2nd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment

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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
L/Cpl. William Joseph Lowe

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