In 1939 Cyril was moved to the Russian border as it was widely known Stalin had ambition to occupy Afghanistan.
In 1941 the 13th King's moved to Burma and many were selected for the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade, or Chindits
...I do recall the time when the officers were getting really excited and we were called to arms to be sent out to deal with 350,000 rioters... all 150 of us! I’m afraid when facing odds like that, there wasn’t any place for politeness. We were ordered to open fire and that’s what we did.
When the War started in 1939, Russia was on the side of Germany in a Pact which had been secretly negotiated before the outbreak of hostilities. Of course the Russians had serious ambitions to cross into Afghanistan & India for the oil fields. We were stationed right up at the frontier in the mountains. This was part of the Himalaya range and we were about 16,000 feet up, digging in with picks & shovels; it was quite ridiculous really.
I had originally joined for 7 years so I was here for the duration. I suppose the situation became so serious trying to defend against the Japanese advance across Burma that many of us were transferred to the Arakan Front. By this time in 1941 increases in manpower were becoming very clear as men were being landed from troop ships sent from home, so the defensive front was just about holding. We were up against the Japanese Imperial Army which had developed quite a reputation; they’d taken Singapore and driven us out of Malaysia – all in just a few months.
I was in the 13th King’s Regiment of the 14th Army. Some of us were selected for the Chindit Brigade, to go into the jungle in order to disrupt enemy communications and transport. It was an idea put forward by Major General Orde Wingate who was quite a character. He came to address the troops and explained what the campaign was going to be about. We would be under the command of Mike Calvert who was to become known as "Mad Mike". We were to be dropped into the jungle by glider, deep behind enemy lines. The landing strips had been prepared, but were really just clearings in the jungle. Secrecy was always critical because whenever the Japs thought a landing strip was being prepared, they would lay logs and debris across the area to prevent landing. The 'strips' we were to be aimed at were called Piccadilly and Broadway.
Just as we were about to go in, six of us were called in front of the C.O. He explained that we had by then done 7 years service so we were going home. You could have knocked me over with a feather...
