Interview with Ralph Robert Griffith

British officer with 2nd Bn Devonshire Regt in India, 1934; served with 5th (Queen's Victoria's Own Corps of Guides) Bn 12th Frontier Force Regt, Bannu Bde on North West Frontier of India, 1934-1940; student at Staff College, Quetta, India, 1940-1942; served as staff officer with Headquarters, Iraqforce in Iraq, 1942 and at Mountain Warfare Training School in Lebanon, 1943; served as staff officer with 27th Indian Infantry Bde, 6th Indian Infantry Div in Iran, 1943-1944; served as second in command of 9/12th Bn Frontier Force Regt, 80th Indian Infantry Bde, 20th Indian Infantry Div in Burma and French Indochina, 1945

REEL 1 Background in India and GB, 1912-1932: family; education; commissioning into Devonshire Regiment in GB, 1932. Aspects of period as officer with 2nd Bn Devonshire Regt in India, 1934: march of battalion into Waziristan; question of disillusionment with British Army during stay in Fort Sandeman; reasons for joining British Indian Army. Recollections of period as officer with 5th (Queen's Victoria's Own Corps of Guides) Bn 12th Frontier Force Regt, Bannu Bde on North West Frontier of India, 1934-1940: role of Viceroy's Commissioned Officers; joining 12th Frontier Force Regt 1934; role of and recruitment to battalion; three year tour of duty at Razmak; under sniper fire during opening Razmak-Bannu road; daily life Razmak; learning Pushtu language; role of khassidars in Waziristan. REEL 2 Continues: attack on local Pathan tribesmen which had mauled British column, 9/1939; reasons for Pathan attacks on British forces. Aspects of period as student with Staff College, Quetta, India, 1940-1942 including questioning of military thinking. Aspects of period as staff officer with Headquarters, Iraqforce, Baghdad, Iraq, 1942: contracting jaundice; move during German threat to Caucasus, Soviet Union with 125th Infantry Bde to Damascus, French Syria, 1942; memories of General Charles de Gaulle's visit to French Syria, 7/1942. Aspects of period as staff officer with Mountain Warfare Training Centre, Lebanon, 1943 including decline in centre's importance as Italian campaign developed. Aspects of period as staff officer with 27th Indian Infantry Bde, 6th Indian Infantry Div in Iran, 1943-1944: posting as brigade major to 27th Indian Infantry Bde containing 5th (Queen's Victoria's Own Corps of Guides) Bn 12th Frontier Force Regt. REEL 3 Continues: lifestyle in Kasr-e-Shirin area; increased formality of 5th (Queen's Victoria's Own Corps of Guides) Bn 12th Frontier Force Regt by 1943-1944; organisation of training 5th (Queen's Victoria's Own Corps of Guides) Bn 12th Frontier Force Regt in Iran. Recollections of period with 9th Bn 12th Frontier Force Rifles, 80th Indian Infantry Bde, 6th Indian Infantry Div in French Indochina, 1945: prior duties as second in command of battalion during Imperial Japanese Army retreat through Pegu Yomas, Burma, 1945; role in charge of surrendered Imperial Japanese Army troops guarding Saigon Airfield; attitude of Japanese prisoners of war in Saigon; attempt of Vietnamese nationalists to take over Saigon; basing of unit at Cap Saint Jacques; reaction to French column's firing in Cap Saint Jacques area, 1945. REEL 4 Continues: desire of Vietnamese for French not to return; French naval presence in Cap Saint Jacques, 1945. Recollections of period with Frontier Force Regiment in India, 1946-1947: return to Unit in Warziristan, 146; departure of Dogra and Sikh troops from unit to go India after Partition; communal relations with in unit; decision not to stay on after Pakistan Independence, 1947. Aspects of operations as officer with 5th (Queen's Victoria's Own Corps of Guides) Bn 12th Frontier Force Regt, Bannu Bde on North West Frontier of India, 1934-1940: operations against Fakir of Ipi; bombing of tribesmen by Royal Air Force Westland Wapiti aircraft at Boya; unit's wireless equipment, 1939; amusing story of cantonment life in Quetta, 1934.