Operations in North Africa.

Heroes Remember

Operations in North Africa.

Transcript

We landed in Somalia. Somalia was the place where our brigade grouped up with the 5th Division, which is again jointly formed out of the British and the Indian troops. Our brigade became a part of the 5th Division from then onward. And then from there onward the operations, active fighting started and our brigade was allotted the role of advancing by the division commander who was a general, British, and our brigade commander. He was also a general. We didn’t have any Indian officers in those days. Officers were all British. And then thereafter we started advancing and then my duty used to be during advance to be with one of the battalions. Battalions is the forward most troops Battalions consist of normally 1,000 people, and brigade consists of about 5,000 total. And I used to be with one of the battalions all at the brigade headquarters to operate the wireless radio set or wireless set to provide two-way communication between the commanders at various levels, between brigade commander and the battalion commander so that they are able to control the operations. If the distances increase, we used to put up the wire aerials - wire aerials on two poles and those, by those we could cover long distance communication also. But if you are going into the battle, we used to only have these odd aerials to put up and manage with those so there were difficulties but we could manage that. At that time my wireless set used to be parked next to a big boulder. The boulder was up towards the enemy side and my wireless set, wireless track was posted next to that and I used to operate the wireless set from there. Sometimes an army enemy shell would come and fall flat on the boulder and then after a reflection from there, fall and would go to about 100 yards, 200 yards and bust, and we used to get shrapnels in that area. So that went on for quite sometime, that was a daily affair

Description

Mr. Jauhal discusses landing in Somalia and what his specific duties and equipment were once he went into battle. He also discusses the danger of shrapnel.

Pritam Jauhal

Pritam S. Jauhal, was born in Jalandhar, Punjab Province, India on October 4, 1920. He was one of four children. At his mother’s insistence, he moved at the age of sixteen to New Delhi to further his education. Here he lived with his aunt and uncle. Mr. Jauhal’s father had served in the First World War, and Mr. Jauhal himself enlisted in 1937, citing the threat of global domination by Hitler as his reason. He joined the England Corps of Signals. He became a wireless operator, and served in that capacity during the Allied campaign to liberate North Africa. Mr. Jauhal saw no further action in the war, but remained in the Indian army. He served three tours of duty during the wars with Pakistan, and was also a member of the International Control Commission in Hanoi. Mr. Jauhal retired with the rank of Colonel.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
Person Interviewed:: Pritam Jauhal
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: North Africa
Battle/Campaign:: North Africa
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: Fifth British Division
Rank:: Colonel
Occupation:: Wireless Operator

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Operations in North Africa.

Heroes Remember