In the meantime, the Japanese surrender had taken place on August 15th 1945, after the two atom bombs had been dropped on Japan. It was a wonderful relief to think that the war was finally over and we had a thanksgiving service that morning in one of the huts (Bashas). A basha was the Indian name of the hut we had for our living quarters. It was a wonderful feeling that the tension had lifted with the Japanese surrender. We had heard on the radio about these bombs being dropped, something larger than had ever been experienced before and we couldn’t understand the enormity of the damage that had been inflicted, which brought about the Japanese Emperor’s surrender. Our thoughts, of course, were that at last we should eventually be demobbed in due course, although we knew we would be some considerable time, as it was based on age and service. My group being 29, the 26 group consisted of all the militia men that had been conscripted prior to the outbreak in June 1939. I eventually, along with the rest of our base ordnance depot, was posted to Singapore. We sailed from Chittagong in November 1945 and Eric Taylor and myself were allotted a cabin on board the Salween. It was a very pleasant voyage, as we sailed down the Malacca Straits and we had first class accommodation and dined at the top class table.
When we arrived at Singapore, we had to change our currency from Indian Rupees to Malayan dollars, as Singapore was then still part of Malaya. As hostilities were now over, the Japanese had to surrender all their military equipment, which included thousands of rifles, machine guns and bayonets and officers had to surrender their swords. One of the first jobs we were detailed to do was to dispose of the rifles, of which I had to supervise. This was done by creating large bonfires having first extracted the rifle bolts, which were cased up and taken out to sea and sunk. We also had to ensure that there were no live rounds in the rifle before we placed them on the bonfire. Another job was to open the large storage chambers containing millions of rounds of ammunition of different nationalities. I believe they ended up in Singapore Harbour. I had a rather frightening experience during the time we were emptying the storage chambers, as a rattle snake fell out of the shrubbery and whilst one lad pinned it down I hammered it to death in my fright. It was a krait and very venomous. If it had bitten any one of us it would have been immediately fatal.
One evening, on our return to our billet, I received what was in effect a notice of posting. I was to go to 14 Indian Beach Group, stationed at Port Dickson, up the Malay Peninsula. It was very short notice, as I had to catch the 18.00 hours train the next day from Singapore to Penang, which only travelled once a day. I had to take up my duty as Brigade Ordnance Warrant Officer (BOWO for short), a far cry from our ordnance procedure course back in 1940 when such a position would only have been a dream. I embarked on the train with all my kit and my destination on that train was a town called Seramban, where I had to “change” trains for Port Dickson. We had travelled through the night and the train went on its way to Kuala Lumpur and on to Penang. As I was travelling on my own and didn’t know any Malay or Chinese language, I was fortunate to meet an English-speaking person, as I wanted to know where I could find the train for Port Dickson. He translated my request into Malay and then that person translated it into Chinese as there are large numbers of Chinese in Malaya. I was directed to what I thought was a steam engine and which it was, with a tender attached. This was the train, so I boarded it and was in the company of different nationalities. We ploughed our way on the track through much jungle country and I eventually arrived at Port Dickson station. On introducing myself to the British military staff, I was taken by transport to HQ for the Indian Beach Group, which was based in a large bungalow, which in peace time had been the home of a rubber grower plantation owner. On arriving at HQ I was given a room of my own and was introduced to the WOII sergeant major who was responsible for the Indian troops in the beach group. I certainly enjoyed the large mug of tea provided for me as I was very tired, having travelled through the night; so I had a short rest.