Danny is Monarch of all he surveys.
The CDRE's object was to develop materials which would protect troops' (and working animals') feet and skin when working in jungle contaminated by liquid gas. Treatment of gas burns on skin was another important field of research: one of their concoctions looked like cold tea, but turned out to be the finest sunburn remedy I ever tried - whether it was any use on a gas blister, I don't know.
After we had bombed or sprayed the trials areas, the Army's defensive clothings, creams and boot-dubbins were put to the test on man and beast. I believe an anti-gas cape was actually designed for a camel ! (still * used as a draught animal in North India). Dressing that creature for his trial must have been a sight worth seeing, given that there are no wild camels - and no tame ones, either ! They had horses and mules as well, but no elephants (perhaps the pachyderm hide is too tough for mustard to penetrate ?)
Note *: Could the sight of this animal been the germ of the idea for the "Camel Driver's Recruiting Establishment" joke ?
The animals had no option, but the Army guinea-pigs were all volunteers. It made sense to them. In return for some pain and discomfort, they were safe from real harm (or so it was then believed). * They had three meals a day, a bed and a little extra pay. It was better than being on th wrong end of a Japanese bayonet in Burma. If they wanted to go back there, they had only to ask. I never heard of any who did.
Note *: But when trials on the nerve gases took place after the war, we had fatalities.
Wing Commander Edmondes, being outside the normal chain of command, was responsible directly to AHQ Delhi, and so in no way my C.O. That was the S.A.S.O. of 225 Group ( a Group Captain) at Bangalore, some 200 miles away. There we were regarded as something of a nuisance, always behind with the paperwork.
But generally, we left them alone, and they didn't bother us, which suited us both. Stew and I devised a way to lighten our office work. The official mail delivery could quickly be filleted, anything which did not demand immediate response or action we binned. This saved no end of filing. If any question arose later, we'd simply signal that we'd never had the letter concerned, and could they please send us a copy ?
I had on loan from the Army an elderly Indian civilian clerk (Babu) in our Orderly Room. He did not approve of our methods. I can see him now, in his spotless white dhoti, a worried frown over steel pince-nez. "Sahib, Sahib, here is very difficulty, Sahib!"....... "What's the matter, Babu ?" ....... Of course, it would be Group, chasing us up about some return we hadn't rendered on time.
It has been said (with a great deal of truth) that the engineering side of the pre-war Air Force was run by its Sergeants, the post-war by its Flight Lieutenants - and in many cases, they were the same men.
All the aircraft maintenance and the airmens' discipline was in the capable hands of my Sergeant and his Corporals. Every Flight Commander is hugely dependent on his "Chiefy". Sergeant Williams (I'll forget my own name before I forget his, and it's been almost seventy years) was a regular of the old school.
He was a farmer's boy, and took it into his head to teach me to ride. The CDRE kept horses for experiments, and they found Indian Army cavalry saddles for us. It is practically impossible to fall out of these, and we cantered and galloped along the sands of Moplah Bay. But he didn't have much success and soon gave me up as a bad job, for I was a poor pupil, unable to shed my original conviction that a horse is always "dangerous at both ends and uncomfortable in the middle". *
Note *: It has always seemed to me that, with its vaunted intelligence, this animal should have worked out that there was no need to carry a great lump on its back when it could quite easily throw it off, then kick, stamp and bite it to death - and it would be just my luck to be on board when this suddenly occurred to some equine Socrates.
I've made several references to "we" and "us". I had a floating population. To begin with, I had Stew Mobsby (my old gunner) as adjutant, a couple of other officers - one was a navigator - and two NCO pilots. As we were intended to be largely self-sufficient, with our own Signals section, armourers, fire crews, MT mechanics, storemen and clerks as well as the aircraft maintenance people, there was a total of some 70 airmen. There was one glaring omission. There was no accounts section: I was not self-accounting.
This immediately posed a question, how do I pay my airmen ? There was no common-sense arrangement whereby the Army would pay them and recover from the RAF. The nearest RAF Accountant Officer was in Cochin, about 150 miles down the coast. He wanted an Acquittance Roll, (on which each man had signed a receipt for his pay) before handing over any money. It was deadlock, and we had to get round it some way.
The solution which McInnis had worked out was this. I got my chaps to sign a duplicate blank Acquittance Roll (they must have had sublime faith in me), and flew down to Cochin with both copies. There the accounts clerks entered each man's pay on the Rolls beside his signature, and worked out the coinage. * The Accountant Officer handed over the cash, keeping one signed Roll, so he was in the clear whatever happened.
I flew back with a bag of several thousand rupees and the other Roll, held a Pay Parade (our only Parades) and dished out the money. What would happen if I crashed on the way back ? How would they sort that out ? Luckily, it never happened and the airmen always got their pay !
Note *: No real problem, for I think they always paid to the nearest Rs5 below the due figure, and there was a Rs5 note (in fact, there was a tiny Rs1 note, about 4 x 2 in, I kept one in my log for many a year, but it's gone now), so there was no coin in the pay.
Months ago, I promised you a "Special" Post on Indian Railways (on which we spent a lot of time). Coming next,
Early night tonight, chaps,
Danny42C.
Chugalug,
Yes, J.W.W. Donaldson is (was?) quite a descriptive writer wasn't he ? (we must look to our laurels !)
D.
Last edited by Danny42C; 28th Sep 2012 at 22:57.
Reason: Restore Spacing.