Just to remind forum members that 62 years ago today the British Army suffered one of its most catastrophic defeats at the hands of the Japanese with the fall of Singapore. 70,000 British, Australian and Indian soldiers were taken prisoner and suffered three years of terrible captivity. Remembering those who fell.
Originally posted by Thomas McCall@Feb 15 2005, 03:18 PM Just to remind forum members that 62 years ago today the British Army suffered one of its most catastrophic defeats at the hands of the Japanese with the fall of Singapore. 70,000 British, Australian and Indian soldiers were taken prisoner and suffered three years of terrible captivity. Remembering those who fell. [post=31522]Quoted post[/post] they shall not be forgotten
This year, singapore planned a series of events to remember the Japanese invasion and occupation of the island during World War II. They will not be forgotten.
I wrote a lengthy article on this campaign in a recent issue of World War II History. The campaign was described as "a major disaster, a disgrace to British arms," and in many ways, it was...which is unfortunate, given the unbelievable valor shown by British, Indian, and Australian troops in a hopeless situation and as POWs. It's an incredible battle, and those who survived and those who did not have my endless admiration.
For information. My father, W/O 1C Charles Slaney - Sherwood Forresters, escaped Singapore on the afternoon of Feb 15 1942. He describes the craft as a 'small motor launch' carrying around 30 including 4 officers. As they were leaving one of the engineers was shot through the arm. They quickly became lost and ran aground in a mangrove swamp, but 24 hrs later made the Sumatran coast and motored up a river, arriving at the small town of Rengat (possibly misspelled). After crossing Sumatra by lorry and sometimes on foot, he was evacuated on a tramp steamer to Colombo. Can anyone in this forum corroborate this account with any similar escapee testimony or diary records? I am especially interested in learning the identity of a Mr. King my father mentions. He was quite possibly a brother officer. This Mr. King acceded to the capitulation orders and perished as a POW. I am also interested in the name of the tramp steamer which embarked escapees from Pedang on February 29 for Colombo. CS
I have a copy of the Pen & Sword publication, ’Singapore’s Dunkirk’ by Geoffrey Brooke, Chapter IV is the account of just such a voyage. The vessel mentioned is ’Sederhana Djohanis (roughly translated as Lucky John)’ p.82. The date of departure is not given, but ’Easter Day I heard with surprise; only three days short of a month out of Padang.’ would give an idea. (I shall try and work it out.) Note: Well, that didn’t take long. The date of departure of this vessel would work out to be within the first week of March, but date calculations could be wrong. Further research leads me to think the above is incorrect. Apologies for the probable and most likely bum steer.
There may be something here - The Ships – The Palembang and Muntok Internees of WW2 http://muntokpeacemuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Ships-that-Left-Singapore-Feb-1942.pdf TD Perhaps here as well - The Escape from Singapore: Amazon.co.uk: Richard Gough: 9780718306557: Books
A considerable number of ships carried out evacuations from Padang many of which were sunk. Without more information I think it will be very difficult to identify the tramp steamer (even more so as 1942 was not a leap year so there was no 29 Feb!). Forum member Roy Martin will hopefully come along, he has more knowledge than most in this area. Tim
The Ford factory there is now a museum. The one story portion looks the same as it did during the war, except that the large Ford script sign seen in many newsreels isn't there anymore. Old Ford Motor Factory - Wikipedia Former Ford Factory | Home
