Pte. William Kaighin
British Army 1st Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers
What follows is all that I managed to get from my father, William Kaighin but it does not line up with the RSF war diary which leaves me to believe that my father did not go with the original battalion. Please can someone help me with any information or clarification or where I can get it as the regiment has been no help?
I was called up and sent to Maidstone then Inverness with the 1st Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers. Picked up the 2nd Battalion in Poona, India. Train at Bombay to Chittagong which took a week. Boat from there to Calcutta for about a day-no post. Calcutta to an island called Akkyack but cancelled at last minute and sent to northern India to Arakan which was jungle then on to Margarita-Burma-Opong.
Flew in Dakota. Yanks captured it and gave it to the Chinese who left it on fire when we got there. We were there 13 months then walked to Mandalay. Then into hospital with malaria, scrub typhus, jungle sores and dysentry, flown out by Jackie Gleeson in a Dakota, on patient per wing, Gave us mepracrin tablets every day. Young guy next to me in bed, about 22 or 23 died one night and I did not know until the morning. He had malaria of the spine which you catch from the female mosquito, the male does not bite. I went into the doctors one day and stole 500 mepracrin tablets. A friend was bending down behind a tree going to the toilet and did not know that a Jap was doing the same the other side. Friend was the first to pull up his trousers and killed the Jap.
Any prisoners taken were killed as there was not enough food for us. In any case it was too far to take them back. They treated us the same. If you discharged your rifle without coming up with a body you went on a charge of 14 days.
I was frightened on the ship going over cause you are locked below. They gave me a week's leave then it was off to Inverness standing all the way from London. I arrived, signed in and then the sergeant took me for a 5 mile run. I was one of the oldest at 34.
Ruby Sparkes was in our lot. He was a London crook, the first man to break out of Dartmoor. He decided to get out of the Army. We all got a 48 hour pass to go to a boxing match and Ruby put his name down for one of the fights. On the way to the match he said cheerio and was never seen again.
Saw Vera Lynn in Chittagong. She moved the officers out of the front seats and put the soldiers there. Mountbatton gave us a talk. It was all bullshit but boosted our morale. He could swear worse than me.
The ship we went out on was the Wiiem Roose along with an American boat called the Maritz. The Maritz was torpedoed with about 2000 troops on board. I helped my mate called Chota Small out of the water.
We gave our underwear away to villagers for food.
