2nd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment

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Transcript Of Recorded Interview
Sgt. Arthur Francis Freer 7945175
3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales's Dragoon Guards)
And
Author Of The Book - Nunshigum On the Road to Mandalay

.....I don’t remember which Gurkha battalion it was or which regiment, but the Gurkhas did some training with us. The theory was that our tanks, the ‘General Lee’s’, which had a 75mm gun on the side. That we could be firing the 75, as the rounds would be leaving the tank at about four feet above the ground, which meant that below four foot it was safe. The Gurkha officers wanted the Gurkhas to do it, so the Gurkha officers suggested that we might show them exactly what we wanted them to do. So our officers said that they wanted volunteers for this exercise to crawl away from the front of the tank as the gun was firing over their heads. What I didn’t think of at the time was the tremendous explosion, could and was damaging to the ears, and of course I volunteered. I always said, never volunteer and I still believe in that, but I still do. I crawled forward, and went through the stage of being deafened by the 75mm gun and my ears were ringing. The squadron leader said to me afterwards, ‘Are you alright corporal?’ I said, ‘Yes, except my ears are whistling.’ He said, ‘Oh, that will soon go, that’ll be gone tomorrow.’ Well I can tell you, I’ve still got it, 70 years later. The thing was that doctor said to me, ‘Oh you’ll soon get used to it, and it will not be any trouble.’ Well twenty years after that, I did stop noticing it. But I had twenty years of this awful penetrating whistle. I can still hear the whistling if I listen to it, but I got used to it. The Gurkha officer said, yes they’d do that, and they volunteered and did their part of the exercise.

.....Later I was talking to the Gurkha officer who only had one arm, from the elbow down; he’d lost it a couple of years earlier and had fitted to his this arm instead of a false hand, a miniature Kukri, strapped to his elbow. I said to him, ‘I’ve the greatest admiration for your chaps, I’ve been in action with them many times and I’d much prefer to be in action with them than with any other troops.’, although the Indians and British troops were good, and we were successful working with them and fighting alongside them, I preferred the Gurkhas. They didn’t give a damn, they went straight in.’ And he said, ‘Oh yes, there’s an occasion we had a doubt about their eagerness to volunteer. It was about two years ago, in the retreat from Burma, I personally asked my men if they would jump out at two thousand feet, and drop behind advancing Japanese lines in order to attack their L.O.C.’, line of communication. Only half of them volunteered. I was a bit puzzled. But when I said they’d have parachutes, everyone volunteered.’

.....I did mention there was some query about a commanding officer of one of the battalions in that division. It was one of the nine battalions in 2 Div, the lieutenant colonel wander off into the wilderness and I don’t know which one it was. It was a fact that one of the commanding officer who made a mess of things and I assume he killed himself, or wondered off until somebody shot him. That was a very strong story. Geographically it was in the area of what they call the ‘Sittang Bend’, the opposite side of the river to Mandalay, and we were playing around there, attacking different Japanese positions, to give the impression that we were going to cross the river near Mandalay, at the bridge at the Sittang Bend. I think the bridge was also called Sittang?

.....Well we had 4 Corp or 33 Corp, could have been 33 Corp, milling around in that area, attacking Japanese positions, to give the impression that they were going to cross the river near there. 33 tons of tank crossed the river on rafts, and I can tell you we were told to stay in the tank when we went onto the raft. I wasn’t at all happy; we couldn’t get out in time if it went down.

.....It was during the Stainless Steel Show that was before the fighting really started, we were at milestone 108, from Dimapur to Imphal, it’s quite near Imphal, in fact until the Japanese took it over as one of their main headquarters later. We were on this hillside; there were a lot of Baboons around on the hill and they used to come down and bark at us. At one time I thought the Japs themselves were invading us from above, and it was Baboons, pretty vicious things, I never got near them if I could avoid it. And it was during the Stainless Steel Sown, and the entertainer was coming for two nights, he was going to put the show on twice; two late afternoons, and he only did the first one because in the middle of it some tracer bullets flew over the stage, they didn’t hit him, they were nowhere near him really but he didn’t like it, he said, ‘What was that?’ and we said, ‘Oh its only Japanese tracer, their about two miles away and their firing in this direction.’, so he packed up and scarpered.

.....I was with a Major Huntley-Wright (Major James Huntley-Wright), when he was killed and his sister, Betty Huntley-Wright was a well known actress on the stage in London, occasionally on the radio. Betty Huntley-Wright was very well known; in fact I saw her name on a poster. I was in the same tank with him, squadron leaders operator. I once asked for promotion to tank commander in one of the other troops. I was held back in my rank as corporal and kept there for over twelve months in action; fortunately it was refused because a week later that tank was blown to pieces by a Japanese Ariel bomb under a bridge that was used as a mine.

.....The battle of Sangshak, which I have a record of, written by a pro-Japanese local; he was very pro Japanese, a young Marsho Sishak, this Sangshak, well I haven’t finished reading it yet, ‘Second world war in Manipur’, and as I said his pro-Japanese but it’s an account. At the time we were very anti-Japanese. I’ve felt twinges of sympathy with them, with some of the reports they put in. I once listened to a report by Japanese soldiers, in English, of their experiences at, Kohima, the British and Japanese forces were either side of the tennis court, and one of them was saying that the British planes used to fly over and most times they’d drop the food supplies to the British and Indian troops, and occasionally they’d miss the drop zone and it ended up on the Japanese side which was of great benefit to them, as they’d last a bit longer. He was saying, most of the time he was sat in his trench at the tennis court which was ‘no man’s land’, and he could hear the planes flying over, food landing, and then he could hear knives and forks cluttering on the mess tins as the British were eating and he had to carry on eating grass, and that got to me, I could feel that. And it’s one of the few times I’ve felt sympathy with them. They were very efficient and yet I’ve seen their N.C.O. or warrant officer with his sword out prodding them in the back to make them advance.

.....Shwebo Christmas day, most of the Japs had disappeared when we got there. The Japs had set traps, Aerial bombs connected with detonators at all the entrances to the town; they mostly went over a moat. We had a Sapper Officer with us, who spent his time walking in front of the tanks looking for booby traps and dismantling them and he walked with us into Burma, he walked up Nungshigum, he was an amazing man. I found out later, after he’d been in about five actions with us, walking in front of the tanks and doing that job, that nobody had recommended him for any award, and I said to my squadron leader, ‘That officer has earned an M.C., five times to my knowledge, when I’ve seen him in action.’, because I used to vet the reports requesting awards of gallantry, M.C.’s and M.M.’s, with the squadron leader, and he said, ‘Your right. It’s up to his commanding officer.’ I said, ‘Well his commanding officer is probably in Deli. He is the commanding officer, so nobody’s recommending him.’ Oh he said well have to find a way around that, and he put him in for two M.C.’s, which he was awarded later, for further acts of gallantry. I met his son after the war, his in Edinburgh and I’ve spoken to him a few times and also mentioned it in my book as well. He was delighted; his father had never mentioned anything about the war at all. He was a Lancastrian but he was living in Edinburgh and running a business, buying and selling property.

.....Christmas day Shwebo, when we went into action with the Berkshires. I was with a different battalion each day. Their leading company was changed each day, so we were only leading 2 Div along that road into Burma. They were leading it, every ninth day we were in our tank, and we were leading the company who were the farthest forward. The squadron leader believed he should be leading, and he did every day for weeks, until he was killed, they got him. We lost two tank commanders that way.

P 1 :: P 2 :: P 3

 

 

 

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