Military Life

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Introduction

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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In the Army

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

"Mentioned in Despatches" 19th September, 1946

George Philip Benbow (Phil) VAUGHAN, Army Staff Sergeant, Calcutta, 19th September, 1946

(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)

Uniforms of Soldiers of the Raj

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

Milestones

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.

(source: TIME Magazine, New York, Jan. 1, 1945)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Time Magazine)

Military Conduct

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)

INDIA'S FIGHTING FORCES

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)

KNOW YOUR ALLIES

  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)

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

I was in barracks at Calcutta when war was declared

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.

Albert Watts , bugler North Staffordshire Regiment, Calcutta, 1939

(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)

I was chosen to be the ADC of GOC Bengal District

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!

David Ensor, wireless operator with Royal Corps of Signals, Calcutta, 1944-6

(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)

Off to war

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.

John Kenneth Horne, Army, Calcutta, 1943

(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)

The dreaded promotion

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.

Edward L. Hancock, Army Officer, Barrackpore, mid 1940s

(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)

An Anglo-Indian Volunteer

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.

Denzil Rebeiro, sergent in the 17th Indian division, Calcutta, 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 had many experiences during my two year posting to Calcutta

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.

Douglas Frost, Army engineer, Calcutta, 1943-6

(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)

A brief diary

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.

Peter Marsh Torrance,Army Soldier, Calcutta, mid 1940s

(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)

There were a lot of women in the army at the time

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.

Irene Agnew,clerk at army headquarters in Calcutta, Calcutta, late 1940s

(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)

building a new main radio station

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.

John ("Tommy") Tucker, Royal Corps of Signals, Calcutta, 1944

(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

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.

Eddie Mathieson, Marines’ commando soldier on the Burma Front. Calcutta, 1944/45

(source: page 235/36 of MacDougall, Ian: Voices from War and some Labour Struggles; Personal Recollections of War in our Century by Scottish Men and Women. Edinburgh: Mercat Press, 1995)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Ian MacDougall)

MY GREAT GRANDAD IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR

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

Dr Amiya Ranjan Biswas, Medical Officer Army, Calcutta, North Atlantic, London, 1940-46

(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)

Memoirs of An Indian Soldier

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..

Ellis Koder, Army, Calcutta, North Africa, Burma, Sumatra, 1940s

(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)

They found a church there

[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.

Friends of Father Douglass, Missionaries and Charity workers in Behala, Calcutta, 1943.

(Source: Father Douglas of Behala. London, 1952 / Reproduced by courtesy of Oxford University Press)

Money wasnae really important

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.

Eddie Mathieson, Marines’ commando soldier on the Burma Front. Calcutta, 1944/45

(source: pages 240-241 of MacDougall, Ian: Voices from War and some Labour Struggles; Personal Recollections of War in our Century by Scottish Men and Women. Edinburgh: Mercat Press, 1995)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Ian MacDougall)

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In the Navy

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

Indian Naval Unit in Retreat ceremony in the Maidan, Calcutta, fall

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(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 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

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In the Airforce

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

40th PRS aircraft, AF003, 40th PRS aircraft and personnel, Alipore Air Base, 1944

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(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 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

40th PRS aircraft, AF004, 40th PRS aircraft and personnel, Alipore Air Base, 1944

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(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 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

Alipore base

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(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 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

The 513th Comes Home

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.

(source: TIME Magazine, New York, Apr. 26, 1943)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Time Magazine)

Promotion to Lt

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

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta, April 13, 1945

(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)

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

Daily life

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.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

Americans in and around Calcutta had it pretty good

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.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

What did we do for entertainment?

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.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

The Burra Club

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.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

Our pay

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.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

Book of Etiquette

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.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

Hostesses

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.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

The ‘shame, shame aunties’

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’.

Eugenie Fraser, wife of a jute mill manager, Calcutta, 1942

(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)

So I was not the most popular bloke

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.)

Philip Miles, RAF photo reconnaissance unit, Calcutta, mid 1940s

(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)

the average work

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.

Harry Tweedale, RAF Signals Section, Barrackpore, 1942

(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)

The Barrackpore Mutiny

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.

Harry Tweedale, RAF Signals Section, Barrackpore, 1942

(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)

Off duty days

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.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

Many hated Calcutta

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.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

Routine garrison duty at Barrackpore

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.

Wilfred Jepson, Royal Air Force, Calcutta, Late 1943

(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)

The Weathermen of Belvedere

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.

Ken Armstrong, Royal Air Force, Calcutta, late 1945

(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)

The climatic problems of planes

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.

Jack Boswell, Royal Air Force, Calcutta, 1945

(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)

The reason for my recall?

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.

Aubrey Jones , Royal Air Force, Calcutta, Summer 1945

(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)

A day out at the front

[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.

Pilot Officer Thirlwell, pilot of an RAF photo-reconnaissance Hurricane. Caclutta, mid 1940s .

(source: page 360, Julian Thompson: “The Imperial War Museum Book of the The War in Burma 1942-1945. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 2002)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Julian Thompson)

Intelligence in Barrackpore

[…] 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.

Harold Acton, RAF airforce officer. Calcutta, early 1940s.

(source: page 110, Harold Acton: More memoirs of an Aesthete. London Methuen, 1970)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Harold Acton)

The State of the Airforce in Bengal

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.

Harold Acton, RAF airforce officer. Calcutta, early 1940s.

(source: page 110-1 Harold Acton: More memoirs of an Aesthete. London Methuen, 1970)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Harold Acton)

Intelligence on Chinese matters

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.

Harold Acton, RAF airforce officer. Calcutta, early 1940s.

(source: page 111 Harold Acton: More memoirs of an Aesthete. London Methuen, 1970)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Harold Acton)

the drudgery of Barrackpore

[…] 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.

Harold Acton, RAF airforce officer. Calcutta, early 1940s.

(source: page 116 Harold Acton: More memoirs of an Aesthete. London Methuen, 1970)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Harold Acton)

Office Intrigues

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.

Harold Acton, RAF airforce officer. Calcutta, early 1940s.

(source: page 115-6 Harold Acton: More memoirs of an Aesthete. London Methuen, 1970)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Harold Acton)

SQUADRON LIFE IN CALCUTTA 1942

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!

Gordon (Connie) Conway, Royal Air Force Squadron Leader 136 Fighter Squadron ‘The Woodpeckers’, Calcutta, 1942

(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)

THE .C.O. RETURNS!

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!

Gordon (Connie) Conway, Royal Air Force Squadron Leader 136 Fighter Squadron ‘The Woodpeckers’, Calcutta, December 1942

(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)

‘Shocker’s’ antics

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!!

Gordon (Connie) Conway, Royal Air Force Squadron Leader 136 Fighter Squadron ‘The Woodpeckers’, Calcutta, mid 1940s

(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)

The Squadron Emblem

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.

Gordon (Connie) Conway, Royal Air Force Squadron Leader 136 Fighter Squadron ‘The Woodpeckers’, Calcutta, 1942

(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 'celebrated' my 21st birthday

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.

William James Rossall , Royal Air Force Weather Forecaster, Calcutta, 1944

(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)

A brief diary

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.

William D'Arcy, Royal Air Force, Calcutta, 1945

(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)

Life was to go on like this in Calcutta for several weeks more

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.].

Cliiford Wood, RAF Wireles operator, Calcutta, 1942

(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)

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Military Hospitals

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

Richard Beard, US Army Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta,

(Source: Elaine Pinkerton / Reproduced by courtesy of Elaine Pinkerton)

142^nd US Military Hospital (near Dhakuria Lakes)

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta,

(Source: Elaine Pinkerton / Reproduced by courtesy of Elaine Pinkerton)

Cyclist at 142^nd US Military Hospital

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta,

(Source: Elaine Pinkerton / Reproduced by courtesy of Elaine Pinkerton)

Aerial View of Dhakuria Lakes and Huts of the 142^nd US Military Hospital

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta,

(Source: Elaine Pinkerton / Reproduced by courtesy of Elaine Pinkerton)

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

Rest Homes and rest camps

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.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

VD Clinics

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.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

"Good Doc Snively" and the "Calcutta Crud"

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.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

The daily Atabrine pill

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.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

Diseases to be afraid of

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.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

Medical Supplies for Soldiers

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.

Eddie Mathieson, Marines’ commando soldier on the Burma Front. Calcutta, 1944/45

(source: page 235 of MacDougall, Ian: Voices from War and some Labour Struggles; Personal Recollections of War in our Century by Scottish Men and Women. Edinburgh: Mercat Press, 1995)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Ian MacDougall)

so "now there were five".

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.

Miriam Ethel Gilroy (Nee Batstone), Nurse, Calcutta, 1942

(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)

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Other Services

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

Training with the Cadets

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.

John Gardiner, boarding school pupil at Victoria School. Kurseong 1939-1946

(source: John Gardiner: Memories of VSK (1939 – 1946) on website of Victoria & Dow hill Schools Kurseong at http://www.orbonline.net/~auballan/J_Gardners_VSK.htm)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Gardiner)

_____Echoes of the 1940s in the Kolkata of today_________

Special Forces

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

Merrill's Mules

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.

(source: TIME Magazine, New York, Aug. 7, 1944)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Time Magazine)

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

Our Equipment

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.

Eddie Mathieson, Marines’ commando soldier on the Burma Front. Calcutta, 1944/45

(source: page 235 of MacDougall, Ian: Voices from War and some Labour Struggles; Personal Recollections of War in our Century by Scottish Men and Women. Edinburgh: Mercat Press, 1995)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Ian MacDougall)

The secret Sampans

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.

John ("Tommy") Tucker, Royal Corps of Signals, Calcutta, 1944

(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)

_____Echoes of the 1940s in the Kolkata of today_________

The Intelligence Services

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

I trained them up and they went into the Field

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.

Dafydd Archard Vaughan Williams, Specialist Wireless Operator, Swanage to Calcutta, Jan-Aug 1945

(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)

Surveilance on the INA riots

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.

Dafydd Archard Vaughan Williams, Specialist Wireless Operator, Swanage to Calcutta, Nov 1945

(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)

Voluntary Military Organisations

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

Calcutta Light Horse

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

Women's Auxiliary Corps (India)

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

Bengal Ladies’ Artillery

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

The Bengal Ladies’ Artillery

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.

Eugenie Fraser, wife of a jute mill manager, Barrackpore, 1942

(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)

ATS

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

VAD

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

Women’s Voluntary Service

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

Soldiers’ Club was formed in one of the old houses in Barrackpore

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.

Eugenie Fraser, wife of a jute mill manager, Barrackpore, 1941

(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)

Women issued tea and bread and cheese

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.

Wilfred Jepson, Royal Air Force, Calcutta, January 1942

(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)

American Red Cross

_____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

Red Cross Club

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(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 12^th June 2001 and 28^th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

AMERICAN RED CROSS

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)

_____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

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then please contact the group under info@calcutta1940s.org