Description
Object description
British officer served with 7th Bn, 10th Baluch Regt in India and Burma, 1941-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Caerphilly and Cardiff, 1921-1939: family circumstances; preparatory education. Education at Oundle School, 1935-1939: OTC activities including drill, weapons training, summer camps, promotion to corporal, intention of taking regular commission and passing Certificate A; sporting activities; securing place at St John's College, Cambridge University; awareness of approach of war; reactions to outbreak of war and failed attempt to enlist, 3/9/1939; refusal to return to school, 9/1939; background to volunteering and delayed call up. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine during training at Cheshire Regt Depot, Dale Barracks, Chester, 7/1940-11/1940: kitting out; relationship with ORs and NCOs; hut accommodation; story of soldiers urinating in vegetable gardens; morning routine; food rations; filming of 'Christmas dinner', 11/1940; PT and route marches.
REEL 2 Continues: drill; guard duties including guard over injured German pilot; Vickers machine gun and weapons training; volunteering to train as officer in India and interview; kit inspections; canteen; pay; visits to Chester and relationship with civilians. Collection of draft of officer cadets at Aldershot, 12/1940-1/1941. Voyage aboard Highland Chieftain to Durban, South Africa, ca 1/1941-2/1941: convoy route; mess deck conditions; assisting during influenza epidemic; question of relevance from former Indian Army officers; tropical kit. Period at Durban, ca 2/1941: reception from South African civilians; reputation of Australian troops. Voyage aboard Windsor Castle to Bombay, India, ca 2/1941-3/1941: diversion due to German sea raider; first impressions of India. Recollections of period at Officers' Training School, Bangalore, 3/1941-7/1941: division of cadets; visit by Auchinlech.
REEL 3 Continues: Middle East and North West Frontier focus of training; question of tactical training; learning Hindustani; lectures in different Indian martial races; question of behaviour as officer; 'box wallah' officers recruited locally; suicide of quartermaster after discovery of financial irregularities; climate; assessment; background to taking commission in 10th Baluch Regt. Recollections of conditions of service and lifestyle with 7th Bn, 10th Baluch Regt at St Thomas Mount, Madras, 7/1941-10/1941: reception into officers' mess an opinion of various officers; relationship with Punjabi Other Ranks and Indian NCOs; question of relevance of tactical exercises; duties as junior officer; Indian servant; question of learning elements of Hindustani, Punjabi and Urdu.
REEL 4 Continues: nature of officers' mess including relationship with officers, relaxations in conversational conventions, formal meals, drinking habits and mess bills; inexperience of unit in comparison to Japanese troops; question of BNCOs; minimal contact with Indian civilians; opinion of Anglo Indian unit; clubs. Period as brigade orderly officer commanding Brigade Employment Platoon attached to Headquarters, 46th Indian Bde at Ahmednagar, 10/1941-12/1941: composition of HQ; role as mess secretary running officers' mess; question of mixed Indian tribal composition of platoon and story of Indian NCO resolving religious dispute over food; problems teaching Gurkhas to ride motorcycles; role defending HQ; Indian orderlies; brigade training exercises for intended service in Middle East; transport.
REEL 5 Recollections of operations in Burma, 1/1942-3/1942: news of outbreak of war and journey to Rangoon, 1/1942; effects of Japanese bombing of Rangoon; dispositions on move into Lower Burma; success of Japanese offensive, 1/1942; Japanese 'jitter' tactics in attack on Bde HQ at Thaton; Japanese tactic of setting up road blocks on communications lines; effects on morale of Indian troops of reports of over-run of 7th Bn, 10th Baluch Regt at Paan; question of performance of high command including Brigadier Roger Ekin and Wavell; inexperience of troops in comparison to Japanese troops; situation on withdrawal via Bilin River; bombing of unit by RAF aircraft; destruction of car to prevent it falling into Japanese hands; skirmish with Japanese troops blocking route to Sittang bridge; burning trucks; moving cross country to Sittang River; situation on crossing Sittang bridge; contact with Sikh artillery unit; background to demolition of Sittang bridge, 23/2/1942; assisting stragglers crossing Sittang including Ekin; rejoining battalion at Pegu; opinion of temporary commanding officer Captain S K Korla and question of integration of commissioned Indian officers; state of unit and temporary combination with 4/12th Bn, Frontier Force.
REEL 6 Continues: posting to command rejoined Carrier Platoon; Indian constructed nature of Bren carriers; role of 7th Armoured Bde in defence of Pegu; retreat to Klaigu; account of joint Bren carrier patrol with Captain J Christison of 2nd Bn, Duke of Wellington Regt along Prome road from Taukkyan cross-roads, 7/3/1942, including orders, ambush by Japanese on return in vicinity of cross-roads, bursting through incomplete roadblock, direct hit on Bren carrier by shell, circling through jungle to rejoin remaining Bren carriers, significance of roadblock across British line of retreat from Rangoon and death of Christison at roadblock; failure of subsequent attacks on roadblock; period acting as additional escort for General Alexander; Japanese abandonment of roadblock. Recollections of retreat into India, 3/1942-5/1942: rejoining unit; nature of retreat; cigarette rations; dysentery problems and water supply; daytime Japanese air attacks and consequent movement at night; accidental burning down of Burmese village in attempting to clear field of fire; opinion of Colonel Pat Lindsay; stories illustrating opinion of Chinese troops including lack of sensibility to religion of Indian troops and theft of money from Mandalay treasury; lizards; daytime laagers in Burmese villages.
REEL 7 Continues: lack of contact with Burmese civilians; night movements; loss of Bren carriers; role on appointment as adjutant; occasional transport in lorries; fuel supplies; eating Indian style food rations; situation of Indian civilian refugees; situation on passing through Mandalay; march on temporary track from Shwebo and Chindwin River; state of health; destruction of lorries and equipment on crossing Chindwin on ferry to Kalewa; carrying regimental funds; situation; retreat to Kelemvo; question of fate of local and divisional treasury funds; crossing Indian border at Tamu. Recollections of period at Imphal and Likhapani, 5/1942-10/1942: situation and role as garrison; malaria and issue of mepacrine; state of uniform; prickly heat.
REEL 8 Continues: malnourished state; monsoon; move to Likhapani, 8/1942; basha accommodation; relationship with Lindsay and question of replacement as adjutant; composition and role of orderly office; question of cancelled posting to Fort Hertz, Burma. Recollections of period at Ranchi and Sittang, 10/1942-10/1943: opinion of new officers posted to unit; officers' mess; reinforcement drafts; background to decision to convert unit to mounted infantry role; learning to ride; question of mounted infantry tactics; rejection of cavalry weaponry; value of ponies in hill country.
REEL 9 Continues: difficulties with horses and mules during journey to Sittang; training. Recollections of operations in Chin Hills area, 10/1943-3/1944: difficult journey; infantry role and animal camp behind lines; mountainous nature of terrain; earthworks from Third Burma War; relationship with Chin population; defensive positions at Vangte; role as intelligence officer; reconnaissance patrols; situation and Japanese offensive plans, 3/1944; Japanese attacks on company outpost and support from British artillery, ca 2/1944; veterinary and fly problems in animal camp; nature of bunkers; use of barbed wire and mines; food rations and water supply; latrines; faunae; presence in Bishampur with two companies during Japanese attack, 3/1944; withdrawal of 17th Indian Div. Role commanding B Coy during operation in Imphal area, 3/1944-: Japanese attempt to cut Silchar track; sweating under gas cape; taking over defensive positions; role during skirmishes with Japanese troops; story of attack on Japanese positions on ridge, 6/6/1944.
REEL 10 Continues: story of attack on Japanese positions on ridge, 6/6/1944, including firing on Japanese elephant supply column, reactions to news of D Day and withdrawal from ridge; difficulty in co-operating with tanks during attack on village below Japanese positions on Red Hill overlooking HQ of 19th Indian Div; air supply and superiority; hospitalisation with dysentery at Shillong, 7/1944-8/1944; appointment as adjutant on rejoining unit; reactions to removal of horses. Period at Shillong, ca 9/1944-1/1945: re-equipment as reconnaissance jeep battalion; teaching troops to drive; spare problem with Dodge trucks; civilians use of old Thorneycroft trucks; story of elephants on road. Recollections of operations in Burma, 1/1945-5/1945: prior exchange of jeeps with African division; minimal Japanese opposition advance to cross Irrawaddy using pontoons, 3/1945; construction of temporary road; advance to take Meiktila, 3/1945; circumstances of burning of Japanese hospital; Victoria Cross awarded to Indian NCO; nature of fighting during advance on Rangoon; Japanese POWs.
REEL 11 Continues: effective liaison with RAF; fall of Rangoon; re-capture of British POWs. Operations in Pegu area, 5/1945-8/1945: role intercepting parties of Japanese troops crossing Mandalay-Pegu road; capture of Japanese comfort girls; story of Japanese POW claiming to be of British descent; assistance from Burma National Army; move to Sittang River area, 7/1945; news of atomic bomb, 6/8/1945; story of firing off all surplus ammunition immediately prior to cease-fire, 15/8/1945; wireless problem; use of Japanese Americans to negotiate with Japanese troops and arrangements for surrender; leave in Calcutta8/1945. Recollections of period in Burma, 9/1945-7/1946: role supervising Japanese POW Camp in Sittang area including explosion of bomb in Japanese latrine, Japanese revolvers, Japanese military postal system and opinion of Japanese troops; question of treatment by Burmese police of captured dacoit bandit; nature of dacoit problem; question of becoming regular officer.
REEL 12 Continues: move to Japanese POW Camp in Prome area; encouraging Japanese POW to paint water-colours; repatriation of Japanese POWs; question of timing of Burmese independence. Return to GB and demobilisation, 8/1946.Post-war career: question of effect of military service on academic approach on taking up place at St John's College, Cambridge University; treatment for long term effects of dysentery; review of period with Colonial Service in Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo and Hong Kong, 1949-1976; work as director of Singapore Chamber of Commerce, 1976-1987; membership of Baluch Regt Officers' Dining Club.
