Unit/Base Publications in India

Discussion in 'Burma & India' started by ARM, May 5, 2021.

  1. ARM

    ARM Member

    Dear all,

    New member here. I'm in the midst of a project on the social history of British soldiers' experiences in India in WW2. I've been collecting copies/scans of newspapers/journals/news sheets published at various locations throughout India during the war. I've tracked down quite a few, but would be delighted to hear of any that members of this group might have or know of elsewhere. I have some funding for this project as well and happy to discuss that as well.
    I've got the entire run of SEAC newspaper (the Frank Owen one) as well as most of Victory, Burma Star (1946), and parts of smaller publications like Madrazzle, Jungle Jottings, and Tiger Rag (USAAF), as well as some hospital magazines in the RAMC collection at the Wellcome Library.

    For a sense of what I'm working on, I have a chapter ("'India is a fine country after all:' cultivating military morale in WW2 India") in Jackson, Khan and Singh, eds., An Imperial World at War. (Routledge 2016)

    Thanks in advance and please do be in touch.

    Andrew Muldoon
     
  2. davidbfpo

    davidbfpo Patron Patron

    Have you tried: BBC - WW2 People's War - Archive List I am sure there are veterans accounts there, though no printed matter.
    The US military in WW2 published guide books to virtually all the main overseas theatres, I am not aware that the UK did. They may been far more informal and pre-1939 too.
    There is a thread here on the provision of authorised military brothels, yes for the US military; might that be one of the more obvious social history aspects. Plus the preventative medical aspects required.
    Seeking sex could be lethal in places, from an earlier thread: In very separate research an Indian Army officer, who later became a General, Stanley Menezes when interviewed by the Imperial War Museum about his service before Partition at Landi Kotal (Khyber Pass), refers to: a Wiltshire Regt. Picket post was approached by local tribesmen and asked if they wanted women, they replied yes. The tribesmen later returned at night, tricked their way into the picket and massacred them all.
    From Reel 3 of his interviews: Menezes, Stanley (Oral history)
     
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  3. Skoyen89

    Skoyen89 Senior Member

    Some interesting detail on the facilities available for troops (and officers} are contained in the various 'Guides' to places troops spent time - such as Calcutta, Shillong and Bombay.
     
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  4. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    There is an online copy of Westward Bound on post 3 of the thread below. This describes the procedure for repatriation from India to the UK. There is also a bit of info on the Deolali Reinforcement/Transit Camp:

    Base Reinforcement Camp, Deolali.
     
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  5. ARM

    ARM Member

    Thanks. I've seen that.
     
  6. ARM

    ARM Member

    Thanks. Yes, I've found a few of these in a variety of places.
     
  7. idler

    idler GeneralList

    3 Cdo Bde appear to have had a journal The Jungle Book. Someone on the FB group 'WW2 Burma Research' has a couple of issues. Probably doesn't help that we're between RM museums at the moment.
     
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  8. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    Troop ships often printed newsletters and they are an interesting resource, generally not much news but they are often morale boosting. Many seem to have been kept as souvenirs by disembarking troops. This particularly dates from 1942 and was published just before arrival in Bombay.

    Crozier 015.JPG
     
  9. ARM

    ARM Member

    Yes, that's exactly what I've been looking for. I have a couple, and some from some American troopships, but always looking for more. Tend to find them in personal papers at BL or IWM, but of course haven't had that chance in a bit. Thanks.
     
  10. Christine JILBERT

    Christine JILBERT New Member

     
  11. Christine JILBERT

    Christine JILBERT New Member

    My dad was in Digiri Airfeild from 1945-46. He fueled the planes. Drove vehicles.
    He didnt talk alot, but I done reseach and thing B26 or B29 bombers took off from there. On boming rades but was failier as too far. And then the moved closer to Japan. Also they also there at end war for repatiation and droping supplies.As you can see from photo it looks like a fuel tanker.
    Dad was Seargent William Edward Jilbert.
     

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