大象传媒

We felt a little safer on the other side of the river, as we saw Jap bombers bombing oil refineries all the way around, the whole sky was black with smoke as all the oil was burning for miles and miles around. Most of the oil was set on fire by our own troops or the Dutch though , so as the Japs wouldn't benefit any. We waited for 2 hours and still no sign or our lorry, an officer ordered us to get moving as the Japs weren't very far away, so we thought the lorry would be able to catch us up.
We then started on a long march, l0 of us, as we couldn't get any transport. We got to the railway station 10 miles away as ordered to, but found when we got there that no more trains were likely to arive, and that the next best thing was to get to a railway station about 75 miles further on. Before we left this station we visited the warehouses and helped ourselves to a few hundred cigs, and a crate of beer, and something to eat, and then started off again, we, the party splitting up so there were 3 others and myself together.

On the road and in ditches were crashed aircraft and 100's of cars all u/s,we tried to see if we could get any of the cars going, but no such luck. We could see planes overhead, but couldn't see them owing to the density of smoke stretching for miles and miles. Several lots of kitbags and packs had been dumped by the fellows before us, so we helped ourselves to a few of the useful things in them. We had walked for a further 10-15 miles and we were all just about getting cheesed off! Several cars having passed us by, but all being packed full. We were getting rather desperate at this time, as we had heard on the road that the Japs had captured Palembang, so we decided that the next car that came along we'd stop it with our tommy gun and take the car over, however the next car was an offices's staff car with a tommy gun sticking out of each window, so we decided it would be best if we let that one go by. The next was a little bus with a local native driver, so we thought this was "it". We stopped the bus without any trouble, but when we opened the door, to kick or make room for ourselves, we found it packed full of European {Dutch} women and children all moaning and crying, there was little we could very well do about it, being Englishmen , so we "kindly" let them go on, much to their surprise. An RAF officer, we met later on, told
us to keep going and said that RAF transport would be picking us up, the vehicles going to and from the station, picking the fellows up from the roads. We carried on , trying as we came to each ditched car to make it go. No car now passed us for an hour and we were beginning to think we had had it, eventually two Dutch army lorries came by packed full of troops [Dutch] , they stopped and we managed to get on somehow. They told us they were the last to leave Palembang, so we were very much obliged for the lift, the drivers of the lorries travelling as fast as they would go, nearly 60 mph, took us all the way to the next railway station 50 odd miles away. On the road we passed hundreds of the local population all evacuating from the town, they apparently knowing, before we did, that the Japs were on the way up the Palembang River, unless they left owing to the air raids.

When we reached the station about 2 o'clock in the afternoon [we had been travelling for 8 houars, mostly on foot] we managed to scrounge some bully to eat, but no drink. There was a train, composed of cattle trucks, and it was packed full of British and Dutch troops waiting for the train to move off to Oosthaven, 180 miles further south [right on the furthermost South Sumatra.] A few RAF and RN fellows were the drivers of the train. I suppose about 3.000 blokes were on the train, the majority without any kit, we were squeezed so tight together that one couldn't wink an eyelid without the next fellow knew it. We only just made the train it starting a quarter of an hour after we got there. The moving of the train made it cooler but up until then it had been boiling hot.

50 miles on we had to stop and take some wounded troops aboard, it was at a railway atation, when someone shouted that the Japs were coming up right behind us. Everyone was shouting "get the train moving," etc, while we all got organised getting our guns all ready for action. It's a good job they didn't catch up with the train as we were such an easy target, all crowded together. However, we reached Oosthaven the following morning, after the worst of nights ever, as during the night it rained like hell, and it was as cold as it it is hot during the day, still we were all thankful we got there at all. At Oosthaven few army fellows dished out tins of bully for nearly all of us, and after 3 hours we got on a little ship to take us across to Java, just a couple of hours trip. On the other side we felt much more relieved, it was raining like hell again.

Then we had to wait until 9 o'clock in the night [another 8 hours[ for a train to take us to Batavia In that 8 hours we were busy eating as much fruit and stuff as possible, finishing up with peanuts. A Salvation Army truck brought enough drinks for everone. When the train came a blinking great cheer went up, but I don't want to travel again in a train like it, the seats were plain wood, and the carriages were dark, no lights, and packed full as sardines. We had several stops at stations and were given drinks by Nuns, and after travelling another 12 hours in the train reached Batavia, where it was still raining.

We all go to a large school, where we meet a lot of other RAF who had come straight from Singapore, and had been there a week doing nothing. We all got our heads down as soon as we could on a stone floor [just bare], but it was a good sleep.

note Jillyjap was the lads' name for Cilapac

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