大象传媒

My father died on 30 October 2003 and this story was as told by him in a letter to my mother.

On Sunday 15 February the day Singapore fell Bill and I were in charge of a convoy of Indians about 200 men roughly and we had order to take them to a certain place just on the outskirts of Singapore and there await orders from H.S. We had a little trouble getting to this place and also lost a few men through shell fire, but I consider we were lucky to loose so few men as we had a warm journey. About 8 p.m. we received orders to take our convoy to the Japanese golf club, this we did OK and handed our men over to one of our captains we also handed in all our fire arms and received our orders as to how we should behave when the jap troops took us over, we were not to give them any cheek and do just as they ordered us to do etc. Well, Bill and I had already decided that we would have a go to get away by boat by the time everything was settled Sunday night it was to dark at the water front to see if there were any boats or not, so we just lay on the back of our Lorries until it was daylight Monday morning. We then went down to the sea-front and some men on a small motor boat, they told me they had been out all night on it but owing to engine trouble they had given up the idea of escaping in it. Bill and I told them we could probably fix it up, so while the rest of them on the boat were getting petrol, food and water aboard Bill and I got a bit of kit together and a box of fitters tools that I was carrying in my lorry. By this time the Japs were on the main road coming towards us so we had to make a quick move. We managed to get one of the engines going after a style, but it enabled us to get about a mile out of the harbour to a tug that lay at anchor and nobody was aboard it. Then we started work on the engines and late in the afternoon we had both of the engines going fine. Also while we had been busy on the engines some of the lads had been aboard the tug we were tied up to and got a very good compass cooking pots and some more fresh water, now we though we were OK. We then had a bit of a meeting as to whether we should leave right away or stay by the tug until it got dark and we decided we should wait until dark. It had been a very trying day and daylight seems as though it was never going to end. Patrol boats of Japanese soldiers had been round the harbour and low flying planes, of course we all had to keep out of sight. But at last sunset came and we got all ready to leave. I might mention here that were 34 of us on board of the little motor boat we had was a RN coast cutters fitter with a wireless and everything and her name was Sylvia. Also we had four or five civilians on board and one of them owned a boat so he knew how to navigate so we were lucky. We started up our engines and orders were given to let go the ropes that held our Sylvia to the tug and here our bad luck started. The rope fell into the water and wound itself round both the propellers and so stopped the engines. We began to drift back to the shore and almost wrecked our boat on an old wreck that was floating about, so we dropped our anchor and tried to get the rope off. It was a hopeless job and we had to give up until daylight Tuesday morning 17th, we had enough for one day. I myself had never been in such an exhausted condition through the want of sleep food and petrol fumes from the engines almost knocked me out. Anyway as soon as it was light enough Tuesday morning we set to work getting the rope off the propellers and Captain Dodson doing most of the underwater work and by 10.30 a.m. we had freed the propellers and were already to make another start. We up anchor and left at 11 a.m. we also noticed the Japanese flag flying over Singapore.

The boat went lovely this time and we made straight for the harbour boom, one or two planes flew over us and put our hearts in our mouths but they just roared past and took no notice of us.

Our next danger was the mine fields but we managed all right and opened up and made straight for Sumatra a distance of about 70 miles. Sylvia was a fine boat and we opened the throttle right up once and she cut through the water like a speed boat. By night fall we reached Sumatra also we passed many small sailing boats with soldiers on for the night as there were many sand banks along the coast of Sumatra and we did not wish to run aground at this stage of our journey. We also had the wireless that night and found out that the Japs were on another part of Sumatra so we decided to go further south. Next morning we up anchor and away and we also made contact with a Malay fisherman he told us to head for the big river in fact he said he would take us there, so we took him along with us, he steered the boat.

That night Wednesday night, we reached the river and two Malays came out in the rowing boat to us with a notice from some Army officer telling all troops that got away from Singapore to go down to a place called Ringat about 150 miles down this river. So we travelled all night and arrived at Ringat early Thursday morning. Here we left Sylvia in the Dock authority鈥檚 hands and the Dock supplied us with transport to a rest camp. We did not wish to stop at this rest camp any longer than we could help so, Captain Dodson had a hunt round and found a lorry that was out of action, but the owner told him if he could fix it he could use it, so once more Bill and I got going and had it running late in the afternoon. We took a driver with us to bring back the lorry to the owners. We had to go to a place called Paddang. Here we were to wait for a boat to evacuate us. I must say the journey across Sumatra was one of the loveliest I have ever had, apart from being crushed on the lorry, it was beautiful country and our journey was right over the mountains to the West coast. After arriving here Paddang we waited one week and then got orders that a boat would be at the docks at 3 a.m. Monday morning to take us away, to where we did not know, but we found out on boarding the Dutch coasting ship that we were going to Java.

The ship was only a small one and she carried 300 tons of bombs so we did not go much on that, also we had to sleep on the back but we did not mind that much, the ships name was S.S. Palima.

After travelling a day and a half towards Java the Captain received orders to turn and head for Ceylon. A notice was put up on the ship telling us that food and water would be rationed as the ship was not prepared for a 10 day journey.

Well we soon learnt about the food shortage, we had bread twice on the journey and the rest of the meals were boiled rice for breakfast dinner and tea. By the time we reached Colombo we looked like boiled rice and they even ran out of rice the last day, so you can guess what pigs we made or ourselves when we did get some food and Ceylon tea, the best in the world.

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