Interview with Peter Robinson

British private served as driver with 9th Bn Border Regt, 225th Independent Infantry Bde (Home) in GB, 1941-1942; served with 9th Bn Border Regt, 17th Indian Infantry Div in India, 1942-1943; served with Headquarters, IV Corps in India and Burma, 1943-1945

REEL 1 Background in Preston, GB, 1912-1939: family; education; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Aspects of period as private with 50th (Holding) Bn Border Regt in GB, 1941: basic training at Whitehaven; opinion of officers and NCOs; incident when he punched corporal for act of injustice. Aspects of period with 9th Bn Border Regt, 225th Independent Infantry Bde (Home) in GB, 1941-1942: motor transport duties at Lowick; coastal defence duties, 1941; German Air Force attack on Beal, 1941; story of how he got away with misdemeanor with help of NCOs; background to losing job driving commanding officer; contact with civilians at Ashington; concern to be in touch with wife. REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of voyage from GB to India via South Africa, 1942: voyage aboard HMT Orcades from GB to South Africa; ashore in Durban, South Africa; voyage aboard HMT Empire Trooper from South Africa to India. Recollections of period with 9th Bn Border Regt, 17th Indian Infantry Div in India, 1942-1943: arrival in Bombay, 5/1942; conditions in Fort William, Calcutta; role as despatch rider and contracting malaria; job ferrying lorries from Jamshedpur to Dimapur; attempts by Indian lorry drivers to sabotage lorries; opinion of stay in Shillong; opinion of mules; Imperial Japanese Army Air Service bombing of Calcutta; guard duties on Calcutta installations during Indian National Congress party disturbances, 1942; stone and acid throwing activities of Indian National Congress party demonstrators; humiliation of white civilians by demonstrators; sight of famine deaths in Calcutta; opinion of Naga hill people; trading salt with Nagas in Kohima area. REEL 3 Continues: move to Tiddim, Burma. Recollections of period as driver with Headquarters, IV Corp in India and Burma, 1943-1945: transfer to unit after medical downgrading; incident of Imperial Japanese Army troops who ignored him and his officer; attempts to gain information from headmen; role driving Lieutenant-Colonel Howsen of Force 136; Japanese Army Air Service fighter aircraft attack at Potsangbam, India; job driving Major-General David Cowan's wife. Recollections of civilian employment in GB, 1947-1955: working for Major-General David Cowan at Bovey Tracey, 1947-1949; reasons for leaving Major-General David Cowan's service to work in Royston, 1949; employment in Hertfordshire, 1950. REEL 4 Continues: further details of civilian employment, GB, 1950s. Aspects of service with IV Corps in Burma, 1944-1945: memories of Lieutenant-Colonel Howsen; reaction to handling of Japanese corpses in river; attitude towards Japanese; condition of Imperial Japanese Army troops, 1945; attitude to having served in Second World War; story of meeting Scottish women in Rangoon, 1945.