Info: Australian? Allied Unit, Captain William Roy Reynolds, Inter Allied Services Department.

Unable to find him on the CWGC site?

Any information would be appreciated.




Need assistance on Who/Where/What/How for this man who is on the Australian Commemorative Roll which is for those "Australians" who died in other Allied Services. If proved not to be "Australian" their names will not be removed from the Commemorative Roll however their details will be updated accordingly.

I have researched the Air Force members but there are many more Land and Sea deaths in a myriad of different forces.

There is not a lot of information on these people that can be accessed easily and I ask your assistance to fill in at least some of the gaps.

Hopefully some relatives may see this thread and add more.

I will make a different thread for each along the way as they may tend to get lost if clumped together.

Commemorative Roll - William Roy Reynolds

Rank: Captain
Unit: Inter-Allied Services Department
Service: Merchant Navy
Conflict: 1939-1945
Date of death: 8 August 1944
Place of death: Surabaya
Cause of death: Executed



Honours and Awards - William Roy Reynolds

Service: Merchant Navy
Conflict: Second World War, 1939-1945
Recommendation: Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil)

Digitised Record

View digitised record (54.74Kb PDF file)
Back to the Honours and Awards

View attachment Reynolds_William Roy MBE (Civilian).pdf

• [Letter and log books regarding the Krait, 1942] [manuscript /​ [letter written by an unidentified author; logs written by William Roy Reynolds].

Creator

• Reynolds, William Roy.

Published

• 1942.

Physical Description

• [62] leaves ; 30 cm.

Subjects

• Krait (Ship)
• Kofuku Maru (Ship)
• Suey Sin Fah (Ship)
• Sailors -- Diaries.
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Naval operations, Australian.
• Sailors

Notes

• Title supplied by cataloguer.
• Ms. (transcript, typewritten)

Language

• English

Libraries Australia ID

• 12799525

Contributed by Libraries Australia

 

Surprise - Surprise.

I had never heard of this man,

The capture of Riouw Archipelago
The capture of Riouw Archipelago The Riouw Archipelago during Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941-1942 Map Riouw Archipelago is a large group of more or less tiny islands, located east of Sumatra Island and south of Singapore Island. The biggest islands in the archipelago are Batam Island (Pulau Batam) and Bintan Island (Pulau Bintan) with the capital the town of Tandjoengpinang. In December 1941 there were stationed several KNIL troops intended only for garrison duty. They were all under command of KNIL Major J.H. de Vries.
Bill Reynolds, a Navy Captain in World War One and later a mining engineer, fled to Singapore from the north of the Malaya peninsula where he had his own mine, which he had thoroughly blown up before Japanese troops arrived. He immediately offered his services to the Naval Command in Singapore to help them blowing up the harbour installations of Singapore Naval Base, which were pretty much intact due to a sudden and quick Royal Navy retreat. The Naval Commander was so impressed by his enthusiasm and fanaticism that he finally asked him if he could help to evacuate 262 Dutch people from the Bintan Island, which was about 128 km SE of Singapore.
You could hardly find a better man for this mission than Bill Reynolds. 49-year old Reynolds was an excellent navigator, who spent almost twenty years of his life in Malaya, Burma and on the islands of the Dutch East Indies. With the help of eight Chinese sailors he repaired the old Japanese fishing boat Kofuku Maru ("Lucky Ship"), which he had confiscated in Singapore Harbour and safely brought those Dutch people from Bintan Island to a small port of Rengat on the Indragiri River, Sumatra Island. Several minutes after he anchored at port of Rengat, a slightly bigger boat crashed into Kofuku Maru, and nearly sank it. The men on the boat were horrified when they saw a tall and angry Australian coming out of his cabin. They weren't scared much by his height, sun-burned skin, dirty shorts or square jaw under the dark glasses, which couldn't hide the anger, than by the bunch of juicy Australian terms of abuse, he directed at the men sitting on the boat which crashed into Kofuku Maru. Only when this "flood" of terms of abuse ended, he looked down to see who dared to crash into his ship. It was a tiny diesel engined boat. At its bow stood a young army medical orderly, and near the helm was sitting and staring at Reynolds a young British army officer, a Captain of the Gordon Highlands. His name was Ivan Lyon*.
The Imperial Japanese troops eventually occupied the Riouw Archipelago and stationed a small army garrison there throughout the war.

They both managed to get safely from Sumatra Island to Ceylon and India, where they met again and planned together probably the most daring, unbelievable and most successful Australian commando attack in World War II. They sailed with the Japanese fishing boat Kofuku Maru (renamed to Krait) from Australia to the Riouw Archipelago, crossing a large portion of Dutch East Indies, to carry out a commando raid with canoes (!!!). Their targets were the anchored Japanese ships in Singapore Harbour. The raid was a huge sucess, as they sank 37,000 tons of shipping and returned safely to Australia.
The second, similar operation, named "Rimau", was not so sucessful. They again managed to sink ca. 30,000 tons of the Japanese merchant fleet anchored in Singapore Harbour, but all 23 men who took part in this operation were lost either killed or captured and beheaded, including Lt-Col Ivan Lyon, who was killed by the Japanese troops on the tiny island of Soreh on 16 October 1944.
Bill Reynolds also didn't survive the war. He started to work for the US Intelligence Service in Australia and was dropped by US submarine Tuna on Lacet Island to collect intelligence information for MacArthur's HQ. Three days later Captain William Roy Reynolds was betrayed by the natives and captured by Japanese soldiers. He was send first to Balikpapan Gaol and later transfered to notorious Soerabaja Gaol, where he was, several months later, beheaded together with several other Indonesians and US airmen.
The story would still be a big mystery, if there wasn't a young Australian Lieutenant - Tom Hall who started to research Operation "Rimau" in 1958. He dedicated 31 long years to this research before the story was finally presented to the public.

 

A lot more:

RELAWM20362 - Piece of timber door jamb, Sentosa Barracks, Balikpapan, Borneo : Mr W R Reynolds, Inter-Allied Services Department | Australian War Memorial





DescriptionPiece of timber from a door jamb, painted grey-green. The piece has been sawn from the frame and has raw edges. Each long side of the piece has been rebated. It has text scratched into it by William Roy Reynolds and an unknown person. The text scratched by Reynolds reads 'AIR RAID HERE ON / 9-12-1943 /NOR.WEST OF THIS PLACE AND / ON 14-12-1943 / [ditto] 12-1-1944 / [picture of a slouch hat] A.I.F. / 1914-1919 / WILLIAM R REYNOLDS / 180. OSBORNE STREET / - WILLIAMSTOWN - / - VICTORIA - / - AUSTRALIA - / PRISONER OF WAR / 11TH DECEMBER 1943 / FORMERLY / DREDGEMASTER / ANGLO ORIENTAL (MALAYA) / IRON / PERAK / FEDERATED MALAY STATES / AND / MALIM NAWAR / ESCAPED FROM SINGAPORE / ...OTA BAHRU [Kota Baru] [EIGHT DAYS MARKED] 18 -11-43 DAYS 8 / BALIKPAPAN 26-11-43 / [40 days marked] 40 / [30 days marked] 30 / [seven days marked] 7 / 85 / TO SURABAYA / 10-2-44 '. Scratched over the bottom section of Reynold's text is the following by an unknown prisoner: '[CROSS] JEZUS / PELEPAS / PERTJALAH'. There are some scratches and dents which have obscured small sections of the text. At the bottom of the piece of timber is scratched the numbers '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10'.SummaryWilliam Roy Reynolds was born at Brighton in Victoria in 1892. He joined the Merchant Navy at a young age, after the death of his father. During the First World War he joined the Royal Naval Reserve, serving as a sub lieutenant, and later lieutenant in the Dover Patrol. He obtained his Master's Ticket in Scotland in 1918. He was given command of the vessel, Firmament, which was used to assist in salvage and harbour reconstruction at Zeebrugge in Belgium at the end of the war. After demobilisation he rejoined the Merchant Navy. Reynolds married Brigid O'Brien in Dover and had a son, William Slevin.

Reynolds returned to the merchant navy and carried passengers and cargo through Asia and the Middle East. He later worked as a dredge master for mining companies in Borneo. He was in Kuala Lumpur in early 1942, working as a mining engineer, when the Japanese advanced. After blowing up a telegraph station, power station, telephone exchange and his own mining plant with some Royal Engineers, he went to Singapore where he helped blow up a naval base. Reynolds then acquired a small former Japanese fishing vessel, the Kofoku Maru, with which he helped evacuate Dutch civilians from the island of Bintan. He carried some of the evacuees in the Kofoku Maru, and towed the rest in another vessel, taking them to Rengat on the island of Sumatra. He continued rescuing evacuees, including those whose ships had been attacked by the Japanese. On 17 February 1942 Reynold's vessel rescued survivors from HM Ships Kuala, Tien Kwang and Kung Wo which had been attacked near Pompong Island. He then made his way to India, avoiding detection due to his scruffy Japanese fishing vessel.

By this time he had renamed his ship 'British Privateer Suey Sin Fah'. The Suey Sin Fah was selected for a mission in 1943 to clandestinely enter Singapore from Australia and plant limpet mines on ships in Singapore Harbour. The mission was called 'Operation Jaywick' and the Suey Sin Fah was renamed the 'Krait'. Reynolds was to take part in Operation Jaywick, but due to engine problems it was postponed. Reynolds had earlier rejected an offer of a Royal Navy commission in India as a temporary lieutenant, so found himself work with American Intelligence. He was taken in the submarine, USS Tuna, back to the East Indies and on the night of 13/14 November 1943 was deposited off Laut Island, near Borneo.

Reynolds mission was to collect intelligence while posing as a man wanting to acquire a junk loaded with rubber and quinine. He was to make his way south to Exmouth Gulf in Western Australia in the junk. Reynolds was captured by the Japanese and held at Kota Baru Village for eight days from 18 November. He was moved to Balikpapan in Borneo on 26 November and was imprisoned at Sentosa Barracks in a small building that was being used as a jail. While there he scratched this message into his cell's door frame. On 10 February 1944 he was moved to Surabaya in Java. He was held there in solitary confinement before the Japanese commander ordered the execution of some of the prisoners. Although he had not been tried, Reynolds was among those to be executed.

On the morning of 8 August 1944 Reynolds and several Indonesia prisoners were taken from their cells and driven to the place of execution. Three European prisoners met them there. Some of the prisoners were killed by decapitation, while the rest were executed by firing squad. Reynolds was one of the latter. His body was buried in an unmarked grave, somewhere in Surabaya. He was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire Civil (MBE) for his work in rescuing evacuees from Singapore which was promulgated on 17 August 1943 in the London Gazette and was presented to his widow, Brigid Reynolds, at Government House in Melbourne Victoria on 13 November 1946 by the Governor General, His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester.This piece of timber was discovered by members of 7 Division, AIF in August 1945.

• Second World War, 1939-1945;

Place

• Borneo;

Subjects

• Intelligence;
• Merchant Seamen;
• Operation Jaywick;
• Prisoners of war;
• Secret agents;

Unit

• HMAS Krait;

 

A little more:

From: Raymond Buckler4/11/99 23:55:32
Subject: The Essence of Australia - Our recent History?post id: 169
Ladies and Gentlemen,

firstly, congtratulations and salutations for the best doco i have seen on a "pilgramage" that i'm yet to make. please be patient because due to the net i have just discovered who i am, that is i know who australians are today. and what a relative of mine did for the the empre at the fall of singapore. the question i would like to ask is, did you feel as children growing into the adults that you are now, the futility of it all? but most of all did you sense on the fields of flanders, that you were in a cemetary in oz, pervading the odours of who we have become?

ps: if you would to research a project on a forgotten australian in ww2, as from what i believe to be one of australia's first spy, try and see if anyone can find any records relating to a william roy reynolds, MBE, master mariner, captain of fishing vessel KOKOFU MARU, later named the KRAIT, now resting at darling harbour. the reason being is that this man disappeared of the face of the earth whislt trying to pay off natives loyalty for an organisation named SOE, this dept. was responsible for the eventual sinking of jap shipping in singapore. if you need more info you can find the story in a book by LYNETTE RAMSEY SILVER called KRAIT:the fishing boat that went to war.

 

Can anyone assist on why he would not be on the CWGC database?

(Unless I am blind)

Cheers

Geoff

 

Geoff, the only thing I could think of is that as he may have appeared not to receive
"the king's Shilling" as he was on a mission for the Americans, he has slipped through the cracks.

From what I am reading on the ISD, there was a great deal of angst from the US dealing with "foreign Intelligence" organisations working in what they believe is their theatre of ops.

I would presume that it not only would have taken some time of his death to have reached the autorities here (& it was obvious that the Australians had this information as per the notice of his MBE status as "Posthumous"), but did the various departments actually communicate with each other, was there cross referencing?.

I suspect that whilst he is memorialised at the AWM, maybe his details so long after were not passed onto CWGC. Theoretically, he should have a place at Tower Hill I suppose if CWGC has no memorial for Merchant Marine in Australia.

just my thoughts


Regards

simon

 

Having just touched the surface of this, I have re read the investigation into the miissing persons of "Operation Rimau". but will get to that later.

Geoff, interestingly I have failed to find a National Archive result for William Reynolds.

Whilst he appears to have the honorific tittle of Captain (his masters ticket) he does not appear to have a service file at the national archives (unless I have missed it), nor can I find a service file for the RAN in WW1 maybe he held an RN commision(or a commision toone of its subordinate branches). maybe others are more adept at finding them.

In relation to why he is not listed on CWGC, I noted whilst reading the file on Rimau & the investigations into the "mising" dated December 1945, that it is on record that in relation to this particular case, regulations for reporting to the Admiralty were not adhered to in the 1st instance & this was sent up the chain of command.

It may well be that if Reynolds was noted as Merchant Navy, it may only be on ISD records & that if his death was not reported to the Admiralty (would the Americans know to do this?), then he may not have been accorded CWGC recognition.

I suppose Canberra AWGC would be the logical 1st step to resolve this & seek confirmation.

Regards

Simon

 

Hi Simon,

If we all are unable to find a definitive reason why, I will in any case, pass this on to Chris Harley to see if he can establish recognition through the "In From the Cold Project".

Cheers

Geoff

 

Geoff

At IFCP we have just started looking into the AWM Commemorative Roll to see who is missing off the CWGC database

The problem with this one is what exactly is his military status; if we can find a proof of death the best that we can hope for is his addition to the CWGC Civilian Roll Of Honour

We will see what we can do

Chris

 

Geoff

At IFCP we have just started looking into the AWM Commemorative Roll to see who is missing off the CWGC database

The problem with this one is what exactly is his military status; if we can find a proof of death the best that we can hope for is his addition to the CWGC Civilian Roll Of Honour

We will see what we can do

Chris

Hi Chris,

He should be on it in some form so we will wait and see.

One of the others I did yesterday is not on the CWGC ROH.

He was a commissioner with the Red Cross - Basil Burdett.

Cheers

Geoff

 

http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=30111259

You mean this chap

I will get him submitted on your behalf

Chris

 

Spidge

Could I have your proper name so I can put you down as the submitting volunteer

Chris

 

Hi Chris,

I did this one yesterday.

The thread has a few more details.

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/searching-someone-military-genealogy/41109-info-australian-allied-unit-commissioner-basil-burdett-b-3-36-a.html#post458217


Cheers

Geoff