Includes bibliographical references. Having demonstrated their abilities as matelots many of the ex-Kembong crew were offered berths and were part of about 50 men and a dozen women and children taken aboard. After receiving news of the surrender, Bennett handed command of the 8th Australian Division to the divisional artillery commander, Brigadier Cecil Callaghan andalong with some of his staff officerscommandeered a small boat. This is without a doubt the most boring WWII book I've come across. The "1942" appears to have been added to the title to avoid confusion with a book by the same name written by S.C. George in 1946. The ship was powered by temperamental German diesel engines, their operation needing specialist engineering knowledge. The battalion, consisting of poorly trained and equipped replacements, advanced to an assembly area near Bukit Timah. Doctors and nurses were also killed. Michael Pether (Pether 2018) has identified another twenty or so small craft which attempted the treacherous crossing. [159] Churchill's physician Lord Moran wrote, The fall of Singapore on February 15 stupefied the Prime Minister. Pool, Richard, Course for Disaster From Scapa Flow to the River Kwai, Leo Cooper, London, 1987. The most positive escape concerns the ex-Japanese fishing vessel Kofoku Maruskippered by Australian master mariner turned mining engineer, William (Bill) Reynolds. Of the Australian battalions, three had drawn heavily upon undertrained recruits, new to the theatre. [22] The Imperial Japanese Army Air Force was more numerous and better trained than the second-hand assortment of untrained pilots and inferior Commonwealth equipment remaining in Malaya, Borneo and Singapore. Following Japanese atrocities in Hong Kong as many female nurses as possible were to be evacuated. The "1942" appears to have been added to the title to avoid confusion with a book by the same name written by S.C. George in 1946. [157], The Japanese occupation of Singapore started after the British surrender. Unfortunately, despite all efforts, some military at the point of a gun, forced their way on board. published under title: Escape from the rising sun. The Malay battalions had not been in action, and the Straits Settlements Volunteers were only sketchily trained. The airfields at Tengah, Seletar and Sembawang were in range of Japanese artillery at Johor Bahru. , Language [129][117] At about 13:00, the Japanese broke through and advanced towards the Alexandra Barracks Hospital. Under the command of Major General Gordon Bennett, the force initially established its headquarters at Kuala Lumpur. [61], In the days leading up to the Japanese attack, patrols from the Australian 22nd Brigade were sent across the Straits of Johor at night to gather intelligence. Over the final five-day period before surrender on Sunday 15 February 1942, about 5000 souls escaped but less than one in four made a safe landing, the rest being killed or captured. The Dalforce irregulars, also known as Dalleys Desperadoes, were mainly local businessmen with some limited military service. One survivor, Private Arthur Haines from the Wiltshire Regiment, wrote a four-page account of the massacre that was sold by his daughter by private auction in 2008. Immediately following surrender of the garrison by Lieutenant General Arthur Percival on the evening of Sunday 15 February 1942, Major General Bennett handed over his command to Brigadier Cecil Callaghan and executed an escape plan (Bennett 1944). It was reported to Cabinet by the CIGS [Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Alan Brooke] that Percival has over 100,000 [sic] men, of whom 33,000 are British and 17,000 Australian. The Armys strength was further limited by a lack of tanks, armoured cars and a shortage of anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns. No community reviews have been submitted for this work. Locals revealed his presence and he was captured by the Japanese and subsequently shot by firing squad. Malaya and Singapore had an ample supply of defending forces, with a British Army supported by Australian and Indian troops, however, many of these had been hastily put together and quantity was not matched by quality. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. : Print length 198 pages Language English Publisher Scribner Publication date January 1, 1974 Kembong stopped and luckily remained undiscovered. [158] Churchill called the fall of Singapore to the Japanese "the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history". [71] The initial fighting cost the Australians many casualties, the 2/20th, losing 334 men killed and 214 wounded. Despite stubborn resistance and inflicting considerable casualties over 17 days of fighting, Hong Kong surrendered on Christmas Day 1941. The resistance put up by the company from the 2/19th pushed the follow-on waves of Japanese craft to land around the mouth of Murai River, which resulted in them creating a gap between the 2/19th and 2/18th battalions. Those ashore on Pompong, with some supplies, were estimated at about 200 women and children, 30 to 40 civilian men and 400 from the three services, which included many with severe injuries. The Japanese, however, were well aware of this deadly game of cat and mouse and had set a trap with aircraft overhead and ships guarding the Straits which caused havoc. These recordings can be accessed through Apple iTunes or for Android users, Stitcher. HMAS Sydney II and the HSK Kormoran Shipwreck Sites, Admiralty House, Garden and Fortifications, Royal Australian Naval Transmitting Station ACT, 81st. They carried 2 x 4-inch guns, 1 x 3.7-inch gun and 8machine guns, with a crew of 75 officers and men. [45] This included the naval base at Sembawang. able aboard ahead anchor arms army arrived asked attack battery became began better boat bobby bombs british broke broome brought called ceylon chance climbed coast command craft crew danger dark. Geoffrey Alexander Rowley-Conwy Langford Baron (1912-). Escape from Singapore, 1942;: The story of an incredible voyage through enemy waters, ASIN After landing a tortuous trek began across mountainous terrain making for the west coast port of Padang. on the Internet. [14][15] This was virtually simultaneous with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which precipitated the United States' entry into the war. Gibson, Walter, The Boat Singapore Escape, Monsoon, Singapore, 2007. Military analysts later estimated that if the guns had been well supplied with HE shells the Japanese attackers would have suffered heavy casualties but the invasion could not have been prevented by this means alone. I had 30,000 men and was outnumbered more than three to one. [101] This order was passed on to Bennett, who allocated X Battalion. [127] The civilian authorities began to fear that the water supply would give out; Percival was advised that large amounts of water were being lost due to damaged pipes and that the water supply was on the verge of collapse. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. [100], In the early afternoon of 10 February, on learning of the collapse of the Jurong Line, Wavell ordered Percival to launch a counter-attack to retake it. They get split up en route, but make it to Sumatra, where there are loads of other escapes and refugees. Accordingly, large numbers of families of servicemen and civilians were encouraged to leave. Grasshopperwas hit twice and set on fire but her captain managed to beach her on nearby Sebayer Islands. She suffered air attacks with some damage but then sailed directly into a convoy of enemy transports escorted by warships. Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon. ESCAPE FROM SINGAPORE, 1942 The Story of an Incredible Voyage through Enemy Waters Skidmore, Ian 3 ratings by Goodreads ISBN 10: 0684136384/ISBN 13: 9780684136387 Published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1974 Hardcover Save for Later FromRare Book Cellar(Pomona, NY, U.S.A.) AbeBooks Seller SinceNovember 24, 2001 [d] The Japanese overran cities and advanced toward Singapore, which was an anchor for the operations of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM), the first Allied joint command of the Second World War. He invited me to accompany him in his pram-dinghy, a flat-bottomed boat about 12 feet long, bermuda-rigged with bamboo mast and boom, and designed for racing in the sheltered waters of . This shows nine sunk by aerial bombing, 13 sunk by ship gunfire, three scuttled, 13 captured and seven unaccounted for. [32][33][34] On 31 January, the last Commonwealth forces crossed the causeway linking Johor and Singapore and engineers blew it up. The Indians reached Bennett around noon. Some did make landfall on a number of islands including Pompong Island (about 80 miles south of Singapore) where they escaped the wrath of their attackers. The next day, as the situation worsened for the Commonwealth, they sought to consolidate their defences; during the night of 12/13 February, the order was given for a 28mi (45km) perimeter to be established around Singapore City at the eastern end of the island. On sailing there were about300 passengers and crew. Its free and takes less than 10 seconds! An early relief ship was the small Dutch steamer SS Rooseboomwhich loaded about 500 refugees, mainly British troops but some civilians. Anniversary Cruise: Sydney under Japanese Attack, Sydney Harbour in War and Peace: Bradleys Head Tour, Garden Island Northern Hill and Garden Tour, Night of the midget subs Sydney under attack, D-Day commando on Sword Beach by Commander Jim Speed DSC, RAN Part 1, D-Day commando on Sword Beach by Commander Jim Speed DSC, RAN Part 2, D-Day commando on Sword Beach by Commander Jim Speed DSC, RAN Part 3. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations. Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations. An apt description of the commander, Major General Henry (Gordon) Bennett, found in a Veterans Affairs publication, (Moremon & Reid 2002) reads: A prominent citizen soldier, he had proven himself in World War I to be a fierce fighter and leader, but he was well known for his prickly temperament, argumentative nature and proneness to quarrel. From Padang they set out for Ceylon in a frail proa: During the 36-day voyage, they are gunned by the Japanese, buffeted by turbulent seas, and they lose half their water supply. Ying Pingwas first bombed with some damage but continued to the Banka Strait where she was shelled by an enemy cruiser. Because of the dangers no women were to be taken onboard. This would see landings in Malaya and Hong Kong as part of a general move south to secure Singapore, connected to Malaya by the JohorSingapore Causeway and then an invasion of the oil-rich area of Borneo and Java in the Dutch East Indies. Three small patrols were sent on the evening of 6 February, one was spotted and withdrew after its leader was killed and their boat sunk and the other two managed to get ashore. Since 2015, the timing for the sounding of the sirens has been shifted to 6.20 p.m., corresponding with the actual time of the surrender of Singapore in 1942. From there the Japanese launched two concerted attacks against the 2/18th, which were met with massed fire before they overwhelmed the Australians by weight of numbers. In February 1942, out of approximately 40,000 Indian personnel in Singapore, about 30,000 joined the INA, of which about 7,000 fought Commonwealth forces in the Burma Campaign and in the northeast Indian regions of Kohima and Imphal; others became POW camp guards at Changi. Dalforce, formally the Singapore Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army, was formed in Singapore in early 1942 by Colonel John Dalley. They were witnessing the beginning of the end of the British Empire with the whole city lying under a pall of smoke, lit up by the glow of fires, as the once rich and powerful garrison surrendered to the Japanese. Brooke, Geoffrey, Singapores Dunkirk, Leo Cooper, London, 1989. Kung Wowas able to disembark personnel on Pompong Island and afterwards found their two companions Kualaand Tien Kuanganchored close inshore. [174] British forces had planned to reconquer Singapore in Operation Mailfist in 1945, but the war ended before it could be carried out. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Escape from Singapore, 1942;: The story of an incredible voyage through enemy waters at Amazon.com. Denis Russell-Roberts (Russell-Roberts 1965), an Indian Army officer and later POW in Singapore, whose wife Ruth died on Banka Island, provides an analysis of 47 vessels that escaped from Singapore. Please try again. Japanese aircraft continuously bombed the civilian water supply which was expected to fail within days. I was very frightened all the time that the British would discover our numerical weakness and lack of supplies and force me into disastrous street fighting. Assisted by Dalforce volunteers, McKerron went to find a retired Royal Naval officer, Lieutenant Commander Geoffrey Whitaker3, who was persuaded to take command; that Whitaker was not a navigator but an electrical engineer seemed of little consequence. [12], The Japanese 25th Army invaded Malaya from Indochina, moving into northern Malaya and Thailand by amphibious assault on 8 December 1941. [95] As parties of Japanese troops began to infiltrate the brigade's positions from the west, exploiting the gap formed by the Kranji River, the 2/26th Battalion was forced to withdraw to a position east of the Bukit Timah Road; this move precipitated a sympathetic move by the 2/30th away from the causeway. The Japanese advance through the Malay Peninsula was unprecedented, and despite resistance by numerically superior defenders, appeared unstoppable. Japanese newspapers triumphantly declared the victory as deciding the general situation of the war. With only two boats it would take several trips to get all personnel to some wooded islands about 5 miles distant. She was known locally as The Ice-Box, therefore in taking passengers she was of limited value, only able to use the upper deck. When the junk did not arrive the ADC swam to a sampan and guided her inshore, allowing the party to cross to Johore. [169] Numerous British and Australian soldiers taken prisoner remained in Singapore's Changi Prison and many died in captivity. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. The final naval evacuation from Singapore in February 1942 was a tragedy of epic proportions, resulting in death and misery with few redeeming features except the eventual safety of the few survivors. Naval Historical Society of Australia Inc. [138], In analysing the campaign, Clifford Kinvig, a senior lecturer at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, blamed the commander of the 27th Infantry Brigade, Brigadier Duncan Maxwell, for his defeatist attitude and not properly defending the sector between the Causeway and the Kranji River. Date 8-15 February 1942 Location Singapore, Straits Settlements The Japanese were at the limit of their supply line and their artillery units were also running out of ammunition. [67], Shortly before 20:30 on 8 February, the first wave of Japanese troops from the 5th Division and 18th Division began crossing the Johor Strait. The book starts by recounting the events leading up to the Japanese conquest of British Singapore. Singapore a bastion of the British Empire, an impregnable fortress, fortified to withstand attack and prevent siege. Percival had expected a crossing in the north and failed to reinforce the defenders in time. Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video! Life on the Line tracks down Australian war veterans and records their stories. 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