then again
they had Indian troops who were loyal to the crown, as it were. But they were
treated so much better for obvious political reasons. The British authorities
were usin' Indian troops for policin' the place. But there was a lot of nasty
terrible things done to the Indian people.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Ian MacDougall)
Dr Amiya Ranjan Biswas 1940
by Kiran Solanki class
6M
My great grand dad was
born in India in 1908, on Christmas Eve. He became a doctor, and from then on,
every one called him ‘Doc’.
When WW2 started, Doc
decided that he wanted to help by using his medical skills. He joined the
British army. At this time, India was a part of the British Empire.
At the beginning of
World War II, the Royal Navy was supposed to be the best.
But not under the
seas. The Germans had submarines that were very powerful.
Before the war, the
Britain had to bring most of its food from other countries, such as, lamb from
Australia, corned beef from Argentina, oranges and lemons from Florida, Israel
etc.
As soon as the war
began, rationing began in Britain, and ships used most of their space to bring
in equipment and weapons from Canada and the USA, rather than food.
Convoys going across
the Atlantic lost most of their ships and their cargoes, because the Germans
had a powerful fleet of U-boat hunting in packs.
U-boat stands for
underwater boat or submarine.
At this time, Doc was
the Chief Medical Officer, in charge of looking after the officers and crew on
board the TSS ULYSSES. The ship was part of a convoy — lots of ships travelling
together for protection, with armed ships called DESTROYERS to protect the
passenger ships.
On the ship were many
children who were being evacuated from England to Canada.
The convoy was
attacked by German planes and Doc’s ship was torpedoed from a German submarine.
The ship, hit by torpedoes, and German planes attacking from the air, started
to go down.
Everyone had to
abandon ship as quickly as possible.
Doc climbed down a
rope ladder into a life boat. On his way down, the people above and below him
were shot, and fell into the sea.
Doc and his companions
in the life boat survived terrible Atlantic storms and the constant fear of
being discovered by the enemy, for three days and nights, until they were
rescued off the Shetland Islands near Scotland.
Doc’s own words, as
written on the back of a ship’s menu:
Sunday 15.6.41.
I was shocked by a
sudden loud noise. Depth charges are being released from the destroyer. We are
all terrified travellers on our way from England to Canada…on the opposite side
of the world to India.
Dangerous, anxious
journey. Huge ocean.
While we were having
our dinner, the alarm went off twice.
We immediately left
our tables, put on our life jackets, and waited for the life boats.
We are all in for a
very anxious night.
German U Boats are
chasing us.
Will we be able to
escape from them?
The destroyers are
trying their level best to save us.
Let us see what
happens…
We are all ready by
the evacuation ladders…men, women and children.
If we survive this
night, we will have lived one more day.
Is that too much to
hope for?
15th June Night 11pm -
12.45
NO ANSWER EXPECTED
Doc wrote in Bengali
to his fiancée, Rekha, and added words of love and longing.
This is a precious
family document.
When Doc used to tell
this story, his biggest regret was that he lost his violin which went down with
the ship!
THE BLITZ LONDON IN
1941
Doc was in London
during the Blitz. My Nan told me that he had lots of stories about the terrible
things he saw. But he always said how wonderful Londoners were at that time.
They were always cheerful, determined and courageous even when bombs were
falling all around.
That’s when he decided
that one day he would come back to London to live and work.
London at that time
had trams as well as buses.
One day Doc had gone
to visit friends when the air raid siren went off. They all took shelter until
the ‘All clear’.
By this time it was
quite late, and once the trams started again Doc went home.
The next day he heard
from his friends that the last tram that night had been blown up by a bomb from
a German plane flying very low.
It was a mystery where
that plane had appeared from, especially, after the ‘All Clear’. So it seems,
that Doc had yet another narrow escape!
Doc survived the war
and fulfilled his dream and came back to London with his wife, Rekha and two
daughters: Krishna born 19th September 1943 in Calcutta, India [my nan], and
Debika born 17th May 1946 in Calcutta.
Doc became a G.P. and
looked after thousands of patients in south east London for over forty years.
THE END
(source: A6852288 Kiran
Solanki MY GREAT GRANDAD IN at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
Sumatra 1945
I joined the 4th Bn. ten weeks after my six and
half months at the Officers Training School, where I learnt little more than
what I had already gathered during the three previous years of most week-ends
with the Calcutta and Presidency
Battalion of the Indian Auxiliary Force. The sum total of my military knowledge
was square bashing with the Lee and Enfield 303 Rifle. My new Unit had won many
gallantry awards including one posthumous V.C., but was depleted in numbers
after eighteen months in action at Sidi Barrani, in 1940 and Eritrea, Sollum
and Gazala during 1941. I was put straight away in charge of a Rifle company..
I had to learn enough about radio communication, the Tommy, Bren, and medium
machine guns, 2 and 3 inch mortars, tracked carriers, Jeeps, 15 cwt. trucks,3
ton lorries, etc. etc. double-quick during our rest period in Palestine. When
Rommel struck again on the 26th of May 1942, we had to rush back to the
Egyptian and Libyan border to stem the German and Italian push to Alexandria
and Cairo. Most of us escaped the encirclement at Matruh, and fought from the
trenches of the Ruweisat Ridge for four months afterwards, and took part in the
battles of Alain Haifa and Alamein.
In February,1943, I was transferred to our 6th
Bn who were fighting the Faqir of Ipi near Razmak, on the North Western
Frontier of India. I was sent on a three months course of studies to the Army
Signal School in Poona, and rejoined the Unit in Jamrud, near the Khyber Pass.
We went on fighting patrols and did road convoy protecting duties on Tuesdays
and Thursdays. In February, 1944 we moved to Ranchi, in Central India for
jungle training, and afterwards joined the 26th Indian Division of the 14th
Army.
In May 1945,we were with the 26th Indian
Division on the Island of Ramree off the Arakan coast in Burma, with one
company taking part in the landing on Rangoon. Our 14th Army had overcome the
Japanese who had now commenced their withdrawal further east towards Malaya. We
were under Naval command, and were fully aware of the few Japanese stragglers
still on our island. I had been four years in the Army, and had some experience
in Desert, Mountain and Jungle warfare. I forecast the correct date of the
Normandy landing of the previous year, and had won eight pounds sterling in a
battalion lottery, and following closely the advances of the allied forces, now
nearly a year later, we were gambling on the date of the end of the war in
Europe. We had put aside sufficient hooch for the commemoration of the great
event. Eventually we were overjoyed when the day did dawn for the end of
Hitler, but I was way out in my forecast of the date this time.!
At dusk, we opened several bottles of alcoholic
refreshment, and got into the mood for one great party. The Colonel ordered the
Battalion to line up along the beach, and fire off our first line ammunition
into the sea. We were enjoying the great shoot and getting more and more merry,
when a jeep appeared on the horizon , headlights blazing, the horn blaring and
charging towards our assembly.” Who is responsible for this?” shouted a Naval
commander from the Jeep. “What do you want?” replied Col. Butcher. “Stop this
nonsense at once. You are under arrest, Sir, the Admiral wishes to see you” was
the response. Thus the party came to a rather abrupt end Four weeks later, we
were evacuated from the island, and taken to near Bangalore in South India to
train for the invasion of Malaya .But who should welcome us but our very good
C.O. who told us that he carried on the party with the Admiral, who was a mate
of his, from his old school!
During our training for the invasion of Malaya,
code-named “Zipper”, we were told that the Japanese forces in that area were
mostly short, bow-legged, and second grade, and our superior training, fitness,
weapons, and the solid support from the naval and airforce contingents
accompanying us guarantee the successful liberation of Singapore in record time.
Meantime, the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki made the Japanese surrender.
The War ended. Zipper and all other probable grandiose schemes of invasions
were scrapped. We were sent to organize the release and repatriation of the
allied civilian prisoners of War from Dutch East Indies. As our convoy was
approaching Sumatra, Japanese patrol boats joined us to negotiate through their
minefields in the approach to the Belawan Harbour. At the docks, a company of
the Japanese Imperial Guards, spick, span erect and tall, and under the command
of a General, bowed and welcomed us, the conquering heroes. Just as well, the
war ended when it did ,because our Japs still looked formidable and we would
have had a hard time bringing them to heel. We were escorted to our lines and
made to feel at ease .As I was the Quartermaster, a Japanese Captain reported
to me every morning at nine for three days to ensure that we were not short of
an~ necessities. We were told later that when the Japanese army first marched
into Medan the Capital, they beheaded one of the Indonesian onlookers, and
carried his head on a pole with a poster which read “This man did nothing to
offend us, so BEWARE!” The Japanese would not stand any nonsense, and peace
prevailed during the three years of their occupation..
(source: A4248371 Ellis Koder - Memoirs of An
Indian Soldier – 1942-45 at BBC WW2
People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
[M]any service men of the Allies, drawn from all
quarters of the earth, passing by caught sight of the church and the white
cross, and in the sweltering heat longed for a swim in that inviting stretch of
water, and looking longingly soon found inviting hands to welcome them, and a
white-haired old priest asking them in a hoarse whisper to come in and bathe if
they wished, and afterwards taking them over to the Sisters to have a cup of
tea, if they could spare the lime. And there were Indian boys playing football,
and. no soldier can resist the lure of that particular game. A Sister wrote:
'Nearly every day we have someone over to the Sisters' side to be given tea; it
may be a batch of fifteen or twenty who have come to bathe, or a smaller group
who have come to church, or a lorry-driver whose lorry has had an accident in
front of Father's house, or a medical orderly to beg some prickly heat lotion
for the men. One of the R..A.F. men is a Lay Brother from Cowley, and he and a
like-minded friend come in once or twice a week for Mass, or to spend their off
lime in a quieter way than most of their mates care to do.'
Finding this church, probably quite unexpectedly
when they were so -far from home, they were drawn to it by an attraction which
perhaps they hardly understood. Seventeen British soldiers came one Sunday tor
their Communion. Others, driven over to swim, stayed on for the Evening
Service. Sometimes the old priest, perhaps recalling those other days in France
when his voice rang out in the open air, would give them in his hoarse but
audible voice one of his brief addresses, simple and pointed with no waste of
words.
Had any of them, it may be wondered, ever stood
as sponsor or Godfather in a village or town church at home, feeling awkward
and shy in the unaccustomed role at the font with the well-thumbed card in his
hand ? One day in this fierce heat, far from home, among palm and coconut trees
by the side of a kind of font they had never seen before (for it was a white
marble bath let into the church floor), stood twenty soldier-men taking part in
a solemn Baptism. That was certainly something to write home about. Perhaps
this was even more unusual for soldiers and airmen to see: one Sunday the
Bishop came to ordain two men to be priests; 'A very joyous occasion,' wrote a
Sister, 'for one, a Bengali, was a member of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and
the other the first fruits of their work at Haluagbar, the first Garo priest.
There were three Bengali priests and two English ones present, who joined in
the laying-on of hands, and our two R.A.F. friends were in the
congregation,' Perhaps in that church
they realized better that they belonged to a world-wide Catholic Communion.
Oh, the pay was ridiculous but there was an
accumulation o' vour wages that you didn't use when you were in action. Well.
you got your tobacco for nothing. You
got your tot o' rum every day, if possible, when you were in action. And, as I
say, you got your food and everything. You had nothing to pay for, nothing to
buy. In action you got your soap and stuff like that. Back in barracks you buy
all that but in action you got all that. When you came back you just went into
die nearest naval pay office and they would just give you what you asked for.
The cost o' livin' was very low, it didn't take a lot o' money.
We were the poorest paid troops in the war, I
think, the British troops. I think I had thirty bob a week when I first joined
up. And then every year ye got a wee rise.
You got promotion but that was. only a few
shillins, it was nothing. But I do know this: all the time I fought m Burma I
got a shilling a day Japanese campaign money. That's seven bob a week extra for
fightin' against Japanese, You got seven bob a week more than guys stationed in
India that never saw any action. For every man in the field there's a dozen
behind him keepin' him supplied. So you got a shillin' a day more than them!
That's all you got, a shillin'. That's what was marked in your book. Japanese
campaign money, shilim' a day. Money was nae really important, because you
always had a sufficiency when you went on leave. It was only when you came back
after the war and thought about it: ‘My God, all that for a shillin' a day!'
But nobody seemed at the time to bother about money. If you didnae have any
money your mate would have it or somebody else would have it and they would
just give you it. And you would give one another it. Money wasnae really important. You never earned money in the
jungle. I sent my parents an allowance. It was five bob a week or something
like that. That was quite a big part of my wages. Well, you see, as a lad all
my wages went into the house anyway. But I never saved anything in my life. I
spent everything I got my hands on. We never discussed whether any of me other
lads had saved anything, we never discussed it. I think they would just spend
it as they got it. Of course, you never knew if you were going to be alive from
one day to the next. You never thought o' the future. All you thought about
was, 'When is this war goin' to finish?' Survivin' for the time bein'. That was
it.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Ian MacDougall)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Indian Naval Unit, Mf005, "Indian Naval Unit in Retreat ceremony in the Maidan, Calcutta, fall." seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August 2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(source: Glenn S. Hensley: 40th PRS aircraft, AF003, 40th PRS aircraft and personnel, Alipore Air Base, 1944. A F-5-E is in the parking area, not far from the runway. Headquarters and living area was in the Bengal Mint buildings just off Diamond Harbor Road off the upper right side of photo. seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August 2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)
(source: Glenn S. Hensley: 40th PRS aircraft, AF004, 40th PRS aircraft and personnel, Alipore Air Base, 1944. A F-5-E is in the parking area, not far from the runway. Headquarters and living area was in the Bengal Mint buildings just off Diamond Harbor Road off the upper right side of photo. seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August 2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)
(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Alipore base, AF001, Gate to 40th Photo Ren. Squadron's base in Alipore. This entrance is on Diamond Harbor Road just south of the railroad overpass and station seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August 2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)
Back in the
U.S. last week were the combat crews—28 officers and 81 enlisted men—of a heavy bombardment squadron that called
itself, not without reason, the "Bastard 513th." It was never formed; it just fused in the
fire of war. Sometimes it called itself the
"Bengal Bombers," sometimes "Major Toomey's Flying
Circus," but mostly "us bastards." Not until a year after Pearl Harbor did the War Department give it a
numerical designation. Meanwhile it had
set some astonishing records in more than a year of war without relief.
> In an
average of 45 missions per plane against Japs, Germans and Italians, the
513th's ten Flying Fortresses were
riddled by ack-ack and enemy pursuit, but not one was shot down and not one was cracked up.*
> Copilot
Victor Bartholomei was the squadron's only casualty. He lost an eye to
German shrapnel over Bizerte. (Major
John Toomey, one of three successive squadron commanders, was shot down near Naples and probably
captured, but that was after he left the 513th.)
> Every
airman in the squadron has flown 150,000 to 200,000 miles. Once the squadron
had to take a month off to have its
battered planes repaired. Only other vacation was a week on Cyprus.
India, Burma,
China. The 513th was spawned of confusion when 430 men of a bomb group's ground crews and six pursuit pilots turned
up in Melbourne, Australia without planes.
Mostly destined for the Philippines, they were started for Java in
February 1942, but Java fell first and
they went instead to Karachi, India. There they found ten B-17s, picked up some dislocated combat crews who
had come out of Java and the Philippines, and
from the U.S. via Africa. At last the Bastards were ready to fly. They
started by bombing Rangoon and the
Andaman Islands, and ranged across China to Hankow.
Palestine,
Egypt, Tripoli. Last July, when Rommel was knocking at the Alexandria
gate, the Bastards were sent to
Palestine to help. They could take only twenty of their ground crew with them, never got any more. They
bombed Bengasi, Crete, Tripoli, the Dodecanese
Islands and Axis convoys in the Mediterranean. In November they moved to
Egypt, helped the Eighth Army's
offensive by blowing up Rommel's oil dumps and two tankers at Tobruk. Thereafter Rommel's supply of oil came only
by air transport. The 513th hit Tobruk ("the milk run") nearly every morning. Their biggest flop: once
they set out for Tripoli, got lost
looking for Sousse, finally reached Gabes, where they dropped their bombs and
killed only a mess of fish.
Algeria,
Tunisia, Home. They moved to Biskra after the Americans invaded North
Africa. Because the mountains over the
Kasserine Pass were high, they could get only 12,000 ft. above heavy German ack-ack (they usually
flew at 25,000 ft.). When intelligence officers asked Bombardier Milton Stevens about the anti-aircraft strength
he replied: "Heavy to unbearable."
In March, the
513th, by now wearing 555 decorations, was ordered home—all except the hard-working ground crew, who had installed
240 motors in the ten B-17s, done other
prodigious repair jobs. In the U.S. the 513th will be dissolved, its
personnel probably set to training new
groups who can hardly hope to see so much of the confused world.
* Of the first
90 Flying Fortresses put out of action in the Pacific, 13 were shot down; the rest were cracked up or caught on the
ground.
(COPYRIGHT
NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Time Magazine)
India
April 13, 1945
Dear Ritter:
It is a miserable, rainy night, with pitching black clouds
crying their distress over Mother India's rice paddies. But in the enlisted
men's club a spirit of revelry abounds, for tonight your husband is paying for
all drinks,
Joe Knapp, bartender, climbed on the bar and shouted,
"Five cases of beer and all the mixed drinks you want on Lt. Beard,"
and so my appointment as an officer in the United States Army was confirmed and
ratified by my buddies.
This is the secret I have so zealously kept from you, not because
I didn't want you to share in my anticipation, but because I did not want you
to undergo another heartbreaking disappointment if the commission failed to
come through. A week or more ago I had given up all hope, and so permitted my
name to go in for this educational and vocational project about which I have
written you.
Now can be revealed the reason, the real reason for my
x-ray in December, my trip to Tenth AF hqr in January to appear before the
direct commission board, and my frequent appeal to you to have faith. It is
ironic that one month after I gain my sergeantcy that I should become a 2nd Lt.
(By the way, how does it feel to be an officer's wife?)
Today was like other days, except that I shamelessly kept
to my own correspondence and affairs. It's true that I had little to do,
though. Rain threatened all day and Friday the 13th, which Lt. Husack remarked
in particular, stayed dismal.
About 3:00 in the afternoon Capt. Frankel came into the
office with a smug look on his face. He wandered around awhile, finally asking
Lt. Husak to step out - he had something to show him.
In my case, for a change I had been working, and after
smiling at Capt. Frankel I resumed my task. Both returned and before I
understood what had happened, Capt. Frankel had ordered me to stand and hold up
my right hand. He then swore me in as an officer in the U.S. Army, while the
whole office force filed in with big grins on their faces. It was difficult for
me to control my voice; I don't recall that I was particularly elated; rather
extremely surprised.
The business of resigning from the Army and resigning
(signing again) as an officer, took just a moment, then Lt. Husak and Major
Wegner whisked me back to their dwelling (a brick building) for a toast,
previous to which Lt. Husak pinned the gold bar on my lapel.
The trip to Basha #20 for my things was an ordeal, but all
of us drank beer and got very merry. Junior snapped into a smart salute as I
rounded the corner to the infinite delight of Ken and Mac.
Lt. Husak took me to dinner at the officer's club, where we
are served, and most of the officers (I know them all) came over to the table
and congratulated me.
Afterwards, I made preparations for free drinks at the EM
club, then returned to Lt. Husak's room where I am staying. Major Wegner, Lt.
Seale, and Lt. Husak and I just finished a brief get-together while drinking a
little beer. Lt. Husak is now reading the January issue of Esquire, and
I am writing this to the woman I love more than life itself.
What does this mean? Well first, it means that I leave the
Group shortly to be assigned to a hospital in Calcutta. Oh yeah, my commission
is as a clinical psychologist. More details will have to wait until I learn
more. Naturally, my primary hope has been to use this as a means to get back to
America where 62 general hospitals are operating.
The next morning.
We've just had breakfast and arrived at the office where I
am finishing this first letter to you which I'll have the right to censor
myself.
I spent most of the evening at the EM club where my total
bill came to about 275 rupees, but it was worth it. The boys were even nicer
than I thought they would be. In fact, they couldn't have reacted with more
wholehearted good humor. My last act was to have omelets with Mac, Ken, Yennie,
Seguin, and Jack Williams. (Link trainer boys.)
Well, sweetheart, I've got some things that must be done -
will write more later.
Ever in love with you,
Dick
(Source:
page 142 ff. of Elaine Pinkerton (ed.): “From Calcutta With Love: The World War
II Letters of Richard and Reva Beard” Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press,
2002 / Reproduced by courtesy of Texas Tech University Press)
What was your daily life like?
We had a job to do and we worked at it. The day
would start, at least in my squadron, at about 6 o'clock in the morning. After
personal and barracks clean-up we went to the mess hall for breakfast. My
squadron duty was in the mission film processing laboratory. The first thing in
the mornings was to make certain all processing machinery and chemicals were as
required. Film developing units were checked and print units operating
properly.
You see, if the film was ruined in processing
the mission would have been a failure. The pilot flying the mission would have
been at risk, and quite unhappy that he had braved sometimes great danger to
get to his assigned target, shoot the assigned target, then have it all ruined
by someone messing up in the film lab.
Photo recon missions were flown by one man
operating automatic cameras in the fastest aircraft we had. Troops were waiting
on the ground for the photos to show them what they faced in further
campaigning.
Missions would start landing about mid morning
and film in the form of rolls, 9 inches wide and 200 feet long would start
coming into the lab about 10 AM. Processing started immediately and dried film
rolls were ready for printing by about 11 AM. Literally hundreds of prints
poured out of the print lab until about 2 PM. They went to our Photo
Intelligence people who studied them for important military activity on the
ground. Fast aircraft waited by the runway to fly selected, finished prints to
officers at the scene of battle action. The print packages would be dropped by
parachute into eagerly waiting hands below. So, even before email and digital
imaging systems, we had a pretty fast way to get intelligence material to persons
who needed it.
(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with
Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August
2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of
Glenn Hensley)
Most Americans in and around Calcutta had it
pretty good. But, remember, our daily life was strictly geared to our jobs. Our
only connection with things Indian was during our off-duty hours.
(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with
Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August
2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of
Glenn Hensley)
Our squadron had its own motion picture
equipment and we had nightly movies, always American made films. We would
receive two per week. Our base did not receive any of the live shows that
certain US entertainers brought to India. I always enjoyed the Red Cross
musical entertainment, sometimes featuring Indian music and dancers, other
times, American programs.
(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with
Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August
2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of
Glenn Hensley)
The Red Cross headquarters for US troops was in
a building across the BBBDag tank from the big Post Office building. It
provided sleeping quarters for transient personnel, an American food
restaurant, showers the entertainment hall hall facility and a lounge for
writing and resting.
(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with
Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August
2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of
Glenn Hensley)
Our pay was about the same as $100 per month, or
at that time, about r 300. Of that, I put r 100 into what was called
"soldier's savings", That left about r200 for monthly expenses. That
went for items purchased to send home and non-military supplied items like food
in town, tram rides, all other incidental expenses.
(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with
Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August
2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of
Glenn Hensley)
You asked about a guide book to India or
Calcutta.
Yes, we got a small manual detailing the do's
and dont's of etiquette in Calcutta, but not much more.
(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with
Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August
2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of
Glenn Hensley)
You asked about "Hostesses in sky-blue
uniforms." It sounds as if you are talking about the gals who worked at
the American Red Cross facilities. The Red Cross gals at the "Burra
Club" (enlisted men's facility) in Calcutta were nice enough as far as I
was concerned, but I really had little dealings with them. They were always
around there, but all I would ask for, for example, was directions to lead me
to somewhere I especially wanted to visit. As far as providing assistance in
writing letters home, well, you can see I sure didn't need that service.
(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with
Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August
2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of
Glenn Hensley)
There was also a small contingent of American
girls, described as ‘hostesses’, whose duties consisted of writing letters on
behalf of the boys and assisting them in many ways. The girls, pleasant and attractive, wore beautiful sky-blue uniforms
arousing our admiration. Being in the
officer class they were allowed to join the Calcutta swimming club where it was
noticed that their ways were also bit unconventional. At the back of the
swimming pools, in the women's section, there was a long row of cubicles at the
end of which was a large room containing wash-hand basins and several
toilets. It was the custom for the
ladies, when necessary, to attend the toilets and wash-hand basins prior to
changing into a bathing suit in the privacy of the cubicle. The ‘hostesses’ reversed the process by
undressing in the cubicle and walking completely in the nude to the toilets and
then strolling casually back to slip on their bathing suits.
This rather saucy practice, which my granny
would have described as brazen, horrified the Indian women attendants who, like
all their Indian sisters, were known to be very modest and even when bathing in
the river never exposed their bodies. I
was a bit surprised myself as were the twins who being young were allowed in
the part reserved for ladies, but not too young as not to notice and express
their astonishment at the ‘shame, shame aunties’.
(source:pages 93-94 of Eugenie Fraser: “A home by the Hooghly. A
jute Wallahs Wife” .Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing 1989)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with
Eugenie Fraser)
Alipore was a photo
reconnaissance unit with (at last) Mosquito aircraft. I was in charge of ‘A'
flight and had all airforce and instrument mechanics, most of the men were not
keen upon having a strange NCO put in over them. I knew none of them, and they
had been together all the way through Burma with photo reconnaissance
spitfires, dating back from the time Singapore fell to Japan, all the way to
India. And who was this mystery man (who knew about the new aircraft?) which
none of them had ever seen before. So I was not the most popular bloke and I
didn't even live with them but went off to my posh billet only to appear the
next day.
Any major jobs and air
tests, I was in charge (but not over the engine fitters they were a separate
unit but they still lived with the other gangs). Any air tests I did, I flew
with the ordinary pilot of that particular plane, and quite a few times I flew
with the Group Captain. I got to know him quite well, really a nice man but
again it did not make me the most popular, but what could I do it was my job.
One day a few of us were taken to Dum Dum, Calcutta, where we spent a few days
to see what happened to all the photography and how they (mostly girls)
interpreted them. Four of us slept in little dark rooms in the Harem of the
Palace of the Maharaja of Cooch Behar who had long since gone (taking all the
harem girls with him.)
(source: A4144664 What did you do in the RAF,
Dad? (Part 2) at BBC WW2
People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
As you will see, the average work consisted of 4
or 5 days virtually all work and sleep - 1 day in Calcutta, one evening at the
Lowe's record recital, one at Church, one at choir practice, as many visits as
possible to the camp cinema, and perhaps a visit to the Manse or to the Lowe's
for dinner. Letter writing filled almost all the rest of the time. It wasn't
surprising that in that heat we approached a state of exhaustion, particularly
in the run up to the monsoons.
When coming off night duty- and for that matter
at other times-it was my practice to avoid all parades and inspections by
climbing into bed and putting a card on my mosquito net "Night Duty".
All in all, R.A.F. and Army H.Q. at Barrackpore developed a "non
bull-shit" way of getting a lot done in spite of limited numbers that was
a credit to all, and each ( with the inevitable few exceptions) developed
skills in their own field that were unrivalled.
(source: A6665457 TWEEDALE's WAR Part 11 Pages 85-92
at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
Of course, there always comes along someone with
a big ego who think they know better. We had a new C/O Station appointed.
Straight out from England, he took one look at Barrackpore, didn't like it and
decided to change it all. If we looked tired and overworked it was because we
needed discipline and regular exercise. Every morning, after breakfast, P.T.
was to be compulsory. After a brief discussion among Signals personnel, we
decided to ignore the whole thing. After all one third of us were on duty, one
third had just come off night duty and the others had been on duty 'til the
previous midnight. So, on the first day any one third cleared off camp to
Calcutta and elsewhere, one third were on duty, and the rest stayed on their
charpoy (bed) and put up signs "Night Duty". The C\O didn't seem too
pleased - when he gave an order it must be carried out. The stupidity of
expecting men to do drill and P.T. on top of a 50hr+ week, in that climate,
didn't seem to occur to him - so we still ignored instructions the next day.
The C\O arrived outside "G" block, had us "fall in" outside
and gave us a verbal roasting sounding out that our action was
"Mutiny" and we knew what the punishment for that was. How he
expected the Signal Section to operate if we were all shot, he didn't explain.
He conceded that the shifts going on and coming off duty at breakfast could not
really be expected to do P.T. (Parry and the other officers had had a few words
with him) but the other shift must.
Yours truly was in charge of the shift that was
due for P.T the following morning. Bad Luck! We stayed in bed and found
ourselves "on a charge". The C\O said for the first offence he was
going to be lenient, but until further notice we would be confined to barracks
when not on duty.
The rest of the personnel immediately sprang
into action and pulled whatever strings they could.
The Reverend Firth was told that his Christmas
service and choir practices would have to be abandoned or modified as his
organist and choir master wasn't allowed out of barracks. The Army and Air
force Officers who came to church - or were in the choir - were approached and
asked to intercede. Other officers with no interest in the church, were upset
by the way things were going and protested. What had been a happy, well run
station was in danger of becoming a divided mess with resentment everywhere.
The C/O was outranked and outgunned.
In an embarrassing climb down he issued a
statement through P/O Parry that in view of our splendid work in adverse conditions
he was going to limit our punishment to one week - and that for shift workers
P.T. would be abolished, that we could go to the cinema anytime duties
permitted and that events at church or chapel would not be affected - and that
he realised the relaxing and renewing effect of a change, so that one visit to
Calcutta would be allowed during the week.
This ended the Barrackpore Mutiny.
Before the week ended the C/O was posted away
and another man with more Indian experience replaced him. No more P.T. for
anyone.
(source: A6665457 TWEEDALE's WAR Part 11 Pages
85-92 at BBC WW2 People's War'
on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
You asked what time of day my images might have
been made. They were shot at all times of day, actually. You see, I worked in
the film processing laboratory of the 40th Photo Recon. Squadron, based at that
time in what is now the Bengal Mint Building out in Alipore. Our squadron was
the "eye in the sky" for the British 14th Army that was working to
clear the enemy out of Burma. Our aircraft flew photo intelligence missions
from Alipore to Mandalay, to Rangoon, and on down into Thailand. Later, we
moved to Akyab Island in the Bay of Bengal.
I had some time off duty, so used it to spend
time photographically recording the life and times at places around wherever we
were based.. Having been trained in the University of Missouri's School of
Journalism, I had experience in news camera use. In India and Burma we had
plenty of "personal use" film, having rigged a way to salvage what
would have been waste film on the ends of aerial recon rolls.
And in the lab, I had a way to process and print
the shots I made. So it was an ideal situation for someone such as I.
Photography had been a hobby, later a business, so my military duty was almost
fun.
(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with
Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August
2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of
Glenn Hensley)
You write that you might want to narrow a book
down to Americans in Calcutta in the 1940s. For certain, do not use my input
for anything other than a small segment of the whole, vast story. Our outfit,
and my personal situation, were more like a "world tour" than
fighting a battle. Thousands of other fellows would tell you a vastly different
story. Many hated Calcutta, few took any interest in what it had to offer. Most
just wanted to get the war mess over with and head for home.
(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with
Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August
2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of
Glenn Hensley)
They landed in
Dibrugarh which is in Assam and then they were loaded onto river boats and went
down the Brahmaputra to Calcutta back then finally after two years back in
Calcutta again, and went into Barrack Pore and went into routine Garrison duty
just servicing radio equipment. (We had the main radio station there at Pore,
and looking after the teleprinters. We had about thirty T87s, big old
transmitters and from there it was basically routine with a couple more years 1943/44
a couple of leaves in the Himalayas at hill stations Darjeeling and Nain Tal.
There’s two nice stations Nain Tal was beautiful and the life in Calcutta was
quite reasonable. RAF personnel were allowed into the European clubs and the
racecourses). After that it was just a matter of seeing out these three years
of war service.
(source: A8119000 How AC2 Jepson met Mme Chiang
Kai-shek - Part 1 at BBC WW2
People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
It was with surprise,
and regret, that a few weeks later I was posted off the Squadron with one of my
particular friends, to Group H.Q. in Calcutta. I think it was 231 Group. This
was not a move I relished. I had been to Calcutta and thoroughly disliked the
place. Humidity was about 98% and the whole place teemed with people. We were
directed to the Viceroy’s Winter Residence, but if it sounds opulent, forget
it! Our billets were in wooden Huts and the temperature, both day and night,
has to be imagined. The humidity, especially during the Monsoons was
unimaginable. .We were both attached to the Meteorological Unit and to start
with, this entailed us working in the Group Radio section. This was an enormous
room, on the lower ground floor of the Viceroy’s House, and it was completely
filled with Radio Receivers and morse keys. The Transmitters were situated well
away from the house as was common practice and connected by land line. Our job
was to receive radio weather reports from stations for several miles around,
even from the centre of India. These reports were then passed to the
Meteorological Officer who plotted the information in the reports and then
prepared a weather map on which a forecast could be calculated. It was
monotonous work although very necessary. During the Monsoons it was quite
common to receive a nasty electric shock from lightning strikes transmitted to
our ears through the head phones. This was a particular problem with stations
connected by land line as some of ours were. This Meteorological station was
under the control of civilian meteorologists as Indian civil organisations were
gradually taking over from the Colonial Office.
This situation was not
to last for very long; and in a few weeks we were transferred to Dum Dum
Airport which is situated a few miles outside Calcutta. We were now under the
direct control of the R.A.F. again and all the staff were R.A.F. personnel. We
were established in the Control Tower and very soon had the section operating
efficiently. From the Control Tower there was a panoramic view over the
Airfield and during the Monsoons the Electric Storms were very spectacular. On
one night I saw five Aircraft struck by lightning. I have not mentioned very
much about the Monsoons, but at the appropriate time of the year they played a
large part in our lives. They usually started in June and continued until
September. The approach of the Monsoons was a very trying time, because the
humidity was raised to very high limit. In Calcutta it was often eighty per
cent, and at this rate, everything was damp and everybody sweated profusely. At
Imphal the Monsoons meant very heavy rain and thunderstorms, and clothing
seldom dried, but at least the humidity was much lower.
(source: A4499508 An Airman in South East Asia
Command Part Three at BBC WW2
People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
Later I was sent to Calcutta in eastern India to help fight against the Japanese. The
climate there is always very hot and humid […]
One day some Mosquito
aircraft arrived at the airfield from England to start bombing operations
against the Japanese in Burma. Unfortunately their water-cooled engines
overheated and many crashed on take-off. Then some of the glue began to come
unstuck (due to the high temperature and very high humidity ?) and the
airframes started to crack. I lost several pilot friends in planes I may have
helped to make. But my job was to help keep our planes flying at all costs, It
was a nasty experience and I fell ill and was sent home.
(source: A4050163 Smugglers or Spies ? at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
Again, I spent another birthday on a train. I
was being posted from Secunderabad to 362 Maintenance Unit, but this unit could
not be located, so I spent approximately four weeks travelling on trains or in
transit camps until, as a temporary measure, I was attached to 1344 (Hurricane)
Flight at RAF Sambre, near Goa. At altitude it was comparatively cool, so my
stay from 17th June was a most welcome break.
To my delight in the middle of July I was listed
for repatriation but fate (or the RAF), had its revenge. My previous unit had
moved from Bengal to Agartala in the Tripura Estate, near the Assam border and
wanted me back.
I travelled from one
side of India to the other via train, paddle steamer, then train again. The
reason for my recall? They were holding a tin of 50 Senior Service cigarettes,
sent by my parents for my May birthday! On route again but at a stop in the
Calcutta transit camp, they lost my movement order. Several of us were in the
same position but after some days we took the initiative. We identified the
time and date of a train going to Bombay, bluffed our way past the ticket
collector at Howrah station, mingled with legitimate travellers for rations and
made it to the Bombay transit camp. There a friendly Australian Flight Sergeant
put us in a dormitory, put our names in a hat, told us to stay put then
proceeded to cut red tape. Several lucky souls were called for a flight back to
the UK on returning aircraft. Mine was the offer of sole occupancy of a twin
Officer’s cabin on the SS Orontes. As we edged our way out of Bombay Harbour,
all the guns in port went off and I dived for cover. It was August 15th and the
Japanese had capitulated. The war was over.
(source: A7593401 A Leading Aircraftsman in
India at BBC WW2 People's War'
on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
[Pilot
Officer Thirlwell was a photo-reconnaissance Hurricane pilot, who arrived at
Magwe just after the last of his squadron's aircraft crashed. As he had no job, he was sent] to Lashio to investigate the
possibility of flying out the squadron personnel by China Airways to India. I
went to the orderly room Flight Sergeant for transport, and he said 'you can
have this Wolseley Fourteen, but I want something in return'. So I swapped a
typewriter I found in the house in which I was billeted for this car, and drove
to Lashio. Having confirmed the availability of China Airways, I was flown to
Calcutta, only to be sent back to Burma, where I spent most of my time rescuing
the special cameras from crashed photo-recce aircraft. After getting out of
Burma for a second time, I had an extraordinary period based at the Great
Eastern in Calcutta, the most expensive hotel in town. I would get into my
Hurricane at Dum-Dum, fly to Chittagong where I refuelled from petrol drums
using a hand pump. Having spent the night with the British Consul, I would fly
to photograph Rangoon, before returning for more fuel at Chittagong, and on to
Dum-Dum to get the film processed as quickly as possible. After a shower in the
Great Eastern I would sit down to dinner being served by bearers in white coats
and gloves.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Julian Thompson)
[…] the heat of Delhi, which was dry, was
tolerable compared to the steamy heat of Calcutta.
Posted to
Bengal Command at Barrackpore, near Calcutta,
I shared the duties of a delightful group of Intelligence officers, sifting,
collecting and filing reports, arranging maps, spending long hours at inaudible
telephones, and interviewing stray military visitors
from China. While I tried to make myself useful I was aware that others could
have done my job quite as well if not better, and I continued to hope that with
patience and persistence I would reach Chungking. But as the weeks dragged by
and the monsoon bogged everything down, this hope began to fade.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with
Harold Acton)
As we know now,
General Wavell envisaged the risk of losing India altogether. Fortunately the
Japanese advance was halted by the strenuous resistance of our air force in
Ceylon when Colombo was heavily raided in April, but the Japanese had gained
control of the Bay of Bengal and our aircraft were greatly outnumbered.
General Alexander was
guarding India's eastern frontier and Kalewa and Imphal were his advance posts.
The aircraft of Bengal Command were mainly employed on errands of mercy,
dropping stores and medical supplies and evacuating the wounded.
Calcutta was our chief
link with China and I met many Chinese
there who candidly admitted that they had lost faith in us since the collapse
of Singapore. As General Wavell had said at the time, we had less than twenty
light bombers to meet an attack which had cost us three important warships and
nearly 100,000 tons of merchant shipping while over two hundred heavy bombers
attacked one town in Germany. Our pilots in Bengal could not help envying their
opposite numbers at home, and even in North Africa, who enjoyed the thrills and
the glamour of heroic action. The pilots who flew over the jungle in poor
visibility and cantankerous weather, and those who crossed 'the hump' into
China, had none of the satisfaction of our strategic bombers and fighter
escorts whose missions were clear and decisive.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with
Harold Acton)
Since the Battle of Britain, America was left to
negotiate with Japan while we concentrated on the defeat of Germany. Our Foreign
Office had little time for Chinese problems and the International Settlement of
Shanghai had to fend for itself until Japanese troops marched into it on
December 8, 1941. I wished we could enjoy closer co-operation with American
Intelligence. Apart from General Stilwell even junior American officers were
such expert linguists that theirs - Aldrich's and Rattay's – were the most
practical manuals to the Chinese vernacular. General Chennault's confidential
memoranda contained the most trustworthy information. Chinese reports tended to
fanciful extravagance. Their Ministry of Information in Calcutta issued a
weekly bulletin which contained eloquent items about the Burma Road, the air
service from Calcutta to Chungking, Madame Chiang's transatlantic tour of the
U.S.A., and the 'Lone Battalion' heroes of Shanghai, eighty-eight of whom,
unarmed, killed their Japanese guards and escaped to northern Anhwei, 'where
they were warmly welcomed by the people. They are now on their way to the
war-time capital, where they will be assigned to fight the Japanese on more
equal terms.' I scanned these with little profit. A fair sample of the 'News
Brevities from Chungking' ran under the heading 'Hair-clippers in Sinkiang':
Following repeated trials, the repair workshop
of the Sinkiang Printing Company of Tihwa (Urumchi) has succeeded in
manufacturing a hair-clipper which compares very favourably with imported
clippers. At present the workshop is producing only eight pairs of such
hair-clippers a week, but production is being stepped up so that in addition to
meeting the local demand some clippers
can be marketed in other
cities and provinces.'
I felt sure that I
could collect news brevities of greater import on the spot. But as time went by
I began to realize that there must be some serious hitch.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with
Harold Acton)
[…] forget the
drudgery of Barrackpore, for as such I came to regard my duties when China
faded farther into the distance and the monsoon hampered aerial activity.
Messages were often bungled by Indian employees, the secrephone which
'scrambled' reports was often out of order, and the clammy humidity addled
one's efforts to interpret questionable figures; a prisoner had been taken with
the wreckage of a Japanese aircraft near Cox's Bazaar; the Wing Commander was
in 'a flap'; the electric fan had stopped working. My senior officers were so
secretive that I seldom knew what was happening: I was never invited to any
conference. Having to guess from scrappy reports in telegraphese and hunt for
missing fragments of a jigsaw puzzle, how often I wished that 'Intelligence'
could be pooled, as I believe it was among our American allies.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with
Harold Acton)
I had the unpleasant
feeling that I was not trusted. Then by chance I came across a file emanating
from an embassy official which opened my eyes to the harsh reality. This was
not only a gross libel on my
character: it was a plain statement that I was not
persona grata and that I was by no means to be allowed to proceed to
China. The most sinister implications hovered between the lines. I could only
thank Heaven that this scrap of paper had not kept me out of the R.A.F. So this
was why I was being detained at Barrackpore. In my rage I consulted a lawyer,
but there was no way to seek redress. The scrap of paper was unsigned but it
was official and it was secret - a foul blow beneath the belt. I was
defenceless. I could see myself nailed in Calcutta till the end of the war.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with
Harold Acton)
Units and individuals struggled back to India
and China and Calcutta became the focal point. All were relieved to meet up
again with surviving friends from their own and fellow Squadrons. Calcutta was
full of good food and terrible local hooch and the atmosphere was electric with
anticipation at the expected Japanese onslaught upon India.
Many tales were told: Tex Barrick an American
Sgt Pilot flying with 17 Squadron had distinguished himself in the retreat and
destroyed 5 Japs being decorated with the DFM. Frank Carey had also destroyed 5
Japs, three in one single attack as he led a sweep of Hurricanes over a Jap
airfield and caught a formation of 3 Oscars taking off. He had now been awarded
his fourth British decoration, a second Bar to his DFC. Bill Storey a young
Pilot Officer from Australia had arrived with Frank Carey at Rangoon in Burma
in mid-January and within 28 days had shot down 5 Japs and had been promoted
immediately to Flight Commander for his leadership. Bunny Stone of 17 Squadron
had also added at least a further 3 victories to his personal score whilst TAF
Elsdon, the Chief Woodpecker had set a splendid fighting example but made no
claims. Barry Sutton, now with 135 Squadron added at least 3 more to his own
personal tally.
Arriving in Calcutta the pilots and ground crews
were initially billeted in various hotels, Connie and the other Woodpeckers in
The Grand whose owners were particularly pleased to see them as all other white
guests had departed following an outbreak of typhoid!
For the next 3 months based at Alipore, Frank
Carey was the Wing Leader and Jimmy Elsdon the CO. There were 2 new Flight
Commanders, both with experience in Battle of Britain and in the recent Akyab
battle; Piers Worrall commanded A Flight and B Flight was commanded by Guy
Marsland who had been one of Connie’s instructors at Sutton Bridge. At last the
Squadron was integrated for the first time since serving in the UK in 1941 but
the team had changed: a few like Connie had not yet seen combat but had been
taking part in active operational flying and of course, there were the many
other pilots who had met and tangled with the Oscar!
Equipped with mostly old Hurricanes, 136 trained
as a fighting unit — waiting for the Japanese. A proportion of the Squadron was
on high readiness ready to go, whilst others were on lower states available to
take off within 30 or 60 minutes if required. There was only one rule — one was
never late!!
The dawn shift started long before. The day
fighter period of readiness was from first to last light and as they dispersed
the aircraft every night by flying them out to satellite strips, it was
necessary to drive out in ancient trucks over rough tracks to be in the cockpit
on readiness at dawn. Then came the short flight to main base and then the long
waiting game. The only advantage was that a long spell of duty would usually be
followed by an afternoon and perhaps the next morning free. Readiness was a 7
day week, for months and even years!
(source: A6784653
MORE TALES FROM THE WOODPECKERS - GORDON CONWAY and 136 Fighter Squadron
Calcutta 1942 at BBC WW2
People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
1943 did indeed start
auspiciously. One day Tony Ridler strolled into dispersal: he had survived his
crash into the sea and being a strong swimmer had swum for the shore. After
many hair=raising episodes behind the Japanese enemy lines, he was brought to
safety hidden in a sampan. Connie was not a little embarrassed upon Tony’s
return as he had carried out the redistribution of his belongings and had
checked through the personal belongings as ordered. Not knowing anything of his
UK life, but knowing that he had a beautiful girlfriend in Calcutta, Connie had destroyed her photographs. Ridler was not
impressed!
However, he was deemed
a compromised person having been helped to escape and so was banned from flying
in that area. Last seen, he was on his way to a rendezvous in Calcutta — presumably to meet his muse!
(source: A7890113 CONNIE ( GORDON CONWAY) BALES
OUT- MORE 136 WOODPECKER SQUADRON ADVENTURES! at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)
One day a young Flying
Officer from the PRU team locally known as ‘Shocker’ carried out an
unauthorized beatup of his squadron area and mistakenly flew into his hangar! When
his CO arrived he was greeted by the crestfallen pilot by ‘Good Morning Sir, MR
B, FORMERLY Flying Officer..’ He was known to be a smooth talker and quite
unscrupulous. One night he was spotted in the 300 Club in Calcutta and was seen to have awarded himself a DFC ribbon and
Flight Lieutenant’s braid! When taxed by the Woodpeckers he reputedly said it
gave him a head start with women!!
(source: A7890069 TALES FROM SQUADRON LIFE -
GORDON CONWAY FLYING WITH 136 FIGHTER SQUADRON - THE WOODPECKERS – EPISODES AT
DUMDUM 1942 at BBC WW2 People's
War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
IAN ADAMSON'S FAMOUS WOODPECKER - THE SQUADRON
EMBLEM FOR 136 FIGHTER SQUADRON - THE WOODPECKERS 1941-1945
THE WOODPECKERS — 136
FIGHTER SQUADRON — 1942
Consolidating at
Alipore, after the final retreat from Aqyab, the return of the six pilots from
Ceylon and new recruits bringing the Squadron to full strength; one of the
important coalescent elements was the adoption of a Squadron Insignia. Because
of their song and their usual R/T call-sign the Squadron was already known as
“The Woodpeckers.” Nana (Ian) designed a rampant woodpecker in an aggressive
pose with glinty eye - defiant and ready - with helmet and battledress. The
emblem started to appear on everything the Squadron owned or was able to
acquire: aircraft, motor transport, beer mugs ,the lot. It was engraved on
small silver badges in the shape of an arrow-head and worn on the left pocket
of the uniform. By it Squadron members were readily recognized by the civilians
of Calcutta.
About this time a
Squadron Magazine was started. It was titled “OASIS” (On Active Service Inter
Squadron). The cover was painted by Nana, and of course always featured a Woodpecker.
It was a great friendly success, but a financial no-show. One thank-you note
from Amarda Road stated: “We distributed your magazine to a most appreciating
readership, only to come to your invoice at the bottom of the package, that we
were supposed to sell it! We opened the wrong end, sorry!” Fortunately, the
magazine was printed through the kindness of Mr. J.F.Parr at Thackers Press
Directories Ltd. a staunch Woodpecker friend who received friendship as his
sole reward —but heaps of it! He was one of the mounting number of civilian
friends of Calcutta.
Some time later at
Chittagong, Tony Ridler, the current C.O. and Ian designed the official
Woodpecker Squadron Badge. Ian to the disgust of the other Woodpeckers who
could actually write English, devised the motto “Nothing too Tough.” First the
spear, then the shield, as for the spirit, it was there from the beginning. The
first version was painted above the bar in the Officers’ billet, where it was
underlined by a lengthening line of Rising Suns as the Squadron score mounted.
A few years after the
war Ian, now a Captain with Argentine Airlines, on a stop over in London, went
to see the Chester Herald and Inspector of Royal Air Force Badges,
J.Heaton-Armstrong, at the College of Arms, who mentioned that he remembered
the case. Usually, he said, volunteer wartime were not granted badges, but
since the 136 Squadron case was so forcibly presented it was decided to record
it. However, the motto was rendered as “Nihil Fortius”. The “force” behind the
presentation was thus:
THE WOODPECKER
“The adoption of the
“Woodpecker” in the proposed crest for this Squadron, was brought about by the
association of this bird with the Squadron’s earliest days, after its formation
in August 1941; at first more or less unintentionally but it has now grown to
such proportions that it is an intimate part of the Welfare and Spirit of the
Unit.
The first connection
with the “Woodpecker” was in a popular song of that name which was always sung
whenever the pilots of the Squadron were gathered together. Then the ground
crew learned it and the Unit became known to its neighbours as “The
Woodpeckers”, so that when the Squadron was posted overseas, the name
persisted, to the extent of becoming our R/T callsign. Whilst on the ship
coming out, a caricature “Woodpecker” was developed which rapidly became the
Unit’s unofficial badge.
Now after two and half
years as a Squadron, the greater part of which has been spent in India, we have
found the name and caricature “Woodpecker” have become a vital part of the
Squadron’s personality and are emblems of which every member of the Unit is
justly proud, to such an extent that it is desired that this bird be the
“subject” for our crest and badge in the forms shown.”
**************
The Woodpecker Badge
is now forever embedded halfway to the altar in the aisle of St. Clement’s
Dane, the Royal Air Force Church, Aldwich, London and forever too in the apse
of St.Andrew’s Church, Kirton-in-Lindsey, Lincolnshire.
(source: A8733143 HOW 136 FIGHTER SQUADRON - THE
WOODPECKERS - GOT THEIR CREST! at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct
2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
I returned to this
country and, still in the RAF, transferred to ground crew, and after training
in London, I was transferred to to a Weather Forecasting Centre (707 FC) based
on air stations in Bomber Command, in East Yorkshire.
In 1944, still with
707, we were posted to India, based in Calcutta, at the Headquaters of British
Commonwealth Air Force (BCAIR). It was whilst here that I 'celebrated' my 21st
birthday, when a few of the lads and I had a meal out at a restaurant in the
city.
In Feburary 1946,
after the 'dust' had settled over Hiroshima, our Unit was moved to Japan to
join the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces (BCOF). We were based at
Iwakuni, an established Air Base on the Inland Sea within a few miles of
Hiroshima itself, and Kure, a naval base on the opposite coast line.
(source: A7768434 Wartime Travels at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
Tuesday 3.4.45 Still
at Walli
Wednesday 4.4.45 Taffy
posted today
Thursday 5.4.45 Posted
to Calcutta
Friday 6.4.45 Left
Walli 16.30 hrs, boarded train at Bombay 17.30 hrs. On the move 20.00 hrs
Saturday 7.4.45 Five
more days to go, not too bad so far
Sunday 8.4.45 Stopped
at Nagpur, Dongargarh and Raipur. Storm during night. Bombay to Calcutta - a train journey to remember
Monday 9.4.45 Train
journey getting monotonous, sore in every bone. Men taken off train with
malaria and dysentery
Tuesday 10.4.45 Only
another 150 miles to go. Arrived Calcutta 14.00 hrs
Wednesday 11.4.45
Conditions terrible here, only the strong will survive
Thursday 12.4.45 Still
in Calcutta
Friday 13.4.45 Unlucky
13th - still in Calcutta
Saturday 14.4.45
Posting notified, leave Calcutta tomorrow
Sunday 15.4.45 Arrived
Balapore. Pretty tough spot
Monday 16.4.45
Waiting. Nothing to do
Tuesday 17.4.45 Still
waiting, no change
Wednesday 18.4.45
Posted to Baigachi
Thursday 19.4.45 Miles
from anywhere
Friday 20.4.45 How are
the Kiddies?
Saturday 21.4.45
Plenty of company: snakes, flies and ants - millions of them
Sunday 22.4.45
Terrific electric storm last night, billets flooded, getting used to it
Monday 23.4.45 Very
quiet today for a change
Tuesday 24.4.45 Moved
back to hospital in Calcutta
Wednesday 25.4.45
Transferred to Barrackpore pending operation
This is the last entry
in my father's diary, he died at 09.00 hrs on the 30th May 1945. We celebrated
the end of the war in Europe on 8th May 1945 (my elder sister Sheila's 15th
birthday). The war in the East would end on 15th August 1945 (my 12th birthday),
we did not celebrate this event.
(source
: A7802688 PASSAGE TO INDIA at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
My first impression of
"CAL", as we were to call it, was quite good. I wrote this at the
time just after we had arrived. In the afternoon we all went to have a look at
Calcutta, we got lost a bit but soon found our way through the native quarter
to the more select European District. What a big surprise, marvellous wide
streets, big buildings, lovely parks, all reminded me back home of Leeds and
good old England. I had 2 eggs, bacon and chips followed by ice cream, bread
and tea in the Services Club opposite Government House, all for one rupee 2
annas, about 2 shillings in English money, what a treat! Later we saw a
beautiful white building, which turned out to be the Queen Victoria Memorial
Building. In the evening we went to the Lighthouse cinema in Chowringhi, which
was the Main Street. It was so beautiful inside and delightfully air
conditioned and so nice to come out after the show into the warmth of a balmy
night, mosquitoes, crickets and all, instead of into the cold, as we would have
done in England. Life was to go on like this in Calcutta for several weeks
more, visiting service canteens, usually manned by British expatriates who did
every thing they could to make our lives more bearable. We saw a lot of films
and visited local Christian Church and Chapel Services usually with a free meal
and a chat afterwards. We also were kept busy doing fatigues, guard duties and
keeping up with all the wireless and procedure instruction, in readiness for
what was to follow. By the way I've never seen so many people on the streets,
there were tens of thousands of them with overcrowding on public transport, it
was just like Bombay but only worse with people riding precariously on tops of
trains, hanging on for dear life, and cattle were everywhere. I've never seen
so many hideously deformed beggars all crying out for "Baksheesh",
they lived and died in their dozens here with the cattle in CAL. This was the
other side of Calcutta, the squalor, the degradation, the poverty and poor
living standards, like I've never experienced since. I did manage to fit in the
sight of the infamous “Black Hole “ of Calcutta" where dozens of British
wives and families met their cruel deaths during the Indian Mutiny of 1857
[sic.].
(source: A4254059 AN RAF WIRELESS OPERATOR ON
THE BURMA FRONT (Part 2 of 3) at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct
2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Source: Elaine Pinkerton / Reproduced by courtesy of Elaine Pinkerton)
(Source: Elaine Pinkerton / Reproduced by courtesy of Elaine Pinkerton)
(Source: Elaine Pinkerton / Reproduced by courtesy of Elaine Pinkerton)
(Source: Elaine Pinkerton / Reproduced by courtesy of Elaine Pinkerton)
You ask about a rest camp near Park Circus.
I was never there. It was primarily for use by
troops fighting on the front over in Burma and up in China. It was a place they
could get away from tortures of a shooting war and relax a few days back in
something resembling civilian life. Personnel from the 40th usually elected to
go to rest camps up near Darjeeling or down south to Madras when the
opportunity came. Usually that was about every 6 months and was for a week at
the camps. Darjeeling was a favorite because of the climate, however, Bond and
I elected to go to Madras because space there was available when we had time to
go.
(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with
Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August
2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of
Glenn Hensley)
Medical establishments listed are primarily
places where American soldiers, who cheated on their wives or girl friends back
home by visiting an establishment on Karaya Lane, could go and get
"medically" cleansed after such frivolity. The map may also have
shown some facilities for emergency medical treatment, too. I just don't remember.
(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with
Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August
2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of
Glenn Hensley)
Health situation? Well, the worst I ever had was
an outbeak of skin rash we called the "Calcutta Crud," and a skirmish
with dysentery. I was careful to only eat cooked food, peeled fruit and
iodine-treated water. Our squadron had little in the way of real health
problems. We had a good squadron physician who watched over us quit well and
was always available for our treatment. He was a Capt. who we called "Good
Doc Snively."
Medicines? Merthiolate (sp) was availabe for the
"crud" and there were anti-biotics as available at the time. I don't
know just what, but we always seemed to have what was needed.
(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with
Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August
2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of
Glenn Hensley)
Malaria was warded off by taking a daily
Atabrine pill which turned everyone's complexion sickly shade of yellow. We
also had full cover, mosquito nets for our cots. I don't think any of our crew
had malaria, either in India or Burma.
There were many, so many I can't recall, from
leprosy to various parasites of many kinds. The one disease that most guys got
at one time or another was some form of dysentery from aombebic (sp) up and
down. Obviously, there were disease-caused deaths, but just what, I don't
really know.
(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with
Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August
2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of
Glenn Hensley)
And we had wee phials of morphine, of course. I
think that was general in the army, too, though I'm no' sure about it. We
certainly had them for dealing with your own wounds or somebody else's wounds.
If you got any you could have self-administered this. And we had purifying
tablets for water. Mepachrine pills to combat malaria. And this cream that was
supposed to keep mosquitoes away but which didn't. I used to think it attracted
them! Then we got mosquito boots, long-legged boots that laced up to the knees,
with your trousers tucked in. At first we had standard army boots but they just
fell to bits. The mosquito boots were a help, although the leeches could still
get in. It's amazing where a leech can get to. They used to creep in. It
depended on where you were. There werenae leeches everywhere you went in Burma.
But when you did hit country where there was leeches these damned things always
got in at places where you couldn't reach them: under your webbing equipment or
in your boots. You used to pour the blood out your boots. Oh. horrible things,
aye, terrible.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Ian MacDougall)
As they travelled
towards Calcutta, at one of these stops Miriam saw another lone
Q.A.standing on the platform.They rushed at each other,found they were going to
the same destination so joined forces.Her name was Miss J.M.Barrie and she was
from Dundee. After this meeting they travelled on further towards Calcutta until at another stop they met three more Q.A's,Miss
O'Sullivan of Sneeme,Killarney,Miss F.J.Blaylock of Carlisle and Miss D.M.Field
of Peterborough-so "now there were five".Miss Field had had years of
nursing experience in Burma and had earlier marched out the hard way with some
of our troops and refugees when we had withdrawn from Burma and was now
returning to the Arakan- with three pips on her shoulders.She therefore became
Matron, in the expectation that she and the four Nursing Sisters together would
comprise the Staff of a Casualty Clearing Station.
The five stayed awhile
in Calcutta and really enjoyed the hospitality of the civilian
population, particularly via "The Lady Mary Herbert Club" until the
organisation of the C.C.S. had been set up. When the signal came for them to
move forward they did so by train-but now they were a Unit.This train was one
of a convoy of three and their's was commanded by Colonel "Ginger"
Hayes who later became a personal friend of Miriam and her fiance Peter Gilroy.
(source: A7209858 The Wartime Exprience of
Miriam Ethel Gilroy at BBC WW2
People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On one
occasion after day-dreaming in class, Verny ordered me to join the Cadets,
which delighted me. As an Army brat, I knew all the correct moves in foot and
arms drill years before that day .We used to practice platoon attacks on the
Upper Flat, later this was polished in the woods around the school. I can recall afternoons on range, waiting
for the mist to clear and reveal the targets. The highlight of my time in the
Cadets was a camp in Assam, where we took part in exercises against the
Gurkhas, and had the chance to use live ammunition. We had been told that all
unused rounds would be handed in at the end of the exercise. We weren’t risking
that and so fired off all the 50 rounds in the bandolier in minutes. The
results were bruised shoulders and the barrel too hot to touch, but what great
fun. The final treat was to fire a Tommy gun or two inch mortar.
Green
Plain at the South end of Top Flat was in bounds, in the centre there were 3
heavy wooden posts, used to support straw filled sacks for the Cadets’ bayonet
practice. We once left a prisoner tied to a post, so he missed supper.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational
research project. The copyright remains with John Gardiner)
They arrived in Calcutta from Missouri, Texas
and Tennessee—two shiploads of bewildered, seasick, lop-eared army mules. There
was no time to train them for jungle warfare. Brigadier General Frank Merrill's
Marauders loaded them with mortars, 755, ammunition, radio equipment, food, and
started them off on a 700-mile trek to Myitkyina through the Burma jungles.
Few of Merrill's Marauders knew anything about
handling mules. Several hundred unhappy G.I.s were pressed into service as
muleskinners.
Colonel R. W. Mohri, theater veterinarian,
advised: "A mule's every bit as intelligent as a human. To get along with
him you need to have as much sense as the mule."
Mule Sense. At first the mules brayed in
distress when the caravan was attacked; amateur muleskinners hauled them away
in all directions. The mules resisted loudly: they had been taught by U.S.
cavalrymen to trot in a decorous file after a bell mare.
Once, at Walawbum, when a Marauder unit was
confronted by an overwhelming enemy force, the mules set up such a clamor that
the Japs thought they must be outnumbered and withdrew.
The one fright the mules never got used to was
the sight of an elephant. The fright was mutual. When elephant met mule there
was pandemonium—trumpeting and braying, sometimes a hysterical stampede.
The mules got influenza, gastroenteritis,
laminitis, mange, screw worm, sprains, wounds. They got the best medical care
from veterinarians attached to the caravan. They were given blood transfusions.
The seriously sick and hurt were sent to the rear for repairs.
Jake, Puss, Shorty. Sometimes exhausted mules
slipped or fell from steep mountain paths. The muleskinners rescued them at the
risk of their own necks. The 'skinners formally named their charges Jake, Puss,
Shorty. They called them, "You bastard, you sonofabitch." They
defended them passionately from any outside criticism.
At one place the trail climbed 5,400 feet in
less than six miles. Natives said Merrill's pack train would never make it.
When some weary mules stalled, muleskinners shouldered loads, shoved the weary
animals up the mountain.
It took them four months to cover the 700 miles
of pestilential jungle, but they made it. Last week many of the mules were
still there in the interior of Burma, shuttling supplies around in the battle
for Myitkyina. They will probably never bray in Missouri again. When the
northern Burma campaign is finished, they will be turned over to the Chinese.
Some day they may plod on east over the Burma Road into China.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Time Magazine)
We then had intensive lectures on weapon
cleaning. We were each issued with
about 100 rounds of ammunition, also some
special items were added to our equipment. I remember chat. A small compass,
the size of a florin. Now sometimes they were in the form of a button on your
tunic. It was just an emergency thing. They were trying all sorts of wee things
out on us, you know, and adding wee bits of equipment here and there, altering your battle order rig that you
wore. We had normal army battle rig, which wasnae suitable for jungle warfare.
For instance, tin helmets were ridiculous wi' camouflage nettin'. You were in
jungle that used tae catch on it. So we generally finished up just wearin' our
green berets or a cap comforter. these woollen cap things. And that was it. At
one period I had a bush hat. But in the jungle they're no good if you're
crawlin' about. We found berets just about as good as anything, apart from the
fact that you're not protected. Most army guys wore tin helmets. We didn't.
They tended to rattle a bit. We were a sort o' creepy crawly outfit. We liked
to move around silently if possible. Same wi' your weapons—any buckles on your
straps were all blackened. I used to wrap rags round—well, most guys wrapped
rags round their straps on their weapons, too, or anything that would clink or
make a noise. As long as it didn't affect the handling of the weapon you could
wrap them up. Silence was really important.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Ian MacDougall)
The SIS office in India was known as ISLD
(Inter-Services Liaison Department), and did the same kind of work. One day
when I was in the ISLD office in South Calcutta, imagine my surprise when I saw
“JJ” [see Helford River story] walk in. I had no idea he was coming to
Calcutta. So we saw quite a lot of each other for a while. “JJ” was anxious to
do Helford-River-type operations [sending boats equipped with radio behind enemy
lines to help the restistance] along the coast of Burma. He was given what was
called a “country craft”, which turned out to be a sampan, and a crew
consisting of a Chinese No 1 named Chang, plus a number of Indian sailors.
The sampan had to be fitted out with an engine,
as it was designed for sail only — and very slow sailing, at that. I installed
radio in exactly the same way as I had done on the Helford River boats. Once
the engine was fitted, it was time for tests. This proved to be a waste of time,
because it was impossible to steer. The hull shape of a sampan was fine for
slow sailing, controlled by a very large rudder. However, when it came to
trying to move under power from the engine, it had to be seen to be believed.
The smallest movement of the rudder would make the ship shear off at
right-angles from her course and head for the bank on the other side of the
River Hooghli, quite out of control. I know there was a lot of discussion
between “JJ” and the “powers-that-be”, but nothing seemed to come out of it. In
the end, he told me that he had to take the vessel “by fair means or foul” to
the port of Akyab, on the coast of Burma, where it could be used to supply the
base ship named Blinjoe with stores and coal! He didn’t like the idea of going
out to sea in the Bay of Bengal with a ship that had such bad habits, so he
decided to take a local pilot and to go through the area of the Ganges delta,
which is about 230 miles wide and full of little rivers and interconnecting
streams, and wildlife. I saw him again after he had done this, and as usual he
had some very amusing stories to tell.
(source: A4211759 Radio installations in MLs for
secret operations along coast of Burma at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
My job in Calcutta was to run, well to be in charge of the training school
that trained operators to go into Burma and Malaya and also the receiving
station and transmitting station to operate to those agents. There was a big
expansion of the operation at this time in connection with the planned Invasion
of Malaya. It had been decided to expand the intelligence operation by sending
in about six of these teams of one local officer, a native speaker and a
wireless operator and they were going into Malaya.
I trained them up and
they went into the Field. And then my next job was in fact to go myself on the
Invasion of Malaya and operate the main base station in Malaya to send the
information back. I remember I went up to Delhi and drove the Signals truck
down to Nasik near Poona in South West India waiting for the embarkation and
that was where of course we heard that the atom bombs had been dropped and there
was no need for the Invasion of Malaya. It would be August by then so after
that I went back to Delhi and then back to Calcutta.
(source: A7889700 Part Two - Under cover in WW2
at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
The next job I did in Calcutta was a very short job — at that time there were problems
with the Indian National Army which had been serving with the Japanese and
there was quite serious civil unrest at that time. It was decided to send
Intelligence people to about four of the main towns. I got some Signals people
and trained them up and sent them out, to set a network up to send Intelligence
back. And then it was decided that I would be sent to Tokyo to start the main
station in Tokyo, in the Embassy in Tokyo.
(source: A7889700 Part Two - Under cover in WW2
at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
Not least important was the newly formed
contingent of women willing to fight the enemy if need be. I do not know whose mighty brain produced
this child and named it the Bengal Ladies’ Artillery but a large number of
women responded to the call with great enthusiasm - and I was one of them.
We were measured for khaki trousers and shirts
to match and ordered to wear topis which was not in accordance with the
Military Doctor who in his lectures told us that topis were no longer necessary
as there was no such thing s sunstroke, but heatstroke, a statement soon to be
confirmed with the arrival of the American soldiers who wore no topis.
Twice weekly transport was provided by the
military to take us to and from the parade ground in Barrackpore. A young and
rather bold sergeant-major taught us drill and wasn’t sparing in his comments
on our behaviour and deportment. W had
to learn how to use a rifle. The Lewis gun also came into the picture and there
it wasn’t just sufficient to know the usage, but to be able to dismantle and
assemble it within a give time. Not being mechanically minded I was astonished
at the ability so many of the girls possessed and with what amazing speed each
piece was named as it was placed in proper order. There was no hope for my
competing with such efficiency, but I did redeem myself a little on the range
where by some miracle I was lucky enough to score a higher count than most of
them.
(source:pages 92-93 of Eugenie Fraser: “A home by the Hooghly. A
jute Wallahs Wife” .Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing 1989)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with
Eugenie Fraser)
A Soldiers’ Club was formed in one of the old
houses in Barrackpore. Groups of some six or more ladies from the various
compounds attended in turn each night for voluntary work there. Tea and cool
lime drinks were provided free and for a few annas; sandwiches, cookies, fish
and chips were offered to the men. It was quite hard work for us especially
during the hot season, but much appreciated by the soldiers who flocked to the
club in large numbers.
(source:page 92 of Eugenie Fraser: “A home by the Hooghly. A jute
Wallahs Wife” .Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing 1989)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with
Eugenie Fraser)
When they got to
Durban, the convoy split up. Most of the convoy, dad thinks, all went north up
the east coast of Africa to Egypt to make up the numbers for the 8th Army to
begin the El Alamein campaign. But the Duchess of Bedford was sent without convoy to Bombay, and
they immediately went from the ship to a train and sent across India; three or
four days non-stop sitting on hard sacks to Calcutta. It would stop and start
but whenever they came to a station or halt or the signals went against them,
they used to get out of their carriages, run up to the engine with a kettle and
draw hot water off the engine to make tea! A couple of packets of tea with
condensed milk and that… Then people go sick all the time because of changes of
climate and the sanitary conditions, but there’s no point in reporting sick
because there are no sick parades. You just had to put up with it. The toilets
on the train were just holes in the floor basically.
When they got to Calcutta, they were fed. Women issued tea and
bread and cheese. I suppose it was the Indian version of the Women’s Voluntary
Service. Anyway, they were taken out to the Urania and I think she was anchored
in Garden Reach, which is where the river runs down past Calcutta. They had to
board her by going up scramble nets with rifles and… two kit bags on your back.
Down to the mouth of the Hooghli and promptly ran aground. And of course
everybody was sitting around for twenty-four hours waiting for the tide, hoping
that the Jap bombers didn’t turn up.
(source: A8119000 How AC2 Jepson met Mme Chiang
Kai-shek - Part 1 at BBC WW2
People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
(source: Glenn S. Hensley: Red Cross Club, C005, "North along today's Old Courthouse Street. At left is Dalhousie Square. Building at right with American Flag was the American Red Cross club for American servicemen. Church at left is on today's Lal Bazaar Street." seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August 2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)
The ARC in Calcutta. The C.B.I.
Headquarters for the American Red Cross is located in this city. Here the
Theater-wide program of the Red Cross is planned and administered. The ARC club
personnel, field directors, and hospital workers in the Calcutta area stand
ready to aid you with everything from a friendly lift for your morale to a
financial lift in an emergency. A staff of field directors are over here to
help you with your personal problems. They can tell you about gov't insurance,
allowances, allotments, and other benefits. They can get in direct touch with
your family through the home Red Cross Chapter for a health and welfare report.
They can handle Prisoner of War inquiries.
Local Red Cross Facilities. Call on
the Red Cross at:
ARC Hq. Offices - 12 Old Court House St.
ARC Field Director's Office - 17 Stephen House,
Dalhousie Square
ARC Burra Club - 8 Dalhousie Square
ARC Cosmos Club - Dalhousie Institute, Dalhousie
Square
ARC Chota Club - Puri
Howrah Canteen and Information Desk - Howrah
Station
(source: “The Calcutta Key” Services of Supply
Base Section Two Division, Information and education Branch, United States Army
Forces in India - Burma, 1945: at:
http://cbi-theater-12.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-12/calcuttakey/calcutta_key.html)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
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