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Silly Bugger
Extracts from a recorded interview with
L/Cpl. William Joseph Lowe 14640525
.....We got hit with
by the Japs, a couple of men went out ahead and returned reporting the bush
trail was clear, the Sergeants advised the officer that it was best to stay
off the trail. The officer insisted it was the shortest way and would they
could make up lost time by the more direct route.
.....The this officer he was a bloody clown. *He
said, all right, two patrols, one each side of the trail, the Japs were waiting
for us, and the first ones they picked off were the officers because they stood
out from them men due to the Sam brown belts and pistol, well everybody else
was carrying a rifle. Well I mean they could spot them a mile off.
.....Well Ken will tell you, he was with one,
XXXX, and he was one of the first to get killed and I have forgotten the name
of the other one that got killed on another patrol. They singled out the Sergeants
who shout out the instructions; they pick him off. There was a chap from Coventry,
he got hit. Yes they all got picked off.
.....There was another chap from Coventry he had been there for some time and
he said to me when I got promoted, ‘you silly bugger’, I said,
what’s a matter, he said, ‘ you got a stripe’, I said, why?
He said, ‘you don’t want bloody stripes’, he said, ‘it’s
the worst thing’, he said, ‘they can bloody see you and pick you
off’.
* To place this comment into prospective. William said off tape that the
officer in question was brought into the Burma theatre without any experience
of warfare, or Jungle fighting and had never commanded a company before. The
big mistake he made was not listening to he’s very experienced Sergeants.
L/Cpl. William Joseph Lowe