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Robert Hilton

Singapore Peace and War 1938-1945

I sailed for Singapore in December 1937 and had served just over 4 years before the Japanese over ran us in a matter of weeks. As an armament artificer, repairing optical electrical and mechanical instruments, I was quite familiar with our coastal defence batteries and anti aircraft positions.

Radar was in its infancy and we used optical instruments to find ranges, bearings and future positions of aircraft and battleships in the defence of the Naval Base. Unfortunately there was no Pacific Fleet, our only aircraft carrier had been withdrawn to the Mediterranean where Rommel seemed to control North Africa. Our aircraft were a few Swordfish, the odd Buffalo and a Catalina.

When the Singapore base was developed, all the Malay States were friendly and Singapore was well beyond the load carrying capacity of aircraft. We were sitting comfortably until the Germans invaded Poland. As is well known our expeditionary force in Europe was repelled and lost all their equipment as our lads scrambled back empty handed. An invasion across the Channel was expected, and we, 8,000 miles away, were like lost sheep and could do nothing.

The Battleship Hood was sunk, we were punch drunk. France had collapsed and French Indo China became a free stepping stone for the Nips, who bombed Pearl Harbour, Singapore and Changi then landed in Siam (Thailand). Our hopes were raised when two battleships arrived and some Hurricanes. The ships were overwhelmed, bombed and sunk by the Japanese. The few Hurricanes were no match for the Jap Zeros.

Our 18th Division, were bombed on landing as their ship, Empress of Asia sank in Keppel Harbour. Amongst them were our workshop reinforcements, about 100 men, whose equipment was on a ship which had been diverted elsewhere. Such was our reinforcement.

On Coast Defence batteries it was necessary to go by boat, but no matter how urgent the job, the boat was held up by the submarine boom, controlled by the Navy. I was very impatient, it was like being sabotaged by your own command.

Meanwhile, the Japs advanced down Malaya as far as the Johore causeway, one segment of which had been blown. At that time I had a job sorting out intermittent breaks in a distributor. The Japs then put up an observation balloon. On going back to fit the distributor I asked the Battery Commander why he hadn’t shot the balloon down? It’s one thing to hit the future position of aircraft, but to turn a 4-gun battery on a stationary object should not be a problem. He answered ‘I wasn’t allowed to, as it would give my position away’. He was at the side of the Tengah airfield, which was being shelled over our heads.

For eight weeks, the Japs had complete control of the skies. Bombers came over in flights of up to 52. Our Anti Aircraft, my speciality, was so disappointing. At times I was called out for utterly ridiculous reasons. Did anyone understand?

Then came the chaos. ´óÏó´«Ã½shop overlooked the Naval Base. They had been fighting fire for weeks, now they set fire to their own oil, sabotaged their own equipment, and along with the RAF were evacuated. The boom was thrown open after years of frustration, and we felt abandoned.

I’ll skip a few things, I got back from call outs to find Changi Magazine had been bombed. The gelignite store was missing, two of our lads who had tried to fight the fire were killed, and a native, I knew by sight lay on the ground dead.

We were evacuated to a rubber works in Thompson Road. On coming back from a job Major Stow said ‘Pack up, we are going to United Engineers, the Japs are in Sime Road’. But Sime Road was Ack Ack Headquarters, so I said ‘No sir, I’ve just come through Sime Road’. Never the less, we packed up and sent all the men. Sgt Major Clark, Captain Whelan and I were the last to leave, but we were first at United Engineers, as our new arrivals had got lost. Captain Whelan explained that we were the last to leave and ‘We were being shot at’. A blatant lie, there were no Japs. This probably appeased Stow, it consolidated his jitters.

Missing out many incidents, the Jap guns drew closer and at about 1am our SOME ‘Senior Ordinance Mechanical Engineer’, came asking for Hilton. I was to be evacuated. Major Stow gave me a note to pass on to his wife. I felt awful creeping away in the night. However we missed the boat and returning to our unit, we came under shellfire and could only fling ourselves down behind our Kit Bags until the shelling ceased.

This was my first experience of passing through Singapore Town. The place was teaming with demoralised soldiers, and rifles were left abandoned in the streets. I gave Major Stow his letter back and he referred to himself as Major Coe. I had to correct him; he had lost his nerve.

Within a day or so, we got the order ‘Man the Barricades, the Japs are half a mile away’. This was a thick wall, outside United Engineers. Our orders, To challenge passers by. Our lot called ‘Berente’ (Stop); but no one stopped, they were fleeing the Japs. Someone was going to get killed, so I dropped over the wall. The first car I stopped was a policeman going to his station. His house had been shelled. I got into a monsoon drain and waited, it must have been about 2am and quite dark when footsteps approached. I hadn’t handled a rifle for 6 years. I wondered if my safety catch was on or off. As the footsteps approached, I knew that if they opened fire, so would our men on the barricade. Well it turned out to be two signal’s men escorting two Indian soldiers one of them had soiled his pants. I felt sorry for him.

A day or so later we were ordered to lay down our arms. There must be no attempt to escape. There was no where to escape too. Soon the Nips controlled everything to Australia and India. After servicing our equipment, over four years, we had been defeated in eight weeks and become prisoners of war.

After returning home in October 1945, everyone had the impression that our guns pointed the wrong way. Anti Aircraft guns and Coastal Defence guns have 360-degree arc of travel. Johore battery fired above their limit of 70 rounds of 15-inch shells. Connaught battery fired above their limit of 9.2-inch shells. Other guns also fired. How do you kill a myth about guns pointing the wrong way? Winston Churchill had been misinformed. Our armour piercing shells, ideal for Coastal Defence, were not suited for firing at Japanese infantry.

We marched back to Changi and the natives were flying the ‘Fried Egg’. One could hardly blame them, we had let them down, and it was humiliating. As I was still in bandages, Capt. Houseman, on a passing lorry picked me up, though I was prepared to walk like the rest.

Arriving at Changi I was able to visit my old quarters, and pick up a few things, galoshes and photographs. We then moved to Beting Kusah and housed in tents. Here, we could swim in the sea, and supplement our meagre rations with snails (1 cent 1).

Rumours abound, then who should join us but my friend Lance Thew. He was our radio artificer at Changi. It wasn’t long before the desire to build a wireless set loomed. We raided the Garrison Cinema, took a few essentials and I made a variable condenser for him.

It seems our lads had raided Singapore Cold Storage, collected such things as cartons of razor blades and flash lamps. Sgt Maj. Clark (Nobby) called in all the batteries on some pretext and very soon Lance came to us and said, ‘I’ve got San Francisco’. News is as precious as food. Later, Les Denny, a radio mechanic supplied me with a set. By May 1943 I had followed the Coral Sea battles and the Germans’ failure to capture Stalingrad, Leningrad or Moscow.

The Americans landed in North Africa, our Eighth Army had Rommel on the run and our armies closed in on Tunis. British troops landed at Arakan when our lot became part of Train 12, F Force to be transported up country, ‘Where we would be fed better’. To me, nearer to Arakan and somewhere to escape to .

We were transported up country by train. There were no toilet facilities, so that previous parties fouled all our stopping points. Eventually we reached Non Ploduk, about 8 miles from Bankok. From here we walked by night, and stopped at camps for meals. At one camp I got 5 beans in my rice, marvellous. At some camps, men had died of cholera; we had no desire to stop, but at every camp, men dropped out, too ill to carry on. We eventually reached Changaraya, the most northerly of the camps up the River Quai, and said to be 345 kilos from Non Ploduk.

Naturally there were all sorts of incidents, long delays, wet through and eaten alive by little black flies. However, our camp was shared by Burmese workers. We never met the British, working from Mulmein.

Within days men went down with cholera. Some died in less than 24 hours. Some had violent cramp in their hands and feet. Nobby Clark, who slept next to me, got it, and I along with three others was put in the cholera ward as suspects. We then nursed the sick. Within 2 or 3 days, Nobby died. We used split bamboo as bed pans. There were no washing facilities. We carried water from a spring and boiled it on a bamboo fire.

Johnny Johnson and Straughon, two sappers of our four suspects died in quick succession, leaving Griffiths and myself. At that time we had only one doctor Dr Emery.

At first, corpses were buried, then the rains came, we could neither bury nor burn them. I was doing the night shift with any help I could get. One night a patient offered me 70 dollars for a drink of water. Trying to get burnt rice from the Burmese and other daytime disturbances, I wasn’t getting much rest.

One night there were 32 bodies piled up in the gangway like so much firewood, and our only doctor laid on the bamboo with suspected cholera. He recovered but eight men died on me that night. It was like the end of the world, who next?

I was not getting much rest; I was jiggered feeling quite ill, so I approached the medics’ sergeant who knew what I was doing. His words ring a bell to this day, ‘Bob, Ive got one dose of chlorodine, and, if it wasn’t you, you couldn’t have it’. That chlorodine pulled me through.

From day one, I resolved to keep records. We then got a second doctor, Dr Gillies. Of F Force, only 590 reached our destination. After only eight weeks, we moved back two camps, and I had recorded 218 deaths. I remember so many of those men, but in particular the young lads on the day shifts who overcame the fear of cholera and carried on.

We moved two camps.

I clearly remember B.S. Major Bert Dowset. An ex London bus driver. He was walking aimlessly about, shirttails flapping. This was a real comedown. I said ‘Bert, you look as though you’ve lost your grip’, he was not wearing his trousers. He replied ‘How the hell can I. I’ve shit myself three times today, look at my hands’. There was no skin; you could see his bare knuckle joints. He died on the way back to Changi.

At our second camp a W.O.I. of the Gordons was covered in blue bottles feeding on him. One of our wits remarked ‘I clapped my hands and his waistcoat flew off’. Bluebottles thrived on the dead and dying and on every cut or sore on your body.

Though I suffered myself, I was fit by comparison. On the journey back I was isolated in a tent with two others. We were given some sweet sago pudding. The third man was dying and we were ready to share his sago, but an orderly came in and spoon-fed him.

How I survived I’ll never know. Of the 15 Warrant officers who got to Changaraya, only 3 got back, and I was the only one from the British Army.

This account is only a fragment of the whole.

R Hilton
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