by Peter Brune
14 Kirby, p. 361.
15 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 292.
16 Kirby, p. 370.
17 Kirby, The Chain of Disaster, p. 221.
18 Percival, The War in Malaya, p. 263.
19 Warren, Singapore 1942, Britain’s Greatest Defeat, p. 215.
20 Kirby, footnote, p. 364.
21 Percival, The War in Malaya, p. 262.
22 Kirby, The Chain of Disaster, p. 221.
23 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, footnote, p. 297.
24 ibid. p. 290.
25 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 296, AWM 52 8/3/19, The 2/19th Battalion Unit Diary, the January–February Diary 1942; Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, pp. 255–6.
26 John Lack, No Lost Battalion, p. 108.
27 ibid. p.109.
28 Corporal Jim Kennedy, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Albury, NSW, 10 January 2005.
29 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 302.
30 Corporal Jim Kennedy and Lance-Corporal John Roxburgh, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Albury, NSW, 10 January 2005.
31 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 304.
32 AWM 54 553/5/23, Operations of 8 Aust Division in Malaya 1941–1942, Colonel J. H. Thyer, Part 1, p. 94.
33 ibid.
34 Warren, Singapore 1942, Britain’s Greatest Defeat, p. 217.
35 ibid. p. 213.
36 Simson, Singapore Too Little, Too Late, p. 36.
37 AWM 54 553/5/23, Operations of 8 Aust Division in Malaya 1941–1942, Colonel J. H. Thyer, Part 1, p. 98.
38 Warren, Singapore 1942, Britain’s Greatest Defeat, p. 214.
39 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, pp. 293–5.
40 Wall, Don, Singapore and Beyond, The Story of the 2/20 Battalion AIF, p. 56.
41 ibid.
42 AWM 52, 1/5/17 8th Australian Division General Staff Branch, January–February 1942.
43 Kirby, p. 374.
44 Warren, Singapore 1942, Britain’s Greatest Defeat, p. 222.
45 ibid.
46 AWM 54 553/5/23, Operations of 8 Aust Division in Malaya 1941–1942, Colonel J. H. Thyer, Part 1, p. 102.
20 ‘I DREW MY MEN BACK . . .’
1 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 334.
2 Kirby, The Chain of Disaster, p. 226.
3 ibid. p. 227.
4 ibid.
5 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, (footnote), p. 311.
6 ibid.
7 Cliff Whitelocke, Gunners in the Jungle, p. 119.
8 Warren, Singapore 1942, Britain’s Greatest Defeat, p. 225.
9 AWM 3DRL/2691, Papers of Brigadier A. L. Varley, Folder 3.
10 Newton, R W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, pp. 298–9.
11 Kirby, p. 371.
12 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 302.
13 ibid.
14 13 Platoon’s 2/4th dispositions are taken from a map compiled by Major Cough, 2/4th M G Bn and sent to historian Don Wall, 2/20th Battalion. A copy of the map and accounts of the action that night collected by Cough were kindly given to the author by the 2/4th historian Neville Browning in May 2012. Future references to this material will be cited as ‘Neville Browning’.
15 Wall, Singapore and Beyond, The Story of the Men of the 2/20 Battalion AIF, p. 64.
16 Neville Browning.
17 ibid.
18 Wall, Singapore and Beyond, The Story of the Men of the 2/20 Battalion AIF, pp. 70–1.
19 Shelly, quoted in Wall, Singapore and Beyond, The Story of the Men of the 2/20 Battalion AIF, pp. 66–7.
20 AWM 3DRL/2691, Papers of Brigadier A. L. Varley, Folder 3.
21 ibid.
22 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 315.
23 ibid.
24 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 307.
25 ibid.
26 Private Ron Stanton, C Company, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Bega, New South Wales, 12 January 2005.
27 Sergeant Bert Donaldson, D Company, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author Temora, New South Wales, 8 October 2005.
28 Wall, Singapore and Beyond, The Story of the Men of the 2/20 Battalion AIF, p. 85.
29 AWM 3DRL/2691, Papers of Brigadier A. L. Varley, Folder 3.
30 Cody, Ghosts in Khaki, The History of the 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion, p. 123.
31 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 318.
32 ibid.
33 ibid. p. 319.
34 AWM 54 553/5/23, Operations of 8 Aust Division in Malaya 1941–1942, Colonel J. H. Thyer, p. 125.
35 AWM 52 8/3/29, the 2/29th Battalion Unit Diary. The February Diary 1942. ‘Comments by CO and Additions to Unit War Diary for Period subsequent to 25 Jan 42.’
36 Neville Browning.
37 Cough letter to Wall, Neville Browning.
38 The six men concerned were not last minute reinforcements in Perth, and had fought well with Wankey’s shoreline guns. Confirmed by their records held by Neville Browning. Telephone conversation with Browning, 3 June 2012.
39 Christopher Shores and Brian Cull, Bloody Shambles, p. 373.
40 ibid.
41 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 323.
42 AWM 52 8/2/22 The 22nd Brigade War Diary, the February Diary 1942, and Appendix B.
43 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 298.
44 Magarry, Ron., The Battalion Story, 2/26th Infantry Battalion, 8th Division—AIF, p. 125.
45 ibid.
46 AWM 52 8/2/27 The 27th Brigade War Diary, the February Diary 1942.
47 AWM 52 8/3/19, the 2/19th Battalion Unit Diary, the February Diary 1942.
48 Quoted in Warren, Singapore 1942, Britain’s Greatest Defeat, p. 233.
49 Magarry, Ron, The Battalion Story, 2/26th Infantry Battalion, 8th Division—AIF, p. 130. Also, Pratten, Garth, Australian Battalion Commanders in the Second World War, p. 137.
50 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 329.
51 ibid.
52 AWM 73/7 Official War Historian working notes, correspondence and source material (Kirby and Wigmore); and AWM 54 553/5/23, Operations of 8 Aust Division in Malaya 1941 1942, Colonel J. H. Thyer, pp. 130 and 198.
53 AWM 52 8/2/27 The 27th Brigade War Diary, the February Diary 1942.
54 AWM 93 50/2/23/285 Galleghan to Wigmore, 26 March 1954, p. 18.
55 AWM 73/7 Official War Historian working notes, correspondence and source material (Kirby and Wigmore).
56 ibid.
57 Pratten, Australian Battalion Commanders in the Second World War, pp. 161–2.
58 AWM 73/7 Official War Historian working notes, correspondence and source material (Kirby and Wigmore). Interview with Galleghan, 22 January 1953.
59 AWM 67, 3/36, Wigmore interview with Blackburn, 21 January 1953. Also quoted by Blackburn’s biographer, Faukner, Andrew Arthur Blackburn VC, p. 390.
60 AWM 52 8/3/26, the 2/26th Battalion Unit Diary, the February Diary 1942.
61 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 333.
62 ibid. p. 330.
63 AWM 52 8/3/26, the 2/26th Battalion Unit Diary, the February Diary 1942.
64 Masanobu Tsuji, Singapore, The Japanese Version, p. 244.
65 ibid. p. 243.
66 ibid. p. 245.
67 ibid.
68 Kirby, p. 380.
69 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 337.
70 A. W. Penfold, W. C. Baylis, K. E. Crispin, Galleghan’s Greyhounds, p. 199.
21 FURTHER RETREATS
1 Morrison, Malayan Postscript, p. 177.
2 ibid.
3 ibid. p. 178.
4 Kirby, p. 383.
5 AWM 52 8/3/30, the 2/30th Battalion Unit Diary, the February Diary 1942.
6 AWM 52 8/2/27 The 27th Brigade War Diary, the February Diary 1942.
7 AWM 73/7 Official War Historian working notes, correspondence and source material (Kirby and Wigmore). Copy of a letter dated
19 November 1952, Harrison to Kirby.
8 Kirby, Appendix 27, p. 350.
9 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 337.
10 AWM 54 553/5/23, Operations of 8 Aust Division in Malaya 1941–1942, Colonel J. H. Thyer, p. 127.
11 Warren, Singapore 1942, Britain’s Greatest Defeat, p. 240.
12 Taylor, quoted in Warren, Singapore 1942, Britain’s Greatest Defeat, p. 240.
13 Winston Churchill, The Second World War, Vol. IV, pp. 87–8.
14 Kinvig, Scapegoat, General Percival of Singapore, p. 209.
15 AWM 54 553/5/23, Operations of 8 Aust Division in Malaya 1941–1942, Colonel J. H. Thyer. Appendix B.
16 ibid. p. 137.
17 Kirby, p. 391.
18 AWM 54 553/5/23, Operations of 8 Aust Division in Malaya 1941–1942, Colonel J. H. Thyer, p. 137.
19 AWM 52 8/3/29, The 2/29th Battalion Unit Diary, the February Diary 1942.
20 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 328.
21 Wall, Singapore and Beyond, The Story of the 2/20th Battalion AIF, p. 92.
22 AWM 54 553/5/23, Operations of 8 Aust Division in Malaya 1941–1942, Colonel J. H. Thyer, p. 138.
23 ibid.
24 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 347.
25 Wall, Singapore and Beyond, The Story of the Men of the 2/20 Battalion AIF, p. 95.
26 ibid.
27 AWM 54 553/5/23, Operations of 8 Aust Division in Malaya 1941–1942, Colonel J. H. Thyer, p. 140.
28 Kirby, p. 391.
29 AWM 54 553/5/23, Operations of 8 Aust Division in Malaya 1941–1942, Colonel J. H. Thyer, p. 137.
30 Kirby, p. 391.
31 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, footnote, p. 348.
32 ibid. p. 353.
33 Warren, Singapore 1942, Britain’s Greatest Defeat, p. 247.
34 Kirby, p. 395.
35 Warren, Singapore 1942, Britain’s Greatest Defeat, p. 248.
36 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, footnote, p. 354.
37 ibid. footnote. Wigmore’s statement that ‘Maxwell has recorded emphatically that it [the order] came from General Percival’ comes from an interview with Maxwell by Wigmore and Kirby on 26 January 1953. AWM 73/7.
38 Kirby, p. 399.
39 Percival, The War in Malaya, p. 281.
40 Shenton Diary, quoted in Brian Montgomery, Shenton of Singapore, p. 132.
41 ibid.
42 Papers of Brigadier Taylor, AWM PR 85/42, 419/49/34.
22 FINAL DAYS
1 AWM 52 18/2/21, The 8th Division Provost Company Unit Diary.
2 ibid.
3 ibid.
4 ibid.
5 AWM PR 84/252, 419/18/25, Chambers wrote ‘Five Days In Singapore’ while in Changi during the period Feb–April 1942. (Further reference to this work will be cited as ‘Chambers, Five Days in Singapore’.)
6 AWM 52 18/2/21, The 8th Division Provost Company Unit Diary.
7 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, footnote, p. 370.
8 AWM 54 553/5/23, Operations of 8 Aust Division in Malaya 1941–1942, Colonel J. H. Thyer, p. 137.
9 Quoted in, Winston Churchill, The Second World War, Vol. IV, p. 91.
10 Kinvig, Scapegoat, General Percival of Singapore, p. 213, and Warren, Singapore 1942, Britain’s Greatest Defeat, p. 258; both cite Percival’s record of the conversation in the Imperial War Museum.
11 Kinvig, Scapegoat, General Percival of Singapore, p. 213.
12 Percival, The War in Malaya, p. 286.
13 Quoted in Winston Churchill, The Second World War, Vol. IV, p. 91.
14 ibid.
15 ibid.
16 Chambers, Five Days in Singapore.
17 AWM 52 18/2/21, The 8th Division Provost Company Unit Diary.
18 Chambers, Five Days in Singapore.
19 Masanobu Tsuji, Singapore, The Japanese Version, p. 259.
20 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, footnote, p. 374.
21 AWM 52 18/2/21, The 8th Division Provost Company Unit Diary.
22 Menz, Captain A. (Alf ), 8 Australian Division Provost Company, personal Diary, copy most kindly lent to the author, by his sister, Muriel Yates 10 March 2007. Cited hereafter as ‘Menz Diary’.
23 Quoted in Winston Churchill, The Second World War, Vol. IV, pp. 92–4.
24 Quoted in Warren, Singapore 1942, Britain’s Greatest Defeat, p. 265.
25 Private Gus Halloran, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Port Macquarie, NSW, 18 April 2005.
26 Private Paddy O’Toole, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 4 January 2006.
27 Sergeant Frank Baker, 2/20th Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 9 January 2006.
28 Stan Arneil, One Man’s War, p. 9.
29 Gunner Richard Haynes, 2/10th Field Regiment, Diary and Papers. Haynes collection was given to the author in Canberra by historian Janet Uhr on 6 April 2010.
PART III PUDU AND CHANGI
23 ‘ROARING REGGIE’
1 Private Charles Letts, Malay Volunteers, interview Singapore, 4 January 2008. The interview was not taped at Letts’s insistence, but a record of the interview, undertaken with the author and Frank Taylor, was committed to paper later that day.
2 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 471.
3 Private Charles Edwards, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 17 February 2007. Edwards paced out and recorded the dimensions of Pudu while in captivity. He also drew a comprehensive map of the prison, which is reproduced in the narrative with accompanying notes taken from the interview with the author.
4 Russell Braddon, The Naked Island, p. 100.
5 Thornton in Colin E. Finkemeyer, It Happened To Us, p. 43.
6 Kenneth Harrison, The Brave Japanese, p. 101.
7 ibid.
8 Private Charles Edwards, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 17 February 2007; Sergeant Jack de Loas, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Bomaderry, NSW, 13 January 2005; Gunner Jim Kerr, 4th Anti-Tank Regiment, interview with the author, Melbourne, 20 April 2007. Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, pp. 471 and 477.
9 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 472.
10 Private Charles Edwards, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 17 February 2007.
11 Russell Braddon, The Naked Island, p. 102.
12 ibid. p. 113.
13 Private Charles Edwards, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 17 February 2007.
14 ibid.
15 Private Gus Halloran, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Port Macquarie, NSW, 29 September 2004.
16 Sergeant Jack de Loas, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Bomaderry, NSW, 13 January 2005.
17 ibid.
18 Private Charles Edwards, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 17 February 2007.
19 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 471.
20 Private Charles Edwards, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 17 February 2007.
21 Russell Braddon, The Naked Island, p. 118.
22 Private Charles Edwards, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 17 February 2007.
23 Russell Braddon, The Naked Island, p. 109.
24 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 473.
25 ibid. p. 473.
26 Lieutenant Ken Archer quoted in Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 473.
27 Private Charles Edwards, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 17 February 2007.
28 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 475.
29 Sergeant Jack de Loas, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Bomaderry, NSW, 13 January 2005; Gunner Jim Kerr, 4th Anti-Tank Regiment, interview with the author, Melbourne, 20 April 2007; Private Charles Edwards, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 17 February 2007
.
30 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 476.
31 Private Charles Edwards, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 17 February 2007.
32 ibid.
33 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 477.
34 Private Charles Edwards, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 17 February 2007.
35 ibid.
36 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 478.
37 Kenneth Harrison, The Brave Japanese, p. 125.
38 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 479.
39 Lynette Ramsay Silver, The Bridge at Parit Sulong, p. 260.
40 Lynette Ramsay Silver provides us with an excellent and detailed account of the escape and fate of both parties in The Bridge at Parit Sulong, pp. 255–61.
41 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 480.
42 Kenneth Harrison, The Brave Japanese, p. 122.
43 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, pp. 481–2.
44 ibid. p. 482.
24 LIGHT OF THE SOUTH
1 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 511. The Australian Official History has Lionel Wigmore as its author. However, the prisoner of war section was written by A. J. Sweeting. Thus, when the Australian Official History is cited, it will continue as ‘Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust’, although the reader should be aware that Sweeting wrote the section.
2 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 511.
3 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 390.
4 Kinvig, Scapegoat, General Percival of Singapore, p. 221.
5 ibid.
6 Rowley Richards, A Doctor’s War, p. 71.
7 ibid.
8 Private Gus Halloran, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Port Macquarie, NSW, 29 September 2004.
9 Gunner Richard Haynes, 2/10th Field Regiment, Diary and Papers. Haynes’s collection was given to the author in Canberra by historian Janet Uhr on 6 April 2010. Referred to hereafter as ‘Gunner Richard Haynes, 2/10th Field Regiment, diary and papers’.
10 Russell Braddon, The Naked Island, pp. 153–4.
11 Private Gus Halloran, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Port Macquarie, NSW, 29 September 2004.
12 R. P. W. Havers, Reassessing the Japanese prisoner of War Experience, The Changi POW Camp, Singapore, 1942–45, p. 41.