'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' [‎32r] (63/118)

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about the third week of August when the Brigade returned to Nowshera I
had had plenty of work but seen little action as my job entailed keeping
all the administrative side of things going from our temporary Headquarters
in Bannu while the Brigadier and the Brigade Major went off to the "war".
The B.M. was Nathu Singh, a senior Major in the Rajput Regiment and a
peacetime graduate of uhe Staff College, Quetta, and we became great friends.
The Brigadier was Geoffrey Bffill of the 19th Hyderabad Regiment. He was then
42, and only a few years before had himself been Staff Captain and then
Brigade Major of this same Brigade when it was commanded by Brigadier
(later Field Marshal) Alexander. At that time in the mid-thirties, the
rival Peshawar Brigade had been commanded by Brigadier (later Field Marshal)
Auchinleck, and it was interesting to hear Geoffrey Ball's impressions of
these two great men. Alexander had a brilliat, light touch which made every
thing seem effortless, though successful, whereas the Auk was thorough,
earnest and painstaking in the extreme but, as a Brigadier, equally effective.
Jane and Christopher stayed in the hills, until the Brigade returned
from Bannu, and rejoined me in Nowshera at the end of August. We had a very
decent modern bungalow allotted to us, No. 43 The Mall, and for the first
time since our marriage a house with not only electric light and running water
laid on, but long baths and a pull-plug, undreamt of luxuries!
Towards the end of the year part of the Brigade, including the
1st Lincolns, was sent up to the Khyber Pass, to improve the fortifications
there , as there was some thought that the Germans might be planning to
come down into India from the Caucusus via Afghanistan. I was interested to
see the Khyber at first hand, as I had heard so much about it, and even
ventured illegally, some way over the Border into Afghan territory.
Soon, however, all our plans were to be turned upside down by the
Japanese action at Pearl Harbour on December ?th 1941. I remember bicycling
down the Mall at Nowshera to Brigade Headquarters when the news came through.
The Powers-that-be suddenly realised that the most immediate danger was now
likely to be from the South East and not from the North West Frontier, and
within a few weeks Nowshera Brigade was re-christened 71 Indian Infantry
Brigade and early in February 1942 we were sent off to Bengal, and planted
in the Sundarbans, thirty or forty miles South of Calcutta - amidst an area
of paddy fields and swamp.
Nowshera Brigade had been geared for Frontier warfare, and used only
animal transport, mainly mules, with camels for heavier baggage when
required. 71 Brigade was to be partially mechanized, when the transport
could be provided. Mealwhile we had to train Indian troops to drive motor
vehicles, using such civilian transport as could be hired or requisitioned.
In the Sundarbans roads were almost non-existent.except for that to
Diamond Harbour, on the bank of the Hooghly River, and there were no local
road making materials available. The dirt tracks were on the top of the
Bunds (large banks) and bricks had to be imported to make these tracks,