No need to Worry

“This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Jan Hewett, a volunteer from BBC Three Counties Action at The British Legion on behalf of Reginald Kirk and has been added to this site with his/her permission. The person fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.”

Name: Reginald Kirk
Location Burma.
Title: No need to worry.

One night my 37mm gun turret loader and I were on perimeter guard duty in a small slit trench. A slit trench did not afford you much cover. It was a trench you had scraped out. We had thrown a lot of twigs in front to give us some fore warning of an advance by the Japs. If we had advance warning that we were to be there for some time, we would dig a broader trench, still only 1ft deep, with trip wires in front of it. We would splice bamboo and stick them in at different angles in triangles. If we could, we would put them in the embers of a fire. This would make them like steel. Most times there was no time for preparation. Sometimes we would just watch from the tank.
The previous night the Japs had unnerved the troop with a Jitter raid. As we lay there we chatted to calm ourselves. We said after all there was no need to worry. If we got killed “well there’s certainly no need to worry.”
“ If we get badly wounded, we will be sent back to base, perhaps even back home, so no need to worry”
“If we get slightly wounded they will send us back to base to get patched up, so no need to worry.”
That was alright, we seem to have calmed ourselves and felt much better.
Some time later Jim said,” But what if we get captured?”
We both said. “That will be the time to worry.”
I made up my mind that if I got out OK I’d never complain again. — Easier said than done.

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