Raha POW Camp Sulawesi/Celebes any details on LAC Horrobin

Discussion in 'Prisoners of War' started by noggin1969, Oct 2, 2019.

  1. noggin1969

    noggin1969 Well-Known Member

    HORROBIN ERIC
    Rank: Leading Aircraftsman

    Service No: 956050

    Date of Death: 29/10/1944

    Age: 21

    Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 84 Sqn

    Memorial: AMBON WAR CEMETERY
    Additional Information: Son of George and Edith Horrobin, of Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire. Born in Girton and remembered on the St Cecilia Church Roll of Honour. POW on Sulawesi Buried at Raha Cemetery , then moved to Makassar War Cemetery November 1946 before being moved again to Ambon War Cemetery in 1961.
     
  2. KevinBattle

    KevinBattle Senior Member

    See p4:http://www.mansfieldwoodhouse.info/PDF Warbler/No 29 December 2007.pdf
    QUOTE: Eric Horrobin, L.A.C 956050 R.A.F 84 Squadron, died October 29th 1944, aged 21, son of George and Edith Horrobin of Mansfield Woodhouse. He left Liverpool on November 12th 1941 aboard the Empress of Asia, spent a few days over Christmas in Durban, then boarded a small coaster to Port Tewfic to join 84 Squadron at Heliopolis, Cairo. Leaving around February 1st 1942 on S.S. Yoma, calling at Columbo then disembarking at Ousthaven, Sumatra February 11th in an attempt to reach the aircraft at Palembang, but the airfields were overrun before we arrived.
    Back to Ousthaven to board a small overcrowded pleasure boat to Batavia (Jakarta), Java, reaching our aircraft in Central Java. But after a few days the Japs overran the airfield and the planes had to be destroyed. Having no arms, they had been taken from us by the Dutch as we landed at Batavia, which was declared an open City. We were told to make for the South Coast port of Tjillijap, arriving to see the ship which was to take us off Java set on fire by Jap bombers, so we were told to return to Bandoeng, reaching Poerbolingo after two days by dodging Jap paratroops, boarding one of two trains, which were ambushed during the night, then walked below the banking to reach a large bridge which was set to blow up at midnight, leaving only minutes for two thousand men to cross, they did not all make it. After a few more miles we reached Tasikmalaya airfield, there to be told there was no way out, as Jap tanks took up positions around the airfield. 84 Squadron men tried to stay together, and our first work as prisoners was filling in bomb craters on an airfield, and it was here we met the brutal Korean Guards, and beatings became commonplace.
    After a while we moved to a former Dutch Barracks, Jaar Mart, Sourabaya, where over ten thousand were packed into the space taken by two thousand Dutch troops. We were put to work on the docks, loading bombs, torpedoes, oil and petrol onto ships. Very heavy work with insufficient food, rice and watery stew without meat, no bread, sugar, milk, nor any of the items we would call normal food, with the result sickness took its toll, and having no medicine it took longer to recover, not helped by being given only half rations while sick. We lost all track of time as all our personal goods had been taken from us, watches, pens and pencils, knives and forks.
    It must have been around April 1943 that we were loaded into one of the ships we had been working on, The Amagi Maru, a former British coaster, packed into the top holds with only room to sit down. With only an oil drum for a latrine, and with diarrhoea being common, the stench was overpowering in the tropical heat. Fifteen days later we anchored in Ambon Harbour, with high flying Fortresses dropping bombs all around. As darkness fell the ships left Ambon, to drop anchor close to the Island of Haruku, still in darkness, forced out of the hold in pouring rain to begin unloading the bombs, oil and petrol. 2050 men were put ashore to find there was no shelter, only two partly built atap huts, nowhere to lie down except on the flooded ground. The rain kept on for four days, the Japs refusing us oil to start the cookhouse fires. After a week the Japs wanted 1500 to start work on a runway which was not possible as there were only 100 men fit to build the huts, the remainder could hardly stand, some having died already. Work did start after more men were brought in, and the runway was completed around July 1944, and that was when Eric and I parted.
    I returned to Java, then to Sumatra to build a railway south from Pakenbaru, crossing the Equator south to Moarea, being completed on August 8th 1945, the end of the war.
    Eric would be one of those transferred to Ambon after the runway was completed. One Jap Officer and Gunso Mori were hung in Singapore for their cruelty, and one Korean Guard got ten years. It is reckoned that only 250 men returned to England from the 2050. UNQUOTE
     
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  3. timuk

    timuk Well-Known Member

    From: Celebes - East Indies camp archives

    In Raha on the island of Muna in Southeast Celebes between October 1944 and August 1945 there was an improvised barracks camp for about 440 POWs who had been put to work in the Moluccan islands. This group had actually been on its way to Java, but had stranded on Celebes. During an allied air raid dozens of prisoners in Raha died. The survivors were put to work in a sawmill under terrible conditions. In April, July, and August 1945 the inhabitants of the camp left in groups in fishing praus for Makassar, where the last group did not arrive until after the Japanese capitulation. As many as 174 POWs died in Raha and during the transports to Makassar.

    Tim
     
  4. timuk

    timuk Well-Known Member

    You'll probably find more information in WO 361/1485 which is available on FMP.
    upload_2019-10-4_15-51-32.png

    Tim
     
  5. noggin1969

    noggin1969 Well-Known Member

    Thanks all ( again ) Tim , FMP take it that's Find My Past site ? Not on that , just Ancestry.com.
     

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