Burma Star Association - B.C. Chapter
Recollections of ‘MANOEUVRES’.
Field Security duties in Northwest India tended to be routine and rather boring, but we did have a period when things were rather more exciting -- this when a field contest, laughingly called manoeuvres, was arranged between Rawalpindi Brigade and Kohat Brigade.
Rawalpindi Brigade was supposed to attack Kohat, which is in the foothills of the inaccurately termed Himalayas. My Field Security Section was supposed to set up road blocks, interrogate passers-by and do all the things to impede military and civil traffic alike. Field Security Sections do this in the hopes of catching a Kohati spy trying to sneak through our lines. The weather was bitterly cold with sleet as was often the case in those hills. Nobody was in that characteristic fighting mood that is generally attributed to the British or Indian soldier. We only wished they would call the whole thing off and allow us to go back to our comfortable quarters.
Sensing the general lack of enthusiasm, and hoping to instill a little more of the martial spirit in us, the Brigadier ordered up a rum ration for the whole brigade, which Kohat Brigade unfairly ambushed and captured.
Infuriated by this ungentlemanly way of waging warfare on the part of Kohat Brigade, our Brigadier ordered an immediate counter-attack. He didn't give a bugger about the loss of the convoy, but get that #@%#@&+ rum back!!
The counter attack deployed with élan and speed almost unknown in the Indian or British service. The recovered rum, minus a certain percentage of evaporation due to battle leakage was returned to the Detail Issue Section for issue escorted by:
§ One battery of artillery- 8 guns
§ One troop of armoured cars
§ A full battalion of infantry.
The infantry battalion was composed of Punjabi Muslims which, having religious abhorrence of alcoholic beverages, lessened the risk of further loss from battle leakage.
Ted