Author
Dr Raymond Marks
Branch
Army
Personal Stories
My father, Joseph Marks, was drafted in early 1940 and his troopship was part of a convoy dispatched to reinforce the British garrison at Singapore.
Due to German U-boat activity in the Mediterranean, they were forced to forgo the normal Suez crossing, and sailed around South Africa, stopping to refuel and resupply.
In the interim, Singapore fell to the Japanese and the convoy was redeployed to join Wingate’s army in India to help stem the impending invasion through Thailand and Burma. If the convoy had reached Malaya, I might not be writing this!
One of the many stories he told, was of the British attempt to take a strategic hill, topped by a pagoda, being used by the Japanese as an observation post directing artillery fire. The British euphemistically named it “Temple Hill”. After several futile and bloody attempts failed, they called for air support from the Americans. A day passed without help and the British decided to give it one more try. This time they reached the summit, killed and drove off the defenders. As they celebrated, American P51’s finally showed up but strafed the British soldiers occupying the summit…
My father learned to speak Hindi, became familiar with Indian traditions and actually bathed in the Ganges River. He was never wounded in battle but did contract several tropical diseases such as malaria and Dengue fever. I believe he spent time training Gurkhas, who were hated and deeply feared by the Japanese but respected by the British.
In 1944, as a warrant officer, my father was able to get his brother, my uncle, transferred from the ETO, to India. Uncle Monty was a mortar man scheduled to go ashore on D-day. Two weeks after arriving in Bombay, my uncle’s entire platoon was wiped out on the beaches of Normandy.