2nd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment

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Grandfather's Story
A CIVILIAN GOES TO WAR, (AND RETURNS UNSCATHED)

by
Cpl. Arthur George Pike 14260370
Page 9

 

in every one since the scheme (LIAP) started. I was rushed to Rangoon, but the boat was full and I had to wait four weeks for the next one. This was the SS Dilwara, and took us all the way to Southampton.

As we came up the entrance to the port, too many men went to the side where the quay would be. I went to the other side, but someone came and said there was someone on the quay asking for me. There were two people in our reception committee; one was my father, and the other the wife of a ship's engineer; they had chatted and established that they were distant relatives.

Bernard Hawton (from our Signals Platoon) was on that boat after serving his time out there. He subsequently spent his honeymoon at my father's hotel.

After the four weeks' leave, during which I was told that things hadn't been so good at home either, I went back to Bourne airfield in Cambridgeshire (via Chelsea!) for air trooping to Cagliari in Sardinia. The officers 'bagged' the window seats, which they relinquished to the other ranks for the journey over the desert to Cairo. Some flaw in the works gave us an extra day in Cairo, memorable for the boy who threw boot polish over my shoes, thinking I would pay him for cleaning them. I think the next calls were at Habbaniyah and Karachi, and then Dum Dum in Calcutta.

The SS Ethiopia had been brought for our journey to Rangoon which was delayed by a private soldier who declared it unfit and would not board. After a considerable wait, he was persuaded, and off we went. It was seaworthy.

So it was back to Burma for 3½ months. I was now in the Orderly Room, and got things ready to hand over when I left. I was flattered by my CV which referred to the enormous payroll which I had organised.

The trip home seems to have no memories whatever for me except that we called at Colombo to take some Indian troops to Bombay where they would be available if any riots should happen. The next memory is of coming into Liverpool, on board the Reina del Pacifico, train to Aldershot and home by the late train from Basingstoke I still knew my way about. Four weeks leave, during which the B release saw me kitted out at Woking and returned to civilian life. The trilby fitted, and lasted. The demob suit wasn't bad. The trigger finger had not been used, nor the savage bayonet.

FOLLOW-UP. Contacts with Major Hill from Poole were very exciting. He commanded B Company. We lost his friend at Kabwet in an over-confident advance. The other two Company commanders seemed rather flippant, a quality which would not prevent them from doing the right thing at any awkward moments. Two officers joined us from Australia when we were short.

It may seem incredible that Scott Selwyn who was with me for a long time, is still ringing me up from Codsall from time to time. (2006).

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Cpl. Arthur George Pike
Cpl. Arthur George Pike 6400751

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