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Transcript Of Interviews
Of
Sgt. Roy William James Welland 5337618
1st Battalion The Royal Berkshire Regiment
.....The
1st Battalion went to Shwebo, I got there after a while, because unfortunately
between Kohima and Imphal, I got wounded, I was shot in the thigh. This happened
after we made contact at Imphal, we went through them and go onto the Chiding
Road?, we then went up into the hills a bit where we come up to this place
where the Japs had made a camp on the top of this hill. I got to the top of
this hill, then got snipped at, and got shot in the thigh. Now this was on
the 17th June 1944. I was sent back to Dakar, where some of the x-rays were
done and all the rest of it., then there’s the shock and dizziness, you
get that, because your literally paralysed, you can’t move your arms
or legs, nothing, you get that with shock. But that was treated quite well,
simply by putting cold water bandages around every joint. This was done by
the nursing staff. Well anyway, I healed up fairly quickly I should think I
been in there perhaps two to three weeks I reckon, and when I came out of there,
they sent me to a little sort of Transit Camp, which was not too far from there,
I forget what it was called now, and what they call rehabilitation. Anyway
there was this little crew of P.T. Instructors there, corporals mostly, and
they put us through our paces, on a gradual scale, they didn’t rush things.
I was on crutches to start with. But they gradually done a few exercises in
the laying down positions, laying on me back, and on me tummy and all the rest
of it. Gradually building the leg up, particularly up in the hip area, where
the bullet went actually, right at the top of the thigh. Then after awhile
they said, ‘can you walk alright?’, so I said, ‘Well yes.’,
so they said, ‘Well I’ll tell you what; we’ll keep you in
for another couple of days, and were take you on a little walk, or march, or
whatever, and see how you get on.’ Well I got through that quite well
so I said, ‘I’d like to get back.’ I could of stayed behind
longer, but I didn’t want to do that. The way it had been, because all
of my mates, up the front there. I’m not trying to be a hero, nothing
like that, nothing at all; just that I felt that I was letting them down. Anyway
this certain matron wasn’t very happy about it, she said, ‘Well
it’s entirely up to you.’ She said, ‘You should have a bit
more rest.’ Anyway I decided to go.
.....When I got back I crossed one of the rivers, now I’ve got a feeling looking
at the map, it couldn’t have been the Chindwin, because they couldn’t
have got passed that in that five weeks, so it was probably the Irrawaddy,
where the boys were getting ready to cross over that night. Anyway when I got
there, the sappers had apparently gone first and got to the other side and
we followed over. We started to proceed to these other places, there so difficult
to remember now. Quite a number, Shwebo in particular was one. We finally finished
up by crossing the Irrawaddy, and fighting into Rangoon. I think The Royal
Scots and the Lancashire Fusiliers, were the two battalions that played a very
big part on the other side of the Irrawaddy to sort of open up a gap for the
rest of us to infiltrate right the way through, into Rangoon itself. A lot
of the Japanese had fled vacating these various places, we found various badges,
insignias, and other things, just lying about, where these individuals got
out in a hurry. That’s it until we got into Rangoon.
.....Just before the Irrawaddy and just after, there were two or three places we
went through where there had been some very severe skirmishes or battles, and
we even passed some place where British prisoners of war were held, because
I found a number of identity discs lying around, and I picked them up. I handed
them over to the sergeant major, he said, “All right, leave them with
me and I’ll put them somewhere where someone can sort them out.”
.....I believe at that time Rangoon was on fire, you know and the docks were all
lit up, could have been the artillery I suppose, our artillery, and we just
carried on and carried on until we got to the outskirts of Rangoon. But I understand
it was the Royal Scots, or, anyway there were other divisions involved, also
the 5th Indian. That’s how it all came back; I got pushed into Government
House. At Government House we had to do a little bit of clearing up and put
a box formation of trenches around the building, and a defensive position for
three or four days. Nothing happened, so we cancelled that out and just made
do with fire picket patrols at a distance. Literally walking around with just
a pick axe handles. The Japs were running so fast, those that couldn’t
run fast just laid down and died. After a while we were allowed to go into
the Bazaars, which were not all properly set up, but were gradually getting
themselves set up. We were told to be very careful of the local women and all
that sort of business.
.....There again I am proud to say that I was the first Guard Commander when we
got Government House cleaned up a bit, to be on duty, when Slim inspect the
place, because he was going to put Lady Mountbatten, and I think her nursing
staff, in there. So it had to sort be tidied up and security arrangements made,
and I was the first Guard Commander, and I was inspected by Bill Slim himself.
You know, after the inspection was finished and we had done the patrol, we
presented arms and all the other paraphernalia, he said, ‘Well, sergeant
that wasn’t a bad effort, but you could have cleaned your boots a little
bit better.’ But he had a little grin on his face. I’ve met up
with him quite a number of times at the Arboretum’s.
.....We were by then counting the battalions up really, because the 2nd Battalion
apparently came into Burma not too far from us, but I don’t know quite
where, but they weren’t all that far away, and it appears that they had
a bit of a bashing also. So they decided to join the 1st and 2nd together.
So then of course the release numbers came out, and my number was 28, well
I knew that was going to be a hell of a long way away. Eventually my group
number came up, and that was that. We got sent to Rangoon docks. We landed
at Liverpool, and customs got onboard like they usually do, every other bloke
they asked him to turn his kit bag out, just to make sure he wasn’t carrying
anything he shouldn’t be, and that was that.
.....My date of release reads; Class ‘A’ Release, 9.8.46. That’s
where I went; I went up to York, to get my pin-striped suit, bits and pieces
and so on. They also fitted me up with all the leaves and disembarkment leave
and so forth, and the Gratuity and all the rest of them, all sorted out, and
that was that. Travel Warrant to get home the lot.
P 1 :: P
2 :: P 3 :: P
4 :: P 5
Sgt. Roy Welland