Rowland William Button's War Story - Chapter 5 - End of Story

ROWLAND BUTTON’S WAR STORY AS TOLD TO HIS GRANDAUGHTER RACHEL

THE SECOND WORLD WAR

CHAPTER 5

Yes — on my way back to Ceylon, to a unit of Force 136 located at a base near Panadura, south of Colombo. Preparations were being made to invade Maylasia and this time everything seemed well organised. I was given a small B2 suitcase wireless set, a revolver, a watch (which I used for years). I was taught how to use plastic explosive to blow up railway lines and how to look after myself in the jungle. A RAF officer and myself were of a small group of people who were to parachute into the jungle just north of Singapore prior to the invasion of the main forces by sea. All was prepared, we were actually at the RAF airfield in central Ceylon ready to go, when the whole operation was called off. The Atom bombs had been dropped on Japan and the Japanese had surrended. There was no need for us to go. We celebrated VJ day in Colombo and that night there was a party on the base. It seemed strange that all our troubles were over. I imagined I would spend a few weeks, maybe months, having a long holiday in Ceylon before being sent home to England. It was likely that married men would be sent home first.

But no, it was not to be. I was ordered back to Hyderabad immediately — and by air too! We flew up the west coast of India, dropped in at Madras and across India to the airport at Hyderabad. I had just arrived in my hut. I had sorted out all my dirty shirts and clothes and sent them to the dhobi — the Indian laundry man. Urgent call — report to the commander. Yes I was on my way again — next morning at 0400 hours I flew to Dum Dum airport near Calcutta to join up with a RAF doctor and we were both to parachute into Java to assist with the prisoners of war being released from the prison camps there.

It seemed to be well planned but it turned out the opposite. I could not locate this RAF doctor anywhere in Calcutta, no one seemed to know where he was or what had happened to him. I spent two or three weeks in Calcutta searching and seeking alternative instructions. It all seemed chaotic - such is war.

I used to wander around Calcutta. It was quite unbelievable, the squalor and misery in which many people lived. You will have heard of the work Mother Teresa has done there in the years just gone by.

There was nothing to do but wait, the war was over and troops were gradually being returned to Britain. I think it was in the autumn of 1945 when I was told that I was to come home. Not by troopship this time but by Liberator bomber. I went to Poona and came home via Lydia in what was then Palestine. It was about a 9-hour flight from Poona to Palestine which was not very comfortable because the bomber had just been fitted out with seats to carry passengers. We spent three days in
Palestine and I went to Tel Aviv. There was soon to be war again here. But off we flew again to North Africa, then Istres in France and home to England over the White Cliffs of Dover. We were due to land in Wiltshire but because of fog we were diverted to Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire. We were given some new kit at Bourn nearby and home for a fortnight’s leave.

But it still was not my turn to leave the Air Force. I was stationed Hornchurch and Cosford before being demobbed at Cardington. We were given ‘demob’ suits, mine was a blue striped one, about four months pay and the RAF said goodbye to us. We were asked to state what medals we were entitled to. I said none because I didn’t feel I had earned any.

So this is the end of my war story. I haven’t told you much about war have I. But I was not in any real battles, no one fired a gun at me and no bombs fell near me. For almost five years I moved around from place to place, from country to country. I saw a lot of the world and its peoples.

But war was not like that for everyone. Having seen the aftermath of battle in Burma one can understand what a terrible thing war is. The fighting troops in Burma must have had a terrible time, as well as fighting against the Japanese they had the jungle to contend with as well. There were also the tropical diseases, the lack of good water. All the supplies had to be transported long distances, some of course from Britain.

You will read too, and maybe sometimes see on television of the construction by prisoners captured by the Japanese of a railway through the jungle between Burma and Thailand and how many of the prisoners died of sickness and ill-treatment.

War is terrible for both sides. Just think of all the people killed and injured by the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, which finally ended the war in the East. Some argue now that many more would have been killed if the atomic bombs had not been dropped and the war continued. They may be right — who knows I might at last have been in the war in Malaysia. But no reasoning will help those killed or maimed by the atomic bombs.

I cannot remember ever feeling hunger — thirsty maybe. But read about the people in Holland, how towards the end of the European War they were starving. Think too of all those killed in concentration camps.

Originally we went to war because we had promised Poland that if the Germans invaded their country we would declare war on Germany. The war was fought and Germany defeated. But the hoped for peace in Europe never really came. For Europe was virtually divided into two. Poland was not to be really free. Only just recently have we witnessed happenings in Europe which have set Poland — and many other countries on the real road to freedom and I for one, said, maybe at last the war is really ended

THE END

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