THE FAR EAST

when ww2 was declared i was 17 living in london & working in the strand. once the london blitz was over& i turned 18 i joined the W.R.E.N.S. For 2 years i served in Rosyth then vbounteered for service overseas.
i spent the last 3 years of the war on the staff of Lord Louis Mountbatten's H.Q. in the far eas. H.Q. Supreme allied connander south east asia (or H Q SACSEA) we set up the H Q in New Delhi in october 1943.
in the spring of 1944 mountbatten decided to move his advanced HQ away from the stifling heat of new delhi to Perdinya a tiny spot near Kandy in the hills of Ceylon (sri lanka).
on christmas day mountbatten & all the chiefs of staff always came to christmas dinner at the wrennery in Peradinya. in 1944 we had all just finished dinner and were pulling crackers when some of the boys from a nearby camp arrived with about 5 elephants "borrowed" from the elephant lines to give some the ther wrens a ride. i was takinf a snap of Mountbatten givng one of the girls a bunk up on to an elephant when a voice behind me said "come on chotu we've got one specially for you she's just your size". In urdu chotu means small & as i am just 5ft 1/2" it was ofter my nickname.
i saw that they had a very small half grown elephant with them. the girl standing next to me (Edna Braine) said "oh can i come too?" & we both went acroos and climbed aboard.

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