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The Will to Live. Addendum
There follows an incident that occurred during the Battle for Singapore that I have never mentioned until now. However, I believe that for posterity’s sake, the incident should be made known, if only in order that future NCOs and officers should know where they stand.
To explain the background, before we ‘country bumpkins’ (Territorials) left England, a few regular troops were added, I assume to give us a bit of backbone, though in practice, things proved, in my experience, to be rather the other way round.
Most will have read, how in WW1, men who, in battle deserted in the face of the enemy, were shot by the sergeant. This subject, however, was never broached during our training. At the time when the Japanese crossed the straits that separate Singapore from Johore, my officer had left us, leaving me in charge of our infantry platoon.
We were covering a wide front, which meant our three sections were spread fairly wide apart in their positions. I did the rounds every hour or so, and at the time of the incident, the sound of approaching firing was drawing closer.
As I approached regular soldier Corporal Blank’s section, carrying at the port, as always, my .303 Short Lee Enfield rifle, loaded but not cocked, to my surprise, when Blank saw me coming, he climbed out of the trench and came to meet me just out of the earshot of his men. Bear in mind I had just had my twenty-third birthday, Blank was about forty. He muttered,
‘I ain’t facing no Japs, Sarge, I’m bloody going sick!’ My brain must have worked at the speed of lightning. If the seven men of his section saw him get away with desertion, what chance would I have of controlling them, let alone the other two sections? Moreover there was no witness.
Nevertheless, within a split second I lifted my rifle as I shoved a round up the spout, and finger on the trigger, took the first pressure. Looking him in the eye I said,
‘Me or the Japs!’ Not replying he returned to his men. I had no more trouble from him.
Would I have shot him? With no witness, I would have probably faced a Courts Marshall and been charged with murder. I shall never know the answer, but the worry lingers on in my mind, that is about sixty-five years later. I thank God he returned to face the enemy, saving me from needing to take that fatal step.
Len (Snowie) Baynes

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