A Strange War

[IanA]

'A Strange War' by C.P. Mills, (Alan Sutton, 1988) ISBN 0-86299-377-6.

I happened upon this book in a second-hand bookshop and thought it might be worth the £3 they were asking. It concerns the 2/5^th Somerset Light Infantry who found themselves posted to Burma and India, returning after the war having never fired a shot in anger. Not, then, a 'typical' Great War book but all the more interesting for that. It is based on the diaries of Quarter Master Sergeant Ed Ewens and the words of Bert Rendall, recorded for the I.W.M. in 1985. Rendall also served with the Indian Army Mechanical Transport Company on the North West Frontier where Lord Montagu of Beaulieu was restructuring army transport. So, no innovative tactics, no great (or even small) battles, no endless casualty lists - in fact, nothing to laugh at at all - but a well-constructed narrative of policing the empire in time of war, releasing regular battalions to fight on the Western Front. The book is 133 pages long and well illustrated with photographs taken by Arthur Hinder, who served with the battalion throughout the war.

[Derek Black]

oh well, certainly something out of the ordinary as far as memoirs go.

Unless there's a diary by a drill instructor who never left blighty about his time training the new armies?

[MaureenE]

A Strange War is the only book of which I am aware, where the whole book details the experiences of a Battalion of Territorials in India, (including Burma). In 1914, 43 Territorial Force battalions were sent to India, so that 32 British and 20 Indian regular army battalions could be sent to Europe. This book is therefore a valuable record and one of the few sources which gives an idea of what the Territorial Battalions in India did.

There is another book called 1st Garrison Battalion The Manchester Regiment, India, Singapore, Hong Kong & Siberia by Robert Bonner, published 2013. Garrison Battalions were made up of soldiers unfit for front line duty. New copies of this book may be still be purchased

Cheers

Maureen