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Battle Tales from Burma
Azioni libro
Inizia a leggereLunghezza: 224 pagine2 ore
- Editore:
- Open Road Integrated Media
- Pubblicato:
- Sep 19, 2004
- ISBN:
- 9781783409488
- Formato:
- Libro
Descrizione
A collection of autobiographical stories from an officer in the British Indian Army during World War II.
John Randle served with the greatly respected Baluch Regiment of the former Indian Army right through the fiercely fought Burma Campaign, winning a Military Cross, yet on VJ Day he was only some sixty miles from where had started out nearly four years before.
Unlike other conventional war memoirs, this book comprises a gratifying number of self-contained stories drawn from the author’s experiences and memories. Some are long, other mere vignettes; some are moving and serious, others are light-hearted even humorous. Some cover hard-won victories and success, others defeats and reversal; some describe acts of great valor, others incidents reflecting human frailties. All however, are worth reading and give a very accurate picture of war at its bitterest, when men are drawn together and individuals are under that most demanding microscope of their fellow comrades-in-arms.
John Randle served with the greatly respected Baluch Regiment of the former Indian Army right through the fiercely fought Burma Campaign, winning a Military Cross, yet on VJ Day he was only some sixty miles from where had started out nearly four years before.
Unlike other conventional war memoirs, this book comprises a gratifying number of self-contained stories drawn from the author’s experiences and memories. Some are long, other mere vignettes; some are moving and serious, others are light-hearted even humorous. Some cover hard-won victories and success, others defeats and reversal; some describe acts of great valor, others incidents reflecting human frailties. All however, are worth reading and give a very accurate picture of war at its bitterest, when men are drawn together and individuals are under that most demanding microscope of their fellow comrades-in-arms.
Informazioni sul libro
Battle Tales from Burma
Lunghezza: 224 pagine2 ore
Descrizione
A collection of autobiographical stories from an officer in the British Indian Army during World War II.
John Randle served with the greatly respected Baluch Regiment of the former Indian Army right through the fiercely fought Burma Campaign, winning a Military Cross, yet on VJ Day he was only some sixty miles from where had started out nearly four years before.
Unlike other conventional war memoirs, this book comprises a gratifying number of self-contained stories drawn from the author’s experiences and memories. Some are long, other mere vignettes; some are moving and serious, others are light-hearted even humorous. Some cover hard-won victories and success, others defeats and reversal; some describe acts of great valor, others incidents reflecting human frailties. All however, are worth reading and give a very accurate picture of war at its bitterest, when men are drawn together and individuals are under that most demanding microscope of their fellow comrades-in-arms.
John Randle served with the greatly respected Baluch Regiment of the former Indian Army right through the fiercely fought Burma Campaign, winning a Military Cross, yet on VJ Day he was only some sixty miles from where had started out nearly four years before.
Unlike other conventional war memoirs, this book comprises a gratifying number of self-contained stories drawn from the author’s experiences and memories. Some are long, other mere vignettes; some are moving and serious, others are light-hearted even humorous. Some cover hard-won victories and success, others defeats and reversal; some describe acts of great valor, others incidents reflecting human frailties. All however, are worth reading and give a very accurate picture of war at its bitterest, when men are drawn together and individuals are under that most demanding microscope of their fellow comrades-in-arms.
- Editore:
- Open Road Integrated Media
- Pubblicato:
- Sep 19, 2004
- ISBN:
- 9781783409488
- Formato:
- Libro
Informazioni sull'autore
Correlati a Battle Tales from Burma
Anteprima del libro
Battle Tales from Burma - John Randle
First published in Great Britain in 2004 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS
Copyright © John Randle, 2004
9781783409488
The right of John Randle to be identified as Author of this Work has
been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or trans-
mitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including
photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.
Typeset in Sabon by
Phoenix Typesetting, Auldgirth, Dumfriesshire
Printed and bound in England by
CPI UK
Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of Pen & Sword
Aviation, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Wharncliffe
Local History, Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics and
Leo Cooper.
For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
E-mail: enquiries@pen-and-sword.co.uk
Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
To all those soldiers of the Seventh Battalion
The (10th) Baluch Regiment
who served in the Burma Campaign
(1942 – 1945).
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
FOREWORD
Acknowledgements
Preface
INTRODUCTION
GLOSSARY
ILLUSTRATIONS
Chapter One - Christmas Leave – Bombay 1941
Chapter 2 - You Just Never Know
Chapter 3 - Loot
Chapter 4 - The Luck Of The Irish
Chapter 5 - The Line
Chapter 6 - London
Chapter 7 - Commanding Officer
Chapter 8 - RED HILL
Chapter 9 - A Very Brave Decision
Chapter 10 - A Latter-Day Gunga Din
Chapter 11 - That Thing (A Clash of Cultures)
Chapter 12 - POINT 900
Chapter 13 - The Second Shot
Chapter 14 - A Quid Pro Quo
Chapter 15 - Zan, Zar, Zamin – (Women, Gold, Land) – A Story Of Murder
Chapter 16 - A Sad Story
Chapter 17 - The Girls
Chapter 18 - An ad hoc Elephant Battery
Chapter 19 - A Cruel Turn of Fate
Chapter 20 - The Surrender
Chapter 21 - All for the Want of an Army List
Chapter 22 - Dacoits
Chapter 23 - Full Circle
Appendix A - Personalities
Appendix B - A Nostalgic Visit to Pakistan and India by Two Old Baluchis
Appendix C - Reconciliation
Appendix D - 7th/10th Baluch Postwar
Index
FOREWORD
By
The Rt. Hon. The Viscount Slim
World War Two produced the largest volunteer Army of nearly three million soldiers from the then Indian Empire. Without it Great Britain and her Allies would have had difficulty in mustering sufficient forces to defeat the Germans, their Italian allies, and the Japanese Empire.
By 1945 this great Old Indian Army recruited across its Subcontinent from the numerous martial tribes, of all religions and cultures, had proved itself in battle and greatly enhanced its fighting reputation in the major Theatres of the War.
Success came from the courage, loyalty, discipline and the resolute fighting qualities of the Indian Soldier. Above all by the inspired leadership of his British and Indian Officers together with their Viceroy Commissioned Officers. A unique combination of successful leadership.
John Randle writes with gentle affectionate pride of his Indian Soldiers in the famous Baluch Regiment. He is perhaps overly modest in describing the many ferocious close-quarter encounters and battles in which he lead his men. To survive some four years of almost constant action may be lucky, but it takes and becomes a true warrior leader to turn and turn again towards an enemy as brave, stubborn and vicious as the Jap.
This personal and special book gives the reader pause to ponder and learn, particularly how very fortunate The Old Indian Army was to have so many outstanding Officers like the Author.
SLIM
House of Lords
2004
Acknowledgements
As in any literary venture, even of this modest nature, the author has to be warmly grateful for the help, advice and encouragement of a number of people.
Principal among these is Charles Coubrough, comrade-in-arms, old friend and author of a fine wartime book himself. His encouragement to publish what was originally intended as a private piece of writing, and his practical help and advice have been invaluable; without it, this book would never have been published.
Similar warm thanks must go to Major General Colin Shortis, regimental friend from the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, whose encouragement, wisdom and practical help with the manuscript have been invaluable, and to John Nunneley, friend and old Burma Hand
who took so much trouble to help me polish up the manuscript and whose literary and publishing experience have been so supportive. I am grateful too to General John Wilsey, another Devon and Dorset regimental friend, for his introduction to Brigadier Henry Wilson of Pen and Sword Publications, who has skilfully combined the role of business-like publisher and helpful counsellor.
My gratitude also goes to Lord Slim, President of the Burma Star Association and of course the soldier son of our inspiring leader in Burma, General, later Field Marshal, Bill
Slim, for so kindly writing an undeservedly generous Foreword.
I am most grateful to Clifford Martin, Tommy Bruin and Roderick MacLean, friends and fellow 7th Baluchis, with help on facts and dates and general advice.
Profound thanks are due to Mrs Chris Dare, who, after years deciphering my appalling handwriting at Regimental Headquarters of the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, has, in her retirement, been a tower of strength with her immaculate typing.
Finally, but of the greatest significance, I acknowledge with deep gratitude all the encouragement that my wife Peggy gave me to write the original manuscript in the early 90s and before the sad onset of Alzheimer’s Disease.
July 2003
Preface
I originally wrote these stories some years ago for a very limited private circulation to family and close friends, who have now encouraged me to publish them. I naturally gave much thought – and took advice – as to how I should present them. In the first place there is a very full account of my battalion’s fighting in the History of the Baluch Regiment in WW2, and I certainly did not wish to appear to be writing another. Secondly, there have been plenty of books about the Burma fighting – Japanese Banzai bayonet attacks, close-quarter fighting, bloodshed and the horrors of war – and though I did have my fair share of these, I wanted to avoid taking that well-trodden path. So, rather than write a conventional and continuous memoir, I decided to recount a collection of separate stories, some serious and some lighthearted, some quite long and some mere vignettes. I then ran into a snag. When I first wrote them, thirteen years ago, it was essential to make each story complete within itself, and this became even more important when a number of them were published separately in service journals. This obviously involved setting out a short introductory paragraph of the general background to each story. It was also important to keep the story concise and to the point, and avoid digression into extraneous background, particularly of personalities, and I have decided to maintain that literary discipline rather than completely rehash them to the detriment of the balance of the story. It does mean, however, that there is occasionally some minor repetition, for which I ask the reader’s forbearance.
However, an infantryman’s war is, above all, about men. I then realized that, in striving for succinctness, it might seem that I was not interested in the men of all ranks who were my comrades-in-arms and friends, even though they were a fundamental part of my life in those far-off days, and, despite the years, in many cases, remain so still. I have therefore given at Appendix A a profile of everyone mentioned in the stories, so that the reader who may be interested can see how fortunate I was. I have also interspersed the stories with an occasional brief Background Events
, so that they can be viewed chronologically against the wider and relevant part of the long-drawn-out Burma Campaign.
Whilst I have always retained the copyright of my stories, courtesy requires me to acknowledge, with my thanks, the editors of Dekho, the journal of the Burma Star Association, of the Newsletter of the Indian Army Association (IAA), of Durbar, the journal of the Indian Military Historical Society, and of the Journal of the Devonshire & Dorset Regiment for the compliment that they paid me in publishing my stories. The same goes to the Editor of Tales from the Burma Campaign, published by the Burma Campaign Fellowship Group.
The basic facts of every story are, as far as I can honestly recall, true. Obviously when writing from memory about events which took place well over half a century ago I may have got some of the dates, places and matters of detail wrong, and the same goes for any conversation recorded verbatim.
The obvious dangers of any autobiographical writing, especially about war, are the opportunities it gives to be critical of those with whose opinions and actions one disagreed. There is an equal danger of depicting one’s own motives and actions, even unintentionally, on a rather higher level than they actually were. I have always deplored those, other than genuine biographers, who, years after events, write disparagingly and unkindly about people for no other apparent reason than spite or attempting to pay off old scores. I have no old scores to settle and I have tried to refrain from criticism of others. Where the whole point of the story depends on the character of an individual, I have obviously brought out weaknesses or idiosyncrasies, but I have also endeavoured to highlight that person’s good qualities. I have equally tried to be honest about my own shortcomings, on many occasions.
There is one central thread to this rag-bag of reminiscences, one which every British officer who ever had the privilege of commanding men of the old Indian Army in battle would assuredly confirm, and that is the always sustaining, and often uplifting, strength we derived from the unfailing loyalty, courage, uncomplaining and cheerful endurance in hardship and comradeship of the men we led. It is something that I look back on down the years with unforgettable gratitude and humility.
INTRODUCTION
My original aim in life, in those long-ago imperial days before WWII, was to get into the Indian Political Service, the junior partner of the Indian Civil Service, which dealt with the North-West Frontier and the princely states. Entry was via the Indian Police or the Indian Army, and Colonel Boomer
Barrett, a legendary Baluch officer and friend of my father, had undertaken to help me to get a nomination for this much sought-after regiment. I had passed the entry exam for Sandhurst in the summer of 1939 with the aim of entering in January 1940. However, in the autumn of 1939 Sandhurst was closed for the training of officers for regular commissions, and so when, in 1940, the India Office/War Office started looking for wartime officers for a planned expansion of the Indian Army I was written to. This was before the days of War Office Selection Boards (WOSBs) and the selection of potential officers was made on the rough and ready basis principally of a public school education, Certificate A in the school Officers’ Training Corps (OTC) and a short interview with an Indian Army Colonel in the India Office. I duly cleared this hurdle and at the end of 1940 joined a party of several hundred other public school boys at Aldershot. After an eight-week very uncomfortable voyage to India, we spent six months at a cadet college at Bangalore, before being commissioned in September 1941. Thanks to Boomer
Barrett’s influence I was accepted into the Baluchis.
In 1941 the old Imperial Indian Army was going through an enormous and, with hindsight, somewhat imprudent expansion. Regiments which in 1939 consisted of five regular battalions were doubling (and then, after Japan entered the war, redoubling). Pre-war regular battalions were heavily milked of experienced VCOs (Viceroy’s Commissioned Officers), Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) and senior sepoys; then as soon as newly raised battalions were knitting together they too were milked to meet the demands of the new wave of expansion, and to replace casualties from the heavy fighting in East Africa and the Western Desert.
Whereas in the British Army the core of the foundation of a fighting unit was among the men of the Warrant Officers’ and Sergeants’ Mess, in the Indian Army a similarly vital role was played by the Viceroy’s Commissioned Officers, men who had progressed through the ranks of sepoy, naik (corporal), havildar (sergeant) until they were promoted to be a Viceroy’s Commissioned Officer and as a Jemadar took command of a platoon or equivalent sub-unit. Subsequent promotion was to Subedar (probably as a company second-in-command) and finally to Subedar Major, the commanding officer’s right-hand man and adviser on a whole range of matters – religion, promotions and opinion throughout the battalion – everything concerned with the attitudes and responses of the Indian soldiers; this was a prestigious post, far more important even than the Regimental Sergeant Major of a British battalion. The entire corps of VCOs was a superb body of men, intelligent, well-educated in military terms, resourceful and utterly loyal, often with extensive active service experience in that demanding testing ground, the North-West Frontier.
Every cavalry and infantry regiment in the Indian Army was allotted what was called Class Composition
which designated from which of the many martial races of Imperial India the regiment was permitted to recruit. The 10th Baluch Regiment recruited half its men from amongst Punjabi Mussulmans (PMs), in our case from the northern part of the Punjab; a quarter from Pathan tribesmen of the North-West Frontier – Khattaks from around Kohat and Yusufzais to the east of the Khyber Pass around Mardan; and Dogra Brahmins (high caste Hindus) from the Kangra Valley in the Himalayan foothills (see Map Six, p 130). In the 7th Battalion B and D Companies were PMs, A Company Pathans and C Company Dogra Brahmins, with similar proportions among the Signals, Medium Machine Gun, Mortar platoons, drivers and administrative personnel in Headquarter Company.
An Indian battalion only had an establishment of about twelve British officers – Commanding officer (CO), Second in Command (2IC), Adjutant, Quartermaster (QM), four rifle company commanders, Signals Officer (RSO), Motor Transport Officer (MTO) and a couple of Company officers in the Rifle Companies, plus an IMS (Indian Medical Service) Medical Officer (RMO).
On 20 September 1941 Second Lieutenants Charles Coubrough, Dan Pettigrew and John Randle reported to the 7th Battalion 10th Baluch Regiment at
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