Corporal Ronald Packer

I was stationed on Ramree Island when the monsoon hit. The airstrip was simply an area of sand which had been leveled and covered with interlocking metal strips. Heavy rain continued for three weeks continually and unremittingly and within days the ground had absorbed as much as it was capable of, and water was standing on the surface. Flying was only possible very occasionally and water was beginning to rise through the holes in the metal strips, it was obvious that flying would very soon be impossible.  Where the ground had appeared to be sand, within days after the rain it was covered in orchids and other exotic plants, it was a fairyland.

Our clothes were starting to rot, and patches of coloured sores were appearing on our skin – the dreaded Jungle sores. It was obvious that we could not operate much longer, as parts of the camp became flooded. The hot air was heavy with moisture, it was like having a constant Turkish bath. It was the worst monsoon for years.

There came a time when it was impossible to operate at all and within days, we were all taken to the port and boarded a new troopship, the Devonshire. We were given as much bread and butter to eat as we wanted, but the butter (Australian) was rancid, and the bread was full of weevils. Tapping the bread hard on a table got rid of most of them, but after nearly 6 months without as much as a crust, we thought we were at the Ritz!

When we departed the Devonshire, we went to a place outside Madras called Poonamallee. All our vehicles were unroadworthy and as I had an emergency license, I was given the job of driving all the different vehicles to a compound near the Tiruvallun River. I did this for several days, an Indian driver with a very decrepit car took me back each time to Poonamallee.

I did notice that despite my repeated journeys, the number of vehicles in the compound never seemed to grow. I guess that as fast as I was filling it, Indians were emptying it. I remember that there were some very big and tall banana groves, the bananas were long and the flesh was a shade of pink, it was rather coarse and not particularly sweet.

After all kit had been replaced and medical checks etc., we boarded a train for Tiruchirappalli and then by gharry to a little airstrip near Madurai, where there was a magnificent Hindu temple.

The airstrip had painted white lines to resemble the deck of an aircraft carrier, and a Spitfire squadron flew in to practice deck landings, this seemed rather ominous, as it meant sea preparations, which meant either a raid or an attempt to land somewhere.

Madurai was a fascinating place, I went with a corporal M.P. to visit the temples, what a sight after dark and such a strange atmosphere with wailing and gongs being hit all over the place, it was weird.

There were times I was jolly glad my friend had a service revolver. We were told several times not to go into places selling liquor, it was very cheap, and sometimes was offered free, but there was a catch to that one. One night, coming back to camp on a liberty gharry, our driver spotted something white on the apex of the road (this was virtually a single track as it was a monsoon road raised several feet above the fields). He reacted very quickly and just managed to bring us to a halt a matter of feet away. It was a serviceman, he was completely naked, he had been robbed of everything and was lucky for his life. The area around Madurai was bandit country, and the offer of a free drink was a ploy to get him drunk and hand him over to the bandits.

It was a very hot plain, opposite Kandy on the island of Ceylon, the CIC’s headquarters. During the evenings, as it was a dry heat, we could strip off and we went to a sort of lean to where we could buy glass after glass of lime juice, it was very cheap. He also had Bantam hens and we could enjoy fried eggs on chapattis for a matter of pence in value.

I had a tooth which needed filling; one afternoon a service dentist arrived and I had the tooth filled. The anaesthetic was a glass of a mixture containing rum and some other drink, the dentist drilled my tooth using a footpedalled drill, it took some time and was rather unpleasant, in spite of the tot.

The pace at camp suddenly quickened and one late afternoon an announcement came over the office radio that Lord Louis, our CIC was going to make an address to us all. We sat around the office and he came on the radio to say that the war in Europe was over and that we would now press on and finish the Japs and drive them out of Malaya and Singapore. Our reaction to that was a cynical ‘Thanks very much!”.

We just had time to visit the Madurai Cotton mills, quite a large place and the cloth was cheap, I had enough cash (pay parades being few) to buy some small cloths, blue and white and green and white check. I still have them and to prove the quality they have had a lot of wear over the years and have never faded. Very soon after this we were on our way again, for some reason they would not tell us where we were going, quite unusual, and no news is not good news in the service. We eventually arrived at our destination, which was, guess what? Poonamalee. The very same camp as before. We were equipped with all new vehicles and other equipment and told to be ready to move off in a couple of days.