Diary 2

This is a more detailed account of Bill Belton’s journey in 1941/1942 to Singapore, Sumatra, Java, Burma, and his return to convalesce in India. This was written in, probably, the 1980’s and the names of foreign places are not always spelled correctly, any corrections are encouraged and will be added to the text.

1035785 LAC Bill Belton, Bwlchgwyn, Nr Wrexham.
1941	February 3rd	Joined up at Padgate
1941	February 10th	Left for RAF Melksham. Square bashing and armourer bomb course
1941	June 9th	Posted to RAF Penrhos, North Wales
1941	July 9th	Left Penrhos
1941	July 18th	Arrive at West Kirby
1941	July 28th	On board the good ship Sterling Castle, 11.00 am LiverpoolShip left Liverpool at 3.00 pm. 12,000 tons, 18 knots per hour. Very sunny day and went to a harbour in Scotland. We were able to buy beer in our own mugs, with hops floating on top. Someone was playing a piano accordion and everyone was singing. A very good night along the coast to Scotland.
1941	July 29th	Formed a convoy of about 40 ships including cruisers, destroyers and aircraft as part of our defence and sailed round the west coast of Ireland and far out into the Atlantic to avoid German subs and aircraft. After three weeks at sea, having crossed the equator – for which I have a certificate – we arrived at Freetown on the west coast of Africa, for fuel, water and other supplies.
1941	August 18th	Arrived at Freetown, remember the black divers in the harbour.
1941	August 21st	Left Freetown for open sea again. Two days out, I went to ship’s hospital with malaria.
1941	August 24th	Arrived in Cape Town. I leave hospital, fit again. Remember the South African white people in their big cars waiting to take small groups of us out for the day. Our group was taken sightseeing the city then home for dinner. Then, after that, they took us up Table Mountain, very flat and has a lovely view of the city and the harbour, all lit up, no blackout.
1941	August 28th	Left Cape Town, still not knowing where we are going. The convoy was now down to two ships, the Sterling Castle and the cruiser.
1941	September 8th	The next land we saw was the coast of India and the city of Bombay. English food very good and very cheap. Your taxi there is a rickshaw. Indian women do all the heavy work while the men look on. Ideal place to live. Very hot during the day, but very damp at night. Stayed two days.
1941	September 16th	As we enter the harbour there is a big archway ahead and the reading says “Welcome to Ceylon”. Can’t remember a lot about that place. Stayed two days and back to sea.
1941	September 28th	Arrived at Singapore. But we all have had a good time on the ship and I don’t think we have ever been in danger. From Ceylon to Singapore our escort, the cruiser, used to come alongside and the band used to play every afternoon. Nine weeks on the ship and carrying our life jackets everywhere we went has come to an end. Goodbye Sterling Castle.
1941	October 2nd	Arrived at Alor Star RAF station. 62 Squadron. Blenheims. After spending two days at a transit camp in Singapore and 400 miles by train to this camp on the border of Thailand and the west coast of Malaya. Went into the town only once. Went to the island on Penang one weekend, a very nice place. Do remember putting the land mines on the runway every night, with 10ft poles towering in the air in case the japs tried to land, and going to the army camp to see the pictures.
1941	December 9th	62 Squadron take off loaded with bombs to bomb the jap landing on the coast at Kote Baru. Soon after we got bombed, everything on fire, aircraft, petrol dumps and the whole can. We leave that night for RAF Butterworth.
1941	December 11th	Arrive at Butterworth. I’m told to dig a trench with other lads
1941	December 11th	Arrived at RAF Taiping in open lorries. Rained all day and no food. We were able to get one mug full of tea and a rope made bed full of big, black bugs. Slept on the floor. Stayed there for seven days.
1941	December 16th	Arrived at RAF Iphol. Camp empty.
1941	December 17th	Arrived to Kuala Lumpur and the first good meal since days.
1941	December 18th	Arrive in Singapore. Back at the transit camp where we first landed and had good meal, the first since days; next was a wash and clean up.
1941	December 19th	Clothing parade. By this time we had only got what we stood up in and a side pack with a few personal things in it. We had already lost both kit bags, one in Alor Star and the other in Butterworth.
1941	December 21st	Worked in Seletar aerodrome, moving stores
1941	December 23rd	Moved to Tanger aerodrome, taking over 60 Squadron short nose Blenheims. We had lost all of our aircraft in Alor Star and Butterworth.
1941	December 25th	Very good Christmas dinner. Japs bombing and machine gunning us. Our aircraft getting less every day. Only two arrive from England. Mostly Hudsons.
1942	January 23rd	Lost all our aircraft in a jap raid. About 12 am twelve new aircraft arrived from England, crews having spent Christmas in England. About 1.00 japs arrived, all 12 were damaged or burnt out, leaving only two aircraft which could be repaired by next morning.
1942	January 24th	The two aircraft leave with full crew of four plus one fitter, one rigger, one sparks and one armourer – which was Bill Belton, and on the other aircraft was one fitter, one rigger, one sparks, one armourer who was Doug Heathcote. We land at Palenbang in Sumatra, a Dutch Island. We start bombing again. More aircraft arrive.
1942	February 14th	Jap parachutists land at Palenbang number 1, which is the next aerodrome. We have no defence at all. I unload our aircraft of bombs and defused all other bombs around and buried all the parts in the jungle. My kit bag is in a building about a mile away where we slept, no time to fetch it so, once again, four of us non-crew lads have only the clothes we stand up in. We fly to an aerodrome called Chilliliton near Batavia in Java. We left by lorry for food and a night out. We were staying in some place in Batavia till 6.00 am when the lorry was taking us four lads back to the aircraft. At 3.00 am we were in a club called The Ping Cabaret. By now nobody knew the name of the place we wanted to go to catch the lorry! All I knew was it had an archway set back about 10ft from the side of the street. By this time all English speaking Dutchmen were involved. One Dutchman said ‘we’ll get a taxi and I’ll come with you four lads’. In the end we found it not very far away.
1942	February 15th	Singapore fell. Our aircraft took off again and we landed at Bandeong, 3000ft above sea level. It was too cloudy yesterday to land there.
1942	February 17th	Left Bandeong by train for Buitenzorg.
1942	February 26th	Left Buitenzorg. Arrived at Chillijap for the good ship Kota Kede [Kota Gede] – that’s a book of its own. 8,000 tons, 2,000 airmen on board, 4 toilets. 9 hard biscuits and three half-mugs of tea a day, if lucky. Two days out and everyone is ill. Tablets in small cardboard boxes are placed in every deck with instructions on how many to take and when. No fresh water for drinking or anything else except making tea. Two airmen died.
1942	March 8th	Arrive in Columbo after ten days at sea. Bill Belton and Doug Heathcote both birthdays.
1942	March 9th	Transferred to troop ship Dunera. Worked in the bakery with Keith and Doug. Very good food now and sleeping in hammocks. Plenty cups of tea.
1942	March 17th	Called at Bombay for two days
1942	March 21st	Arrive at Karrachi. Taken to a camp at the edge of the Sind desert, lived in tents and we got kitted out once again. I, with other armourers, when to Drigh Road aerodrome and loaded a Flying Fortress with about twenty 10lb bombs. Two days later, it was in the English newspaper that Flying Fortress had bombed Burma – I think it was the first letter from home since December 6th.
1942	April 23rd	Left Karrachi by troop train (living on the train) for a five day and night journey across India to a place called Chakulia near Calcutta
1942	April 28th	Arrived at Chakulia RAF, found it was no good for an aerodrome.
1942	May 7th	Left Chakulia for Charbartia, near Cuttach, with the advance party. Just one big open space. Hundreds of Indians are making a new runway. Lorries arrive with tents and food. On the second day a lorry (RAF) runs off the track, driver killed. I am one of the bearers. We take his body to Cuttach church, which is about 25 miles away. Very hot, well over 100 degrees. Soon 62 Squadron arrive and the runway is in use and I am back with the armourers, loading and unloading bombs. Very heavy work and poor food.
1942	September 17th	Left Charbatia near Cuttach for hill station and a cure for prickly heat.
1942	September 18th	Arrived in Calcutta. Two days leave
1942	September 20th	Left Calcutta for Dera Dun at the foot of the Himalayas
1942	September 23rd	Arrived at Dera Dun for a 62 mile ride up the mountain by Indian bus and driver
1942	September 25th	Arrive at Chakrata. After a few hours dive in an Indian bus and Indian driver, very narrow roads, sharp corners, Mountains on one side and sheer drop the other side. If the brakes failed I would not be writing this! We have a return journey, 62 miles, in fourteen days time. Remember there is no MOT and drivers don’t have a test – look at any TV programme about India and you will see what I mean. Chakrata is a very nice village , an Indian bazaar, one English church and one small hospital – which I spent 8 months there with rheumatic fever. We had snow for about a month at Christmas time while the lads were sunbathing on the planes at Chaklala near Rawalpindi
1943	June 2nd	Left to join 62 Squadron at Chaklala near Rawalpindi. After a 62 mile ride down the Himalayan mountains to Dera Dun there was no room on the train, so I stayed the night there.
1943	June 3rd	Left Dera Dun for Lahore.
1943	June 4th	Left Lahore for Chaklala
1943	June 5th	Arrived at Chaklala, meet some of the old lads. Can’t remember a lot about that place.
1943	June 7th	I am taken to Rawalpindi hospital with swollen knee and shoulder. Doctor tells the sister to get me from there as soon as possible. (note to Doug Heathcote) “Did you manage to come and see me and take a photo?” Very short stay and the end of me with 62 Squadron
1943	June 9th	On a train to Pershawa, North West Frontier. Doctor says I am not to do any work or any duty or even ride a cycle for the next two months at least. I never worked again.
1944	April 18th	Left Peshawar for England
1944	April 21st	Arrived in Bombay
1944	April 19th	Boarded the good ship Otranto. Through the Red Sea canal and The Med. Arrived in Liverpool June 1st.
1944	June 3rd	Went into Innsworth Hospital, Gloucester for a medical check before going home on leave.