大象传媒

On 31st January the Causeway was blown up because the Japs had reached S.Jahore. It was difficult to get any rest at night as the bombing and explosions made so much noise. Everyone was very depressed and people were being evacuated from Singapore by every available ship - most of them going to Australia. The guns sounded much nearer and some terrible burn cases were brought in from the ship "Empress of Asia".
On 8th February there was a terrific barrage all night as the Japs attempted to land on Singapore Island. There was so much work to do on the wards it was becoming impossible to cope with everything.The home sister was finding it difficult to get enough fruit and vegetables to feed the staff and we were told that there might be a water shortage as the pipelines got hit.
Tony Cochrane reached Singapore and was stationed at the Naval Base. I saw him briefly a few times and he asked me to marry him as soon as we met again in Australia. He made me promise to leave Singapore as soon as I could.
On Tuesday night, Matron called us together and told us that any nursing sister who wished to leave could do so the next day. Some of the married sisters left. It was a big decision for us to make and one wanted to do the right thing. It would have been far easier if we had been told that a number of volunteers were required to stay. On the 12th I said I would leave if there was another ship.
That day a number of Ghurka soldiers came into the hospital. They had marched many miles and had been fighting for days on end. These tough little men were comletely exhausted; they simply lay down in the passage and fell asleep. The St.John Ambulance people were doing a fine job. After each raid they set out to bring in the wounded. The main entrance of the hospital was crowded with people patiently waiting to have their wounds treated. Guns were placed in the hospital compound manned by British troops and there was the shattering sound of gunfire all day and night.
On Friday 13th February, a car came to take us to the docks; I collected my suitcases, all the time wondering if I was doing the right thing. However I got into the car and we drove to the Wharf and climbed into a crowded launch. There were three ships in the harbour and we were taken to each in turn and told that they were already overcrowded and could not take us on board. I was quite pleased as I felt dreadful about leaving the hospital. However just as we were about to get out of the launch the first ship signalled that they could take us after all, so we boarded the Mata Hari at about 7pm.
Despite the romantic name she was merely a cargo ship with a scratch crew collected from vessels which had been sunk. She had accommodation for nine passengers, but we totalled three hundred and twenty when she sailed out of Singapore harbour.
It was quite a hair-raising journey as we had to cross a live mine-field and the bouy marking the end of it was never sighted. We were packed like sardines below so I decided to lie on top of the hatch in the open with several other people. The sky was red with fire - it looked as if the whole city was burning, leaping flames lighting the blackness of the sky. From one of the nearby islands there was a huge pall of black smoke. This was where the Asiatic Petroleum Company's reserves of oil and petrol were kept and as it would have been of great value to the enemy, the British decided to destroy it.
After we got into the open sea I tried to sleep. At 3am we heard shouts for help; the ship stopped and we picked six men out of the water. I knew one of them, a young Volunteer Naval Reserve, I had played badminton with him in Penang.
During the first day at sea we were bombed by a passing plane, it was a near miss - the ship heeled over, we were all thrown off our feet - but thankfully the Mata Hari righted herself. We heard later that both ships that had been in Singapore harbour with us, the 'Kuala' and the 'Vyner Brook' had been sunk.
Because of the repeated bombing attacks, the Captain of the 'Mata Hari' decided to hug the islands by day and sail by night. Instead of going to Java we were heading for the Banka Straits. During the second night we felt that we were being followed - every now and then a green search light played on us. As dawn broke a Jap destroyer was seen quite close to us - it was the end of a night of great tension.
The 'Mata Hari's' maximum speed was thirteen knots and her sole means of defence was an obsolete gun, so the Captain had no option but to surrender to the Jap destroyer. By this time we were near to the island of Banka and slowly moving into Muntok harbour, followed closely by the destroyer. Before we dropped anchor all the charts were thrown into the sea and the Captain ordered that anyone with firearms must throw them over board. By the time our ship stopped we found ourselves surrounded by other Jap craft.
The destroyer came alongside and our Captain told the men to go below. The Jap naval officer came abord with two sailers carrying swords. The Jap flag was run up, now we were under The Rising Sun.

To be continued.

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