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Although the outbreak of the war in Europe was not
entirely unexpected, the way
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AFTER a clearly deceitful
and purely tactical appearance of welcoming an offer of mediation from
History will have no difficulty in affixing the responsibility for this the greatest of historical crimes against mankind.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with The Statesman)
SMOOTHLY and with
disconcerting speed the Muscovite steam-roller rolls Westward.
Before the first half of
October is out Hitler's strange collaborator may have acquired a string"
of potentially excellent new bases for his Navy and Air Force extending all
down the Baltic from within a few miles of Leningrad to the very borders of
East Prussia.
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(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with The Statesman)
AT last the Allies have a leader. They could not win the war without a great man, and they had to have one. The French and the British were in like case. The last war was won in the sphere of higher strategy by Clemenceau and Lloyd George,
both men with a genius for leadership, and they found in Foch a great soldier. In the political ranks today two stand out in wartime as men of commanding personality, Churchill and Lloyd George. They and they alone impress and depress Hitler. Churchill has been chosen to be the leader, and immediately there is a tonic effect not only in the Allied countries but on the spirits of the many millions in other countries throughout the globe who pray for the defeat of Hitler.
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SIR,—The present French Government's surrender to Germany can only be explained on the supposition of loss of nerve on the part of Marshal Petain and some of his colleagues. The former has pleaded the absence of Allies and insufficiency of men and munitions and pointed to the conditions in 1918. But at least once in 1918 too Marshal Petain showed himself dangerously near to throwing up the sponge.
On March 24, 1918 after the great German offensive had lasted for
three days and pushed back the British Fifth Army, almost destroying it, he
issued an order directing the French armies to fall back towards
Haig however immediately set himself to get this order countermanded. He telegraphed to his Government and at the Doullens Conference Clemenceau, Poincare and Foch disapproved of this order. At this .Conference Clemenceau took Poincare aside and told him :
Petain is provoking in his pessimism. Do you know he said a certain thing to me which I would not care to confide to anybody but you ? It was this : "The Germans will beat the English in the open country, after which they will beat us also” Should a General speak or even think in that way ?"
In regard to Marshal
Petain's statement on the strength of the British contingent respectively in
1940 and 1918 the comparison should properly be between 1940 and 1914. In 1914
when Joffre stopped the German invasion on the
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with The Statesman)
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,
In
March 1938, I was transferred out to
I
returned to the
(source: A7695525 A Proud
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)
But the consecutive
memories begin about 1939 when the war started. We were living in
In
the 1930’s my parents lived in
Although
we were not being bombed as were people in
I
have early recollections of there always being soldiers in our bungalow and, so
I am told, being thoroughly spoilt by them. Often they had children or
relatives of my age at home so perhaps I reminded them of their own families.
When
I was older I was told that these soldiers had been brought out of Burma for
medical treatment or leave from the front lines, my parents, like many other
people, took the soldiers into their homes for convalescence or just a break before
returning to the front.
(source: A7468716 Wartime in
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)
In the summer of 1939, my
father was on home leave from
In the spring of 1940,
when the
Then we set sail again,
this time without a convoy, round the north of
The next stop was
(source: A2640601 A
Schoolgirl’s War in the
(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 many British firms in
Many
high-spirited young men were eager to be commissioned in the Indian Army -
usually in the cavalry - and they had two advantages over any men of similar
age who could be obtained from
But
the firms which employed them did not want to lose them and in most cases it
seemed essential that the firm should continue to do business as usual. Most
companies employed more men of this kind than they needed at a given moment, in
order to permit leave to
It
seemed to me from the first essential that we should have conscription for
Europeans in
Every
argument seemed to lead the same way, provided only that the decision rested
with a body that knew the circumstances of the different firms. Local bodies at
the big commercial centres seemed to be the answer; they would approve the
lists that each firm would draw up and settle any disputes between a firm and
its employees or between two firms. The army would call up men from these lists
as they needed them. I discussed my ideas with the small group of Europeans who
represented commercial and industrial interests in the Assembly; there was no
difficulty about getting their agreement, nor that of the generals.
I
did receive a sharp public snub from a member of my own service, because I sent
these agreed proposals simultaneously to all the civil departments which were
in any way concerned and said I should assume they agreed if I had no answer in
a week. This was high-handed and impatient, I was told; the proper thing was to
let each in turn pore over the proposals, giving each in turn every opportunity
to think of objections.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Philip Mason 1978)
Gouripur Lodge,
Kalimpong, [West
3 June 1940
Dear Leonard,
It needs a few more remarks to follow up the letter that I wrote to you yesterday. Your people belong to a tremendously vital race. The self-deluding optimism and the nervous watchfulness over the stupendous hoard of belongings of an unbroken period of prosperity which prompted your ruling power to an easy surrender of self-respect belie your heroic tradition and the pure strain of true aristocracy that possibly still has survived the cult of commercialism in your blood. And now when there is no [chance] of a diplomatic escape into a safe corner, the true fighter in you will come out in full force and will guide a war in which defeat and victory have the same value of glory. In your history you have never once lost your ground when attacked and the same history will this time repeat itself, bringing you out of the congregated disaster that is raging round you today.
It will lead you into greater wisdom and a saner estimation of your power and its generous disposal which only can ensure its perpetuity.
[…]
Ever yours
Rabindranath Tagore
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The German Consulate General was taken completely by surprise; as soon as I went in and saw the Consul he seized the telephone but I was able to inform him that we had already cut the wires. Our raiding party managed to seize two half-burnt code books which Hildegarde Horton, a resourceful secretary, had started to burn some time earlier in the garden but as it had been raining and they were a bit wet she didn't have much success. The Consul behaved in an extraordinary way, lost his head, became abusive and was most undignified. The Cypher Clerk, Richter, who had previously been careless with his codes, had left three uncoded telegrams by his bedside, which we duly got, together with the code involved.
Earlier,
the
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Trevor Royle 1989)
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You have probably
heard of Dr. E. Schaefer, a German who spent mid-summer 1938 to July 1939 in
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Christopher Hale)
He has been closely
watched while in
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Christopher Hale)
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M stalin's utterances are few. Unlike the rulers of
totalitarian
No pronouncement in M
Stalin's career can have equalled last Thursday's in domestic importance, nor
have been read or heard more studiously abroad. Without adornment, at moments
almost uncouth, and addressed evidently less to the sophisticated than to his
many simple listeners, it showed sharp contrast in style from that developed by
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with The Statesman)
While staying at Kalimpong in
June 1940, in the shadow of the
'We
could listen clearly to its recital on the radio and marvel at this heroic display
of the spiritual resistance to despondency by Parisians at the most fateful
moment of their destiny.’
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Rabindranath Tagore)
Kalimpong, [West
15 June 1940
Today we stand in awe
before the fearfully destructive force that has so suddenly swept the world.
Every moment I deplore the smallness of our means and feebleness of our voice
in
[Rabindranath Tagore]
The letter was published in the New York Times on 16 June 1940.
(source: p. 522 of Rabindranath Tagore,
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Rabindranath Tagore)
We were now in late June
1941. One evening, full of dark
thoughts and forebodings, I went out onto the veranda and leaning on the
railing stood gazing across the compound.
The monsoon had begun shrouding the houses and gardens in a heavy
mist. There was no mean, not a gleam of
a single star and not a sound to be heard -- a silence suddenly broken by the
arrival of the
[…]
I found myself standing
in a queue behind a lot of strange people from the Middle East, including an
old sage from Baghdad who could not speak a word of English and very little
Hindustani. Now with
A few days after this momentous turn of events, we had occasion to be in Firpo’s where we were joined by George and mutual acquaintance.
“So, Mrs Fraser,” he said
to me,” your country is in the war as well.
It is a break for us, but I doubt if it will last very long. The Germans
were go through
“Never,”I rejoined with
some asparity. “Remember Napoleon;
After further argument in the same vain we agreed to lay bet on it. “Anything you like,” I offered rather bravely. “I'll be kind to you and make ten rupees,” he said, and I agreed.
(source:pages 88-89 of Eugenie Fraser: “A home by the
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Eugenie Fraser)
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[…]
New Leader? Most significant rumor to come out of England last week was
that the 1922 Committee—an arch-Tory, super-discussion, trend-sniffing,
policy-pushing group—had met and voted
on the ticklish question of the most desirable successor to Prime Minister Churchill. Passed over were Foreign
Secretary Anthony Eden, who broke with the
Chamberlain "appeasement" Government, and dynamic but
capricious Minister of State Lord Beaverbrook. Two votes went to longtime Party
Whip Captain David Margesson, Secretary of
War. The overwhelming winner was steely, efficient, ruthless Sir John
Anderson—who after World War I headed
the Black and Tan suppression of Irish revolt, who helped Stanley Baldwin's Government break the 1926 general
strike, who later, as Governor of Bengal,
gained the reputation for brutality in handling India's malcontents.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Time Magazine)
Looking through family papers, I came across some newspaper articles relating to the war in the Far East. These give an account of events shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbour, involving my father Captain Llewellyn Evans of China Navigation Company. The front page of the Japan Times dated 27.9.41.has a picture of him, and a group of passengers climbing the gangplank of his ship the S.S.Anhui.
The Foreign Office had requested the Admiralty to charter the ship to evacuate 400 foreign nationals, (mainly British and Indian) including 100 women and children. They were to be transported from Yokohama to Hong Kong, Singapore and Calcutta. The paper paints a vivid picture of the plight of these individuals, who were the last refugees able to leave Japan before the outbreak of war. Their assets had been frozen and they were virtually penniless, with only a paltry allowance, barely enough to buy food. They had endured two days of intensive pressure, involving rigorous searching — even the children were subjected to examination of their clothing, underwear and shoes. The passengers are seen boarding ship closely watched by the Japanese. Eventually, after two days delay, they were allowed to sail.
In an officially approved report by a passenger, G.I.C.Rawlings that appeared in the Hong Kong Telegraph dated 7.10.41., we learn what happened next. Sailing from Yokohama, the ship battled her way through one of the worst typhoons in the history of the China Seas. Winds of 140 M.P.H., with 90 ft. waves (equal to the highest waves in the world encountered in the “Roaring Forties”) threatened to engulf the ship at any moment. Furniture, fittings and baggage broke loose and crashed about the decks, and four of the eight lifeboats were ripped from their davits and washed away. Mercifully only three passengers suffered minor injuries. Mr. Rawlings said “I don’t think we had time to be seasick until the whole thing was over!” He praised the skill and dedication of my father who was on the bridge for twenty-four hours, and of the loyal support from the Officers and Staff who worked hard to keep the passengers comfortable, under appalling conditions. As a token of their appreciation, the passengers presented my father with a handsome gift in the form of a steering wheel with a clock, compass, barometer and weather gauge.
A formal letter dated 4.10.41 from A.G.Hard, the Government Representative on Board, states that a Committee of both European and Indian passengers wished to record “the admiration for the way in which the ship was handled by Captain L.Evans during the typhoon encountered between Yokohama and Hong Kong, and their gratitude for efforts made by the Captain, Officers and Staff to meet all requirements arising during a difficult voyage.” The nurse Justine Soto, was also praised for “her devotion to duty during the typhoon”.
Among the passengers was the Australian Ambassador to Japan, Sir John Latham, whose conduct throughout the nightmare was described as inspiring. He refused preferential treatment and remained in the “well deck” with the other passengers. To express his gratitude he penned a comic poem written on a China Navigation Company notepad dated 4.10.41.A brief excerpt gives a light-hearted account of the dramatic events:
“A capital ship for an ocean trip
Is the brave S.S.Anhui
She sails ahead without any dread
Of the billows of the sea.
She won’t let go in the stiffest blow
That the winds and waves can boast.
We sing this song as we travel along
Beside the China coast.”
Another tribute, also in verse, is by Marjorie Biddle, a fellow passenger on that fateful voyage. When the winds eventually calmed down and people surveyed the damage, she asked my father for a sheet of paper. In the ensuing chaos —even the ship’s log was washed away - he took a page out of the passenger list book and gave it to her. On the reverse side, she had written a witty poem on the plight of the Anhui, and dedicated it “To Captain Evans and his gallant officers and crew, as a tribute from the passengers on the S.S.Anhui.
’Twas there that we parted
By yon glory hole
Down the steep, steep hold of the Anhui,
For the Typhoon she blew
An’ I lost my curry stew
On the bonny, bonny, bunks of the Anhui”.
Her skilfully executed watercolour sketches lend a light note to this terrifying experience. Research has shown that she was an artist, who studied Fine Art at London University, and married a well-respected Japanese artist and poet. They lived in Japan but just before the onset of war, they divorced and she left the country. It is remarkable that this lady was able to put her personal problems behind her, in order to create such a colourful tribute.
Sir John Latham kept in touch, sending my father two books in memory of the typhoon. In his reply, my father relates what became of the remaining Indian passengers on the voyage from Hong Kong to Calcutta. He described them as “a splendid bunch who organised themselves well with school, games and concerts. Diwali was celebrated with a concert, with a proper stage built on the foredeck. They had purchased decorations in Singapore for the concert of music, song, dance, and magic. The ladies looked lovely in their beautiful saris and everyone was in a good mood. On reaching Calcutta they hauled me out of my ship to a reception in a hotel given by the merchants of the city. It was a grand affair with refreshments, flowers and speeches, offering formal thanks. Government representatives were present, and it was all being broadcast! They had me well to the fore, and I was feeling a bit nervous.”
These family records of those distant days say much about the human spirit in times of great danger. They vividly demonstrate the courage, resilience, and sense of humour of people from all walks of life, when confronted by overwhelming odds.
This story was submitted by Mrs Sue Schofield of Ludlow, Shropshire
(source: A3443069 Typhoon In The China Seas at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
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JAPAN has ended the long diplomatic duel with the United States by sudden acts of war, followed by a declaration of war both upon the United States and Britain. We need not waste time in deploring the immorality of these proceedings. There have been plenty of indications that Japan had no intention of abandoning her ambitious designs for supremacy in Asia, and that once she was convinced that she could neither bluff nor lull the United States into acquiescence and her plans were completed she would strike suddenly and swiftly.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with The Statesman)
In December just as a preparation for Christmas where underway, came the news of Japan's attack on the American Fleet in Pearl Harbor, followed by the tragic announcement of the sinking of HMS Repulse and Prince of Wales all of which cast a gloomy shadow over the festive season. With the start of the new year word reached us of further disasters. The victorious Japanese marched all through the whole of Malaysia and by 14 February 1942, Singapore fell as well. The war in the East was drawing closer to our own doorstep.
Immediately all kinds of activities sprang into life. One of the most important was the Lady Mary Herbert Fund named after the wife of the Governor of Bengal. Money was raised by various functions, dances, concerts, mah-jong drives, lotteries, sales and whatever.
(source:pages 91-92 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)
'Before that we'd all been listening to the European news and often dissolving in floods of tears. Now we had to face round and see that the war was coming from the East.'
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Pat Barr)
I went to Calcutta again in December , 1941, on my annual holiday, and once more took Namkia. This time he insisted on bringing Haichangnang for company., chiefly because last year the villagers had not believed Namkia’s all too-sober accounts of the second city and had called him a liar. Haichangnang, he felt would be a safe witness, for the little man hadn’t the brains to tell a lie. His mind worked slowly, on the most literal lines.
I had my own reason for asking them both to Calcutta. The war was drawing nearer the Far east and I knew only too well the kind of talk which was going on among the disaffected Zemi. I wanted to show them the War Weapons exhibition which was then on-not very much, perhaps, but still something to quote against the irresponsible elements . So I arrived in Calcutta, off we went to it at the first chance, the men in all their glory of tribal dress.
We were a third of the way round before anyone really noticed them. Then things happened. Cameras appeared, a solid blinking row at waist level , eye level, held against cheeks and chests; cines whired, officials hurried up-they were the two most photographed men in Calcutta.
In return for publicity-pictures they were allowed the run of the exhibition. A friendly sergeant-major took charge of them, and when sightseeing palled and the sun grew hot he ran them off to the canteen and filled them up with ices.
‘Whenever you want to park them Miss,’ he said(I still had to tail them round when I went shopping), ‘you bring’em along to me. I’ll keep’em happy.’
Day after day I did; and they waxed fatter daily and loved them more. In alet years whenever we met British troops Namkia used to go over and look for his sergeant-major.
(source: pages 87-88, Ursula Graham Bower “Naga Path” Readers Union, John Murray. London 1952)
It was late afternoon before we started, so we had to go over the enemy lines after dark. We flew very low. At times we could make out the shapes of the hills towering above us, and it seems as if the planes's wing tips must surely be able to scrape the rocks. At times, in air pockets, we seemed to drop very sharply. At one point it was evident that we were in trouble. We were instructed to make the emergency procedure of fastening our seat-belts, with the plane behaving as though we were in distress. As I huged our wee Monica I whispered to Andrew "Safe in the arms of Jesus"
In
spite of yhis the plane carried on and over Yunnan and Burma. Planes in the
1940s were not at all like they are today, and many of the misionaries from the
China Inland Fellowship were killed when the plane they were travelling in went
down. While we were waiting in Kumming, three of our missionaries were being
evacuated ahead of the Japanese advance. The plan crashed and they all were
killed. Andrew attended the funeral while I looked after the children.
We
were pleased and relieved to land at Assam, and after a short stop were
thankful for a smooth flight to Calcutta, with the dangers of the flight'over
the hump' behind us. We had no friends in Calcutta, but a kind and thoughtful
missionary had had it laid on his heart to wait all night at the airport, as he
knew that all missionaries had by now been advised to leave China as swiftly as
they possibly could. So, in case any assistace was needed, he was waiting
there, and he was there for us. How glad we were to see him. Bundled into a
lorry, we drove the eleven miles to the city. Our kind friend took us to a
school where, after making some porridge on my little primus stove for the
children, we went to sleep on the floor.
In
the morning we wondered what we could do, and Andrew had the idea of visiting
the Church of Scotland Mission. This was indeed an answer to prayer. The
missionary there was Miss Robbie, a teacher from Edinburgh, and I had trained
at the Royal Infirmary with her sister, Nan. She told us at once that we could
stay there for as long as we needed to. We had been advised by a message from
the Consul not to go to Bombay for the passage home until we had word that a
boat was arriving. I had had no other news from home, and the last letter I had
received was about four years previously. I did have a snall parcel from
Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh about four years before...but it had taken one
year to arrive!
(source: A7091273 Escape from Chine (Part 3) Over Enemy Lines. 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 earliest things I remember about school, was when I was admitted by principal Fritchley whose strict discipline won appreciation from one and all. We found him to be very amicable when he took our classes in ethics. During the last years of school, World War II broke out with all its uncertainties and Mr Fritchley struck as an epitome of Mr. Churchill, the British Prime Minister, when he asked us to concentrate on our studies and to be against all sorts of totalitarianism and rumour mongering.
(source: “Schooldays” Leaflet provenance currently unknown)
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In 1942, the war came to us in Calcutta. I was seven years old and for us it was both our exciting and a worrying time. I used to have my hair cut regularly at a Japanese hair dressing salon until it was quite suddenly closed down. There were other Japanese shops and offices that became transformed into Indian or Anglo-Indian businesses over night.
(source: A2780534 My Wartime Childhood in Calcutta, India at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
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Calcutta was swamped with troops, American and British, all hunting for and commandeering every land of building and open space. And there, just nine miles south of Government House and the centre of the city, lay Behala with its wide green open space, big enough for four football grounds.
“Their cars stood in the road outside, and six of them came into the compound,”' wrote Father D. in 1942. “I looked anxiously at their pips, and- there was no need to look at the maps in their hands to know that they meant business. "I'm dreadfully sorry, Padre, but I am afraid I have got to take over some of your compound." "That's all right, sir, we shall be only thankful to be of some use." "It will mean cutting down a few trees." And I thought of dear Lady Cable who planted that one, and the Calcutta V.C. boy of the last war who planted the other, and of somebody who planted the third, with its gorgeous red bonnet that it always puts on at the beginning of Lent. "And we shall want those huts" (what a name to give our workboys’ palaces !) "And when shall you be coming, sir?" "Oh! in a couple of days or so. We're dreadfully sorry, Padre." So we set to work to clear the huts, and when they got back from Calcutta, the workmen found themselves dumped down in what we used to call Government House, but which had now become a sort of bathing machine for visiting troops. They weren't very pleased, but they accepted the inevitable.”
For a short time the compound was reprieved, though only a mile away there was a company of British soldiers. ”Their C.O. brought them yesterday for a football match” with the boys, and a bathe, and some tea. And for a couple of hours we forgot the guns and the war, and discovered. how gentle the British soldier is when he plays with barefoot Indian boys. They left their footer boots in camp, and played in gym shoes. They've promised to come again, and as they went away their C.O. whispered to me, "If you want any help, just let us know".”
Those who first put in their claim for the big Behala compound were the gunners of an anti-aircraft gun station, but happily they changed their minds as there were too many trees; happily, indeed, for when Japanese bombers passed over there would not have been much sleep for them a few yards away from the guns. The road. is by no means broad, and the Sisters were there, “One of our causes for thankfulness [one of them wrote] is that we have not been evacuated. No doubt if we had had big brick buildings they would have been taken over long ago, like most of the schools and institutions in Calcutta.” Then the military thought of making a lorry park of Behala but again the plan came to nothing, as this time there were not enough trees. And so the use they made of it for the present was for new lorry drivers to practise in, which, as was remarked, did not trouble the residents as much as A.A. guns, but it certainly bothered the cows.
The broad, beautiful sward of Behala, happily rejected as an anti-aircraft-gunsite (too many trees), and then, though taken over, refused as a motor lorry depot (too few trees) and used as a practice-ground for Indian drivers, fresh from village homes, found its final use. In the middle of 1942 the R.A.F, look charge, While the lorries were still practising near the road, 40,000 bricks were being laid at the back to make an even way in from a side road and a platform for three precious radio vans which were not to be jolted and held a hush-hush secret. In the event of an invasion they were to be blown up, if they could not be got away. The R.A.F. personnel moved in and huts were built over
I was a young girl living in India
and we were evacuated from our school in Calcutta to Lucknow (our sister
school). I did my Cambridge exams there and passed them. British troops moved
into the Calcutta school because they were going to fight the Japanese. Later I
remember, Calcutta being bombed. I lost a relative when his ship was torpedoed.
His wife was a young mother, her son never saw his father.
(source: A7761134 Peterborough Adult Learning Service and East Community Centre VE Day Event - Memories Book Chapter 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)
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Home ● Sitemap ● Reference ● Last updated: 03-October-2009
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If there
are any technical problems, factual inaccuracies or things you have to add,
then please contact the group
under info@calcutta1940s.org