by Hall, Ian
All of the historical background is accurate, as is the fact that events in Java never became readily known to the British public. The extraordinary juxtaposition of British and allied forces and the Javanese, of the bizarre and uncertain involvement of the various Japanese elements, of the position of the Dutch, of the nascent Indonesian state, of the extreme nationalists, and of the Americans is, although hard to believe, quite factual. So is the transformation of a humanitarian mission into a shooting war. The terrible circumstances of the 'Bekasi massacre' and the indication of probable blame are, as far as I am able to ascertain, entirely accurate. Incipient mutinies at RAF units east of Suez (largely attributable to delays in repatriating long-serving personnel after the war ended) are well documented – although there is no evidence of the problem having afflicted 31 Squadron.
Some of my characters are real. Brian Macnamara was indeed 31 Squadron's CO, although (unlike in my story) he did not join until after VJ Day. Bert Edwards later became a celebrated character in the Squadron 'old boys' association – having, following the Java episode, become the only corporal in the RAF medical service to be decorated with the Air Force Medal. That award was, conventionally, only made to personnel who wore an aircrew brevet, and air medics were not officially categorised as aircrew. I had the pleasure, many years later, of counting Bert as a friend. And I also became well acquainted with Colin, the surviving brother of ex-Hurricane pilot Keith Smith. Keith was indeed murdered at Bekasi in the circumstances described, and I am grateful to Colin for assisting me with background.
Other characters are based upon real people, with their main stories being retained but the details being altered to suit my tale. Of these, the most notable are Freddy Underwood and Nelli, who are modelled partly on Eve Overton and her late husband John. John and Eve's marriage was one of three (to my knowledge) between 31 Squadron personnel and Dutch ex-internees they'd met in Java. Eve and her mother had been interned for over three years by the time she met John, and the true story of their introduction bears telling. A British soldier, Ron Bedford, had been imprisoned in a nearby camp and had made friends 'through the barbed wire' with Eve while out on occasional working parties. When released he had wished to say goodbye to them but events had moved too quickly. Thus his only option had been to scribble a note and to ask a crewman on the Dakota in which he was being transported to try to get it to Eve. This was successfully accomplished by Wireless Operator John Overton, and the upshot some time later was a wedding between John and Eve – with Ron acting as best man.
My other characters are compilations, whose stories and adventures reflect tales related to me by many 31 Squadron veterans who were there. Most of the events described are true, although rearranged in my tale to create a coherent story seen through the eyes of my main characters. I do, however, own up to having no knowledge of a suicide on board the SS Esperance Bay, although by all accounts conditions on that old rustbucket could easily have made men feel that way; and there were certainly many who despaired of ever getting home at the end of the war. Likewise, although it is true that Commonwealth personnel were recalled at about the point I indicate, I have little doubt that some served for longer; but I have no evidence of any of them deliberately extending their engagements.
The chapter which describes the funeral at Kemajoran is fiction, as is my interpretation of the men's feelings and state of mind in the days preceding and following. I am grateful to my friend the Reverend Christopher Englesen for giving his 'sanity check' to my estimation of how a military chaplain might have felt and acted under such trying circumstances. And while the story of Arthur Brownlow's flight home is accurate in almost every detail (related to me by my good friend and ex-Wireless Operator Norman Cornwell) the nature of his ultimate arrival in his London suburb is fictitious. Many veterans have, however, told me (and surviving relatives have corroborated this) that memories of the events at Bekasi either caused them nightmares in later life or tended to make them bottle their memories up entirely.
The real personnel killed in the hand grenade attack were: Flight Sergeant R B Williams; Corporal W G E Frost; Leading Aircraftman P Boyd; and Aircraftman First Class G E Rowbotham. The 31 Squadron men killed at Bekasi were: Flying Officer R G Dight; Flying Officer H J Batten; Flying Officer A N Howe; Leading Aircraftman L H Singleton; and Flying Officer T K B Smith. Many of the dead are buried in Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in Java, or are otherwise commemorated in the Far East. I am proud, in fact, to have visited the memorial to Keith Smith in Singapore's Kranji military cemetery.
But for years it was not possible to locate all the sites, and the apparent lack of information on a few of those lost began to cause a good deal of anxiety to surviving members of 31 Squadron – who, by this time, were becoming very elderly. Therefore the Association embarked on some detective work. Part of the difficulty with the seemingly missing men was that we were using as a reference for their names the wooden plaque, carved as described in my tale in improvised workshops at Kemajorang. The plaque had hung, post war, in the chapel at RAF Tengah in Singapore until that base's handover to the Singapore Air Force in 1971. Thereafter, it had disappeared without trace. So all we had now was a poor-quality photograph, which was likely the cause of our, initially, searching for inaccurate names. In particular, when looking for the grave of Leading Aircraftman Gerry Greenstone (the man killed standing up in the truck – 'Chota' in my story), we drew a blank. We had been reading his initials as 'G J', but eventually discovered that he had been 'C J'; his names had actually been Cecil Jeremiah but he had chosen to be known as Jerry. With his grave located that left only one to be found, and for a while 'Phil Boyd' defeated all attempts to locate his site. Eventually, though, the CWGC came up with a surprising answer: although he had enlisted as 'Boyd' his real name was Kupinsky. We know not why he chose to use an alias; perhaps there was some German background in him, or other east-European history he preferred to conceal.
The whole truth of all of this – and indeed the whole campaign – will probably never emerge. I hope above all, though, that my tale will allow the few remaining survivors and, probably equally importantly, the relatives of those who have passed on, to find a kind of peace in the wake of the traumatic events that surrounded Bekasi.