by David
All the other medical orderlies knew exactly what was expected of them, but they were also aware that the retreat had been so fast that many wounded had been left behind. An injured soldier was treated on the spot, but by the time the medical orderly had organised a mate to carry the other end of the stretcher, their regiment’s position had often been overrun and another retreat south was on. Many wounded men were left to be captured by the Japanese. What was not known at this time was that the Japanese army, under strict orders to advance at all costs, simply found it more efficient to kill wounded captives than care for them – just as had happened at Parit Sulong.
Despite the success of the 2/20th Battalion north of Mersing, the ambush at the Gemencheh Bridge by the 2/30th Battalion, the brave resistance and horrific decimation of the 2/19th and 2/29th Battalions as they fought to join the main force at Yong Peng, and the success of the 2/18th Battalion at the Nithsdale Estate, all the Allied forces still had to flee to the island of Singapore. It did not feel good. Scottish battalions of the Argyll and Southern Highlanders and the Gordon Highlanders were the last to cross the causeway, and their sappers blew it up behind them.
This act turned out to be symbolic rather than practical, as the Japanese bombed and shelled the island fiercely; they were also able to repair the causeway in record time. By now, the Allies recognised Japan as a very efficient, ruthless, skilled and able enemy.
But it was not all doom and gloom. After making enquiries, Digger was able to make his way to Hill 80, near Keat Hong, to join his original unit, A Company. He even wrote a very optimistic letter home to his brother Reg and his wife.
VX40463 A Coy.
2/9 Field Ambulance
Malaya
1/2/42
Dear Reg and Peg,
A few more lines to let you know that I am still well and still manage to knock up a bit of fun. All of the Imperial troops are on the island now but we hope to be on the mainland in the near future. It is now about 2 months since we received our last mail but we are expecting it in the near future . . . We have got some A-A guns near us and do they kick up a row! When I first heard them I thought they were bombs landing . . .
xxxxxx Digger
P.S. Give my love to all at home.
At this time, Japanese aircraft had total command of the air, since there were no Allied planes still serviceable. ‘Ack-ack’ – or anti-aircraft – guns were deployed against the Japanese planes but were seldom successful. Troop positions were bombed several times a day and during the night, and it seemed as though the enemy always knew where to bomb.
The Allies were also well informed about what was happening in Johor Bahru and along the north shore of the Johor Strait. Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, chief of Malaya Command, had reports from reconnaissance patrols that explained in detail where and how the Japanese were preparing to invade the island. Elliott McMaster could not understand why the Allies did not simply shell the Japanese positions on the north shore of the strait:
Our artillery observed trainloads of Japanese troops unloading at Jahor Bahru station and requested permission from Malay Headquarters to shell the station – they were sitting ducks. Malayan Command refused permission to fire, claiming it would give our positions away. It seemed to be unaware that the Japanese knew our positions as well or better than we did, thanks to Malay collaborators or even Japanese easily passing themselves off as natives and seeing for themselves. We sent our own patrols back over the Straits, under cover of night. One patrol under Harry Dietz, 2/20, moved through all of the Japanese assembly areas. The patrol observed their gun and mortar sites and their tank assembly area. With an almost unlimited supply of ammunition available on Singapore, our excellent Artillery Regiment could have caused havoc in the Japanese assembly area, yet thanks to General Percival’s lack of perception, the opportunity was lost, until too late.1
The Australians were given a very large area of coastline to defend: from the mouth of the Kranji River at the causeway to the mouth of the Berih River, which was about fourteen kilometres further west. Everyone except General Percival seemed to know that the Kranji rivermouth area was where the Japanese would invade; the British leader thought they would invade to the east of the causeway, near the Seletar naval base, which was where he had placed the British troops.
The area the Australians were given was also very difficult terrain. It had none of the usual defences, such as barbed wire, because the authorities had apparently not wanted to alarm the civilian population by constructing them. There was a coastal fringe of mangroves, and much of the area was a virtual mudflat, crisscrossed with rivers and canals. Percival had insisted that small defended localities should be established in each area to cover obvious approaches such as rivers, creeks, roads and tracks. But it was ideal country for infiltration, particularly for a determined army, many of whom had been raised in the rice paddies of Japan.2
For the week after the Allies had retreated to Singapore, the shelling was endless. There were huge numbers of civilian and military casualties, and both the 2/9th and the 2/10th Field Ambulance units did their best to respond to all calls. It was very difficult for the ambulances to move about the island: they never knew which roads would be impassable because of shell holes, and in any case maps were very scarce. In addition, some Field Ambulance personnel, including Digger, were seconded at various times to repair roads and bridges so that they could collect wounded from the various RAPs. The severely wounded were evacuated to the 2/13th AGH at St Patrick’s School, or to the 2/10th AGH at Oldham Hall.
One day Digger, with a 2/9th medical officer, took an ambulance to collect two severely wounded men from their position between the mouth of the Kranji River and the causeway. One of the casualties was close to death, having lost a great deal of blood through a gaping shrapnel wound to his abdomen. The other man had lost the lower portion of his right leg.
Digger arranged a drip in the ambulance for the soldier with the abdominal wound and tried to make them both as comfortable as possible for the journey back to Oldham Hall. The seriously wounded soldier was very quiet but the young man who had lost part of his leg kept talking, despite the high dose of morphine he’d just been administered. They learned that his name was Henry.
‘You’ve no idea how fucking dark it is out there, you know,’ he said. ‘They knew exactly where we were, ’cause we saw their feet marks in the mud yesterday. The bastards were creeping about in the fucking dark.’
‘Okay, mate,’ Digger said. ‘We’ll have you in hospital and being looked after by beautiful nurses in no time, so just relax now.’
‘And then onto the boat, eh!’ said Henry, who seemed oblivious to the fact that he’d lost half his right leg.
By the time they reached Oldham Hall, the soldier with the gut wound had died. He had expired very quietly, as though he did not want to be any bother to those he knew would have a very tough time in the near future. Henry, meanwhile, had constantly been explaining the conditions: the mud, the water-filled trenches, the terrible dark nights that he had never before experienced, and the endless shelling.
Suddenly, he sought confirmation that his mate Robbo would be okay. ‘Robbo came out to drag me back into the trench, you know?’ he explained. ‘That’s when he got it.’
‘He’s doing just fine,’ Digger assured him.
The next day Digger heard more about the action of the 2/20th Battalion. It had started a few minutes past midnight on 8 February. The battalion’s D Company had sent a runner back to headquarters to inform them that the Japanese had overrun their position and that they had taken heavy casualties. Reinforcements were immediately sent in to retake the ground, but in the dark, through rubber trees in some areas and mangroves in others, it was nigh impossible to know exactly what success, if any, they were having.
In their first action, one section of eleven men, led by Corporal William Parker, had three men killed and four wounded. One lad who was killed that morning was only sixteen years old. The
fighting had lasted all day. After dark, they made their way back to headquarters through enemy lines; they had to swim the Kranji River. The next morning the men got a shock when they discovered they were black all over. The big petrol tanks at Kranji were on fire and had filled the river with soot.3
As the Japanese invasion went on, it seemed to Digger that the level of organisation and determination on the part of the Allies was continuing to deteriorate. General Percival’s theory about the invasion attack point had been completely wrong. The main thrust had come in the most logical area, just west of the causeway where the straits were narrowest. There were no defence structures there, and the defending forces – the Australians – were thin on the ground. The Japanese knew this well.
There was never any front line as such – or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that there were many front lines. The bombing continued, with the added hazard of not really knowing which areas were controlled by the Allies and which by the Japanese. The only certainty was that the enemy was winning more and more ground.
This made the transportation of the wounded a complete nightmare. Stories abounded of ambulances going in one direction only to meet Japanese forces, and turning back just in time. In many instances, wounded soldiers had to be left at the mercy of the enemy. The Allied troops now had more than an inkling that mercy was unlikely to be shown. More than one British soldier remarked to Digger that they would rather have gone through another two Dunkirks than this.
Digger made many rescue trips, including one particularly harrowing one on 9 or 10 February.
We had a message to proceed to the 2/20th Battalion RMS to pick up three badly wounded men and take them to Oldham Hall. We were not sure exactly where the 2/20th headquarters was, because it was continuously changing position. Nothing stayed in the same place for more than a couple of hours. But our driver was marvellous.
We travelled well up Bukit Timah Road and then went off to the left somewhere, and we found the 2/20th headquarters. We loaded three of the most seriously wounded and I made them as comfortable as possible. One had a bad abdominal wound, which was always a worry, and two other blokes had badly damaged legs.
As soon as I had them as comfortable as possible, we turned around and headed back to Oldham Hall. Before we had even got to Bukit Timah Road the shelling started. I doubt if we were the target but we were in the thick of it.
There was smoke everywhere but the driver just kept moving, until suddenly there was a bang and the ambulance lurched forward and stopped dead. All three patients and I ended up in a heap near the front of the ambulance, even though I thought I’d had them strapped in good and tight.
Before I could find out what had happened, one of the leg patients was yelling at me, ’Get your foot off my head, you stupid bastard!’ This was Max Wall of the 2/20th, who eventually became a great pal of mine. The driver had taken us straight into a shell hole that he could not see for the smoke. Luckily, he managed to reverse out and eventually we made it back to Oldham Hall.
It was at the end of this trip, just as Digger and Bobby had delivered their patients into the capable hands of the nurses, that shelling and bombing started very close to Oldham Hall. The noise was terrific but the nurses carried on regardless. They were non-combatants and the building clearly displayed red crosses, so they trusted in this and just got on with the job.
Digger thought he had better look for somewhere to shelter. All the able patients were sheltering under beds or anything that might offer some protection if the building took a direct hit. Loathe as he was to hide under a bed, Digger knew it was the sensible thing to do. As he hesitated, he heard a familiar voice say, ‘For God’s sake, man, get under here!’
This was the first time Digger had seen Joe Milledge since he left Kota Tinggi for Mersing. That seemed like years ago but in fact it was less than two months before. When the shelling and bombing slowed down, Joe and Digger were able to catch up and talk of their experiences. At the end of a rambling but fervent conversation, they had agreed on three points: the British did not know what the hell they were doing; they were all in a very deep hole; but they would survive!
Like all the Allied soldiers, Digger and Joe were much too busy to think about the conflict from the perspective of the Japanese. However, Digger later learned what some enemy soldiers thought of the fighting at this time. Lieutenant Choi Sasaki, aged twenty-three, was a machine-gun officer in the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). While he was injured and being cared for at Roberts Hospital, some time later, he spoke about his experiences during the siege of Singapore.
It was ver’ bad place, Orstralians shoot ver’ hard, ver’ fast, brr’p, brr’p, so that Nippon soldiers jump down among mangroves, and sweem, sweem in mud, oil and dark. Hoi! Hoi. What beeg mess! We throw off packs, off shirts, off everything except sword and material for fight. Then we fight with glory in mud. Ah! Orstralians! They are for me a grand souvenair of fight for Seenapoor – what you say? a gallant memory.
When morning come we have crawled to railway line past mangroves. When I look up – all quiet! About feefty metres away I see road where like many dead men er . . . er . . . p’raps twenty-seeven Orstralian, ver’ sad, ver’ sad! I give them salute of honour! Then on to objective; more fight begin, grand fighting but no water, no food! For five days we drink from stream and eat cocoanut; dam’ near starve! But on feefth day take Mandai Hill where we rest, ah! beautiful rest. Never I forget Orstralians and grand fighting souvenair they give me at Seengapoor.4
The confusion and sadness of the men of the 2/9th Field Ambulance was increased when a much respected officer, Captain John Park, and ambulance drivers Harold Ball and Lewis Park and medic Alf Woodman went missing. They had been making repeated trips forward to collect the wounded. The bodies of John Park and Harold Ball were found months later; it appeared that they had been executed. The bodies of Lewis Park and Alf Woodman were never found.
Digger was ordered to accompany an infantry lieutenant on a reconnaissance mission in a jeep to the northern end of Bukit Timah Road. He was unsure why he was selected for this mission. They were driving up Bukit Timah Road and eventually turned east onto a rough track through a rubber plantation. They stopped at a large timber shed. The lieutenant pulled back a large sliding door to inspect the contents of the shed, then closed it again and ordered Digger to stay on guard there. He said he would be back in five minutes and took off down the track.
Digger had his trusty .303 with him; it crossed his mind that perhaps this was the reason he was chosen. He kept the rifle close to him as he waited. After a few minutes, Digger’s curiosity overcame him and he opened the shed. It appeared that its main contents were large sacks of grain – probably rice, Digger thought – as well as agricultural machinery and, of all things, about ten bicycles that looked new.
Ten minutes passed and still there was no sign of the lieutenant. Digger was beginning to feel distinctly uncomfortable. He could see up and down the track for about a hundred metres each way, and much less than that through the plantation trees. Right that’s it, Digger thought. I’ve done my duty. He hopped onto a bicycle and cycled back towards Bukit Timah Road.
After about a mile, he reached the main road and glanced to the right. His heart leapt as he saw a platoon of Japanese soldiers approaching on foot – they were less than a hundred metres away, and Digger had the impression that one was down on a knee with his rifle up, ready to fire.
Digger dropped his rifle, knowing that he would pedal faster without it. His legs had never moved as quickly as they did that day. He did not look back or try to duck and weave, since he knew this would slow him down. All he could do was put distance between himself and the patrol. He was conscious of bullets passing him; at one point the bicycle jerked to the left but he managed to stay on and keep pedalling.
He cycled all the way back to Oldham Hall. When he stopped, he found that a bullet had just clipped the bicycle’s back fork. Digger never knew what became of the lieutenant he’d
driven with. He didn’t enquire too far because he knew that by jumping on the bicycle and leaving the area, he had technically left his post.
As the Japanese attack on Singapore began to succeed, fewer and fewer orders came through to the men. The medical orderlies did what was expected of them; the only thing that seemed to matter was where they were retreating to next, and when. The optimism of Digger’s letter to his brother was gradually dissipating in the face of the disasters he was forced to confront. He now knew that defeat was inevitable.
Nevertheless, there were many who were determined to fight right to the surrender. Digger considered the possibility of escape, even taking the time to visit the docks at Keppel Harbour. Sumatra was a very short journey over the Malacca straits, and Digger had heard stories of Australian and British soldiers escaping there on small boats. Yet he feared being sunk by the Japanese at sea, or – what was worse – being captured. Nor did Digger know what sort of reception he’d get in Sumatra.
The docks was also a very depressing place. There were dead bodies everywhere, which were ignored by all. The stink was terrible and there were hordes of people, mostly civilians, getting onto all sorts of vessels. Digger could see British soldiers organising the evacuation. He wondered how many of those civilians were soldiers in disguise. He decided there and then that he would take his chances and stay, whatever happened.
The situation in Singapore during the last days before the surrender was very hard for everyone. There were large numbers of civilian as well as military deaths. Bodies lay in the streets while shells exploded everywhere. Any troop position or other likely Allied asset was being bombed by fighter planes that were shooting at will. The Japanese had no opposition. It seemed as though they would not be satisfied until they had flattened the whole of Singapore and killed everyone. There was very little water, transport was almost impossible, and the Allies were down to the last of the ammunition.
