Mist on the Rice-Fields by John Shipster

Author:John Shipster [Shipster, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Military, History, Korean War, World War II
ISBN: 9780850527421
Google: 1pEhAQAAIAAJ
Publisher: Leo Cooper
Published: 2000-01-15T00:27:16+00:00

A Close Shave in the Gulf of Siam

Two days before we were due to sail on the Highland Brigade I had further trouble with an old grenade wound in my right thigh, which had become badly swollen and made walking difficult, but as it was not considered to be serious I was allowed to embark. However, once aboard I found myself unable to walk at all, and furthermore felt feverish; I was consequently confined to my cabin. The 1,000-mile journey down the Gulf of Siam and then into the South China Sea was to take three days.

I cannot explain why I was not moved into the ship’s sick bay; perhaps the answer is that there was no such place. Surat Singh, my young Sikh orderly, looked after me as best as he could, and anyway I did not feel well enough to want much.

In the very early morning of the last day of our voyage (18 January) I was awakened by a large explosion followed by a great deal of commotion and alarm bells ringing. It turned out that we had hit a stray Japanese mine, some 60 miles from Singapore. The engine room had been holed and the engines put out of action. A radio message was passed to Singapore asking for assistance. The ship soon developed a very pronounced list, and all troops were ordered to their lifeboat stations. I lay in my cabin in complete darkness until Surat Singh, accompanied by two of our officers, led me with the aid of a torch up to the boat decks. It was eerie, moving through the darkened ship, which was so quiet that it seemed that everyone else had jumped overboard.

When I got to the boat deck dawn had already broken and there was a fair amount of daylight. I soon forgot my fears. The atmosphere was one of total calm, which in the dawn light, and not knowing the extent of our plight, was most impressive. I did reflect that it would be rough justice to be sunk by a stray mine five months after the war! Eventually, after about seven hours, two tugboats arrived to tow us into Singapore. Luckily the sea was calm and, with the aid of the tugs and the ship’s pumps, we arrived safely. Our mishap had occurred only some 60 miles from where the battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse had been sunk by Japanese torpedo-carrying aircraft on 10 December 1941.

I left the Highland Brigade on a stretcher; this form of transport was by now almost becoming a way of life. The cause of my discomfort was quickly discovered to be a piece of jungle green cloth in my thigh, which had not previously shown up on the X-ray photos; it was removed under a general anaesthetic. A nursing sister kindly presented it to me in a little glass jar, but I had no wish to keep such a disgusting relic. In later life, at odd intervals, small fragments from the same

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.