大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Pat Hayward from WM CSV Action Desk on behalf of Alf Hayward and has been added to the site with his permission. Alf Hayward fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

The Big Retreat 鈥� Alf Hayward

It started the end of January 1942 鈥� we were evacuated from Tengan by a little coastal steamer travelling overnight to avoid the Japanese. We left close on sunset and I awoke in the morning steaming up the Palembang river. The jungle seemed to encroach on us on either side as we steamed up the river to the town of Palembang. The town is an oil producing town with storage tanks alongside the river. Our destination was an airfield 20-30kms to the south with just the bare facilities carved out of second degree jungle with numerous other squadrons.

P2 as we referred to it was used mainly for air support for Singapore 鈥� which was still fighting. After Singapore then the Japanese turned their attention to the Dutch East Indies. They attacked the town of Palembang with airborne forces and unfortunately I was in the town for the purpose of buying some shirts 鈥� you have to bear in mind that we came out of Singapore with nothing 鈥� after the first raid we got out with what we could carry 鈥� for me a haversack. Whilst manning a road-block at the edge of the town which I have been press ganged into a vehicle was let through driven by officers of the Squadron 鈥� unfortunately for me they ordered me to rejoin the Squadron immediately. Having re-joined the squadron 鈥� the aircraft had flown off and returned. A mate and I rushed out with the petrol tanker to re-fuel. Imagine our astonishment when a crocodile of men came out to board the aircraft. We were told we鈥檇 better find out which plane we had been allocated to. It would be too few for us to have rushed back to Airport control 鈥� they would have been gone by then so we tossed up. My friend won and picked the nearer airplane 鈥� I picket the short straw there were two aircraft but they were much farther away. The first one couldn鈥檛 take me 鈥� he鈥檇 got too many people already. I used a little bit of 鈥渢he old soldier鈥� and told the pilot I had been ordered to get on his plane.

My problems were not over yet because on turning into the wind at the end of the runway the tail wheel burst 鈥� what a day that was. Of all the airmen that were travelling on that plane there were only two of us who were actual aircraft fitters. One was a corporal and he led a group of the men to remove a tail wheel from a Hodson that was due to be blown up 鈥� we were using it as a Christmas Tree 鈥� if you wanted something you helped yourself 鈥� it was going to be blown up anyway. I was left to remove the tail wheel on our aircraft. Having accomplished that we set off with a load off 30 plus escaping airmen 鈥� from the Japanese Prison Camp. Our destination was Batavia 鈥� Dutch East Indies. 鈥� it鈥檚 Jakarta now. Due to the misfortunes of P.2 we were late arriving at Batavia Airport in fact it was dark. Imagine our surprise when the dutch opened fire with anti-aircraft fire. I think our aircrew forgot to fire off 鈥淐olours of the Day鈥� It鈥檚 a heavy pistol that fires off one or a combination of two colours as recognition. The pilot was using his radio trying to contact the ground. I might tell you there was a bit of panic. Coming into land I counted the flares on the flare-path. After the 7th I began to worry and then there was a terrific bang and I saw the port wheel break through the main plane and the aircraft hit the ground and made an indescribable noise.

Knowing that the space for the landing wheels was extremely limited and there were strong possibilities and it was extremely unlikely that one of the wheels would puncture the aircraft because of its progress down the runway it was glowing bright red. A crowd of airman who鈥檇 got off a previous aircraft were amazed that anyone was still alive. We evacuated the plane 鈥� I鈥檝e never seen anything move so fast. The pilot was a New Zealander 鈥� I think it must have been his best landing ever. After a short space of time the squadron was split up and one party travelled overland to a wonderful scenic route over the mountains to Tjillijap 鈥� a small port on the south coast of Java where we boarded the good ship Khota 鈥� Gede 鈥� a dutch coastal ship. We were told later it was Japanese gun-fire. After 10-14 days we managed to reach Columbo 鈥� in Ceylon. Our rations were one mug of tea or water and 3 ships biscuits per day. It took us so long to get to Columbo as we were steaming south 鈥� far out of the normal trade routes to avoid the Japanese. There were roughly 1900 evacuated troops on the ship but every night the ship stopped to conduct burials. Wounds, infections before they got on the boat 鈥� malnutrition. We were on the bottom deck we had two sets of ladders to get up on the deck. We were then ordered below decks. Imagine the heat 鈥� all those dirty stinking airmen 鈥� No washing facilities. There were only toilet facilities for the crew. I was a steam ship not a troop ship. When we arrived at Columbo we were anchored in the harbour for a further three days and my abiding memory of Columbo is a big neon sign saying 鈥淐eylon for good tea鈥� we were still on our short ration 鈥� could have killed for a cup of tea. Thankfully we were transferred to HMT Duneera 鈥� a regular troopship 鈥� there the crew treated us like royalty 鈥� we were heading for Karachi 鈥� to safety I thought 鈥� I think we can say that was the end of a long retreat.

After a short spell of refuelling and servicing it was back to work against the enemy on the Eastern front.

That is the story from Jan 鈥� April 1942 as I remember it and you can鈥檛 believe the emotions of what I experienced at that time and the comradeship that drew us all together.

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