大象传媒

The following is a page out of a book, which I am hoping to have published, on the history of 258 Squadron. The detail is dramatic, and in many instances horrendous. You might like to use some of it in a programme commemorating the the end of the war in the Far East. I have 5 pictures.

The Squadron that vanished
After the war, having been successful in tracing old pals from all the other squadrons in which I served, I set about trying to contact some from 258, but without success. It seemed to me that the squadron had vanished into thin air. It was not until about 1999, however, that I discovered why. The Squadron had been diverted on the high seas to join in the defence of Singapore, where they arrived via Gibraltar on 29 January 1942. Three days later the Squadron became operational and, after only two more days, it moved to P1 airstrip in Java, for the defence of Palembang. Here, apparently, they were bombed regularly at about 10 am daily: I am told that the lads used to jump into their slit trenches just before the allotted hour, wait for the bombs to fall and, as the Japs were leaving, jumped out again to get on with their normal business!

On 14 February, the pattern changed. The aircraft took off on an operational sortie but, before they returned, Japanese paratroops had been dropped around the airfield so they were diverted to P2 on Java, where the Squadron was disbanded, leaving just 232 and 605 Hurricane Squadrons still operational. Incidentally, the latter Squadron was captured by the Japanese in March at Tjilitan. Some of the 258 Squadron personnel were killed or captured in Sumatra and some escaped to Java. When Java fell, the process was repeated: some killed and others were taken POW. Personnel from all the units surviving in Java boarded five vessels whose captains were ordered to evacuate them to Australia. The skipper of one of these, the Dutch Kota Gede decided not to risk Australia but to go instead to Ceylon, where he landed with some survivors from 258 Squadron. The other four ships were all sunk with no survivors on course for Australia. Earlier, however, on the 22nd of February, two ships had got away from Batavia. These were the Orcades and Deucalion, the former at least got to Freemantle, Australia, and then on to Ceylon. Those unable to get away in the last five ships were withdrawn from the port of Tjilatjap inland to Poerwerkerta, whence an attempt was made to evacuate them by train to Tasikmalaja airfield, 50 miles South East of Bandoeng.

Precisely what happened to all the personnel of 258 is unclear. However, in view of the fact that they had no aircraft to service, it seems most likely that some of them were on one or both of two trains that were to take them to Tasikmalaja airfield for evacuation by air. The fates of those on these two trains is described in 鈥淏loody Shambles鈥�, Vol. 2, by Shores, Cull and Yasuho Izawa, published by Grubstreet, London. ISBN 0 94881767 4. This excellent book covers in great detail the whole of the campaign in the Far East, from the invasion of Malaya, on 8 December 1941, to the surrender of Samar, the Southern Philippines, on 9 June 1942. The following is a short extract from that book.

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