Interesting Leave

Interviewer: Did you have some time where you mentioned that you spent maybe a week at a port on leave or... ? Yeah, we had a few leaves, we went, we had a few good occasions. We went and seen the Taj Mahal, which was something to see. And where we were sta-, before we went into the Burma area, we were stationed off Trincomalee and we, we did our patrolling up and down Trincomalee and we got to be friends with the planter around, so, and he... We used to go ashore in the war, of course we had tea with him, you know, and, or drinks with him, ‘cause we, we could go right in the shore and drop anchor and swim ashore. And he took us out one day on a wild elephant hunt, a rogue elephant was terrorizing the village and we went, we said we would go with him, but he says "Stay back", but he just stood in front and he shot this big elephant with a one gun, one shot, he brought it right down. But we, we run when we seen it charging, we run in every direction. But it was something to see, I mean, he stood there with this big gun and he just shot and brought it down, but it was terrorizing the villagers all the time, it was an injured elephant, so, that was it, so. And there was quite a number of occasions, that we, we enjoyed it, and went on leave a few times, it was just for a week up in a rest camp, you know way up in the hills and that, so. My most exciting time was we went wild tiger hunting, and that was something. Aboard a, with an elephant, you know, how they're up in the harness and there was a, a wild tiger terrorizing the villages and we got an invitation because we were on leave, and we got an invitation to go with them, you know, and, who, I'm not going wild eleph-, tiger hunting, no way, those are big things. But we were up on the the, the beaters, there must have been hundreds of them, would be out in the front and they'd beat the, beat the drums and that and they'd chase the tiger right into the gun, then they shot it so. That was exciting you know, but I wouldn't do it again on foot.

Mr. Guthrie describes two interesting leaves in Burma involving a rogue elephant and a tiger.

Peter Guthrie

Mr. Guthrie was born in 1925, in Scotland to a family of eleven children, five of which were in the army, as was his father who served in the First World War. After trying to get into the air force, Mr. Guthrie enlisted in the navy where he was designated a cook, but also took on other jobs, such as steering, manning the guns, and radio. His first ship was a minesweeper, which swept the mines laid in the English Channel and the North Sea by the Germans. The second ship he was on travelled to Burma patrolling the rivers for Japanese. They also picked up and dropped off special service troops in the Burmese jungles. It was a dangerous route, as sometimes the boat would travel within 20 miles behind enemy lines. After the war, Mr. Guthrie worked North of Scotland recovering torpedoes for the air force and looked after air force rescue crafts for four months. Soon after, Mr. Guthrie was married, and he and his wife moved to Canada in 1951 where they settled in Regina, Saskatchewan. Mr. Guthrie has been a vital member of the Royal Canadian Legion for 47 years, serving as chairman of the War Graves Committee, and doing his part to help others in need.