'A Grandfather's Tale: Memoirs being mainly concerned with service in the Indian Army and the Indian Political Service in India and the Persian Gulf from 1932-1947' [‎32v] (64/118)

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at least in theory, fit for all weathers. In practice in the rains they
became like skating rinks, and many were the learner drivers who ended
upside down in their trucks in the paddy fields on either side of the
"road”. There were no large villages, but every mile or so on slightly
rising ground there were a few houses in a clump of coconut trees or other
vegetation. In one of these we had our Brigade Headquarters and I had a
tiny brick built dwelling as my habitation. As far as possible we made
use of existing buildings as it was difficult to camouflage tents in that
open sort of country, and we were really very exposed to the air.
The Brigade now consisted of the 1st Lincolns, a regular Punjab
Regiment and an Indian Territorial battalion only recently embodied plus
signals and the usual supporting arms, except that we had no artillery. The
Calcutta District in peacetime had always been a backwater militarily, and
the fact that it was now called 26 Indian Infantry Division did not at first
seem to make much difference. Our Brigade, spread over an enormous front
with poor lateral communications, was all that stood between Calcutta and
any Japanese who cared to come our way. Luckily for us, and Calcutta, they
never landed, although their ships were known to be in the Bay of Bengal and
they sent over some reconnaissance aircraft,
On one occasion two Majors in the Indian Army OrdnanceCorps arrived
at Brigade Headquarters from Calcutta and swore that they had seen Japanese
parachutists descending from the skies near Diamond Harbour on the Hooghly
River about twenty miles away, and on the extreme right (West) of our Sector.
Both the Brigadier and the Brigade Major were out that day visiting units
on our East flank, and since the matter obviously required immediate
investigation I ordered the 1st Lincolns to send out a strong fighting
patrol in trucks to verify the position. Two hours later they returned to
report that beyond a few Bengali children flying kites they had found
nothing. So much for the ’’eye-witness” reports of two perfectly sober and,
one would have thought, entirely reliable officers.
As time went on we gradually strengthened our positions and even
received a visit from H.R.H. Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester. He must
have found it pretty dull but before he left we managed to make him laugh
so all was well. The Brigade never, in fact, saw action in the Sundarbans,
but later had more than enough of it in the Arakan Campaign. Long before
that time, however, I had been sent off to the Staff College at Quetta. I
had been a Reserve for the 5 th War Course starting in February 1942, but that
would hardly have been a good time for me to leave the Brigade. Six months
la^er things were in better shape and Geoffrey Bull was prepared to let me
go and I finally left Bengal to join the 6 th War Course at Quetta at the
end of July 1942. I was then thirty.
Jane and Christopher had remained in Nowshera after I left, but went
to stay in.Flagstaff House with Mrs. Bull, the Brigadier's wife, until the
end of April when they went up to the Hills to Dunga Gali, a small hill
^ a ^° n + . not ver y. fa J Jrom Murree and close to Gharial where I had spent
my first summer m 1932 with the Border Regiment. There was only one small