Diary of Robert Russell Walker, 1941-1945 - Part 1

Conflict:

Second World War, 1939–45

Subject:

Documents and letters
Prisoner of War

Status:

Awaiting approval

Accession number:

AWM2019.22.196

Difficulty:

S.O.Book 135

Code 28-72-0

G (Crown pic, review original)

Supplied

for the

Public Service

Capt R R Walker

PRO 1859

TIMES ALL JAPANESE

Cease Fire 14.2.42 2200 HRS

March Down to hand over 16.2.42 0830

March to Assembly area 16.2.42

Slept in Assembly area night 16/17

Stayed next day 17.2..42

March began to Camp 17.2.42 1830 hrs (16 miles)

Arrived Camp 0600 hrs 18.2.42

Settled down in barracks 0700 hrs

Slept all day 18.2.42

Sorted things out 19.2.42

Work of sorts wiring party 20.2.42

Duty Coy 21.2.42

Sunday Rest 22.2.42

1943	NEEDLES ETC AS A P.O.W
25 JAN	DISENTRY NEEDLE	10 Aug 43 CHOLERA NEEDLE - 7CC	1944 16 MAR CHOLERA NEELDLE 1cc
4 FEB	"	13 " " CHOLERA ROD	7 APRIL GLASS ROD
10 "	T.A.B.	13 " " PLAGUE NEEDLE 7cc	4 MAY GLASS ROD
15 "	T.A.B.	17 " " CHOLERA TEST	16 AUG DYSENTERY NEEDLE
18 "	GLASS ROD	6 NOV " CHOLERA NEEDLE	17 " T.A.B. "
12 APR	" "	15 " GLASS ROD	22 " DYSENTERY "
" "	MALERIA TEST	15 " MALARIA TEST	23 " T.A.B. "
13 "	CHOLERA NEEDLE ½ cc	31 DEC CHOLERA NEEDLE 5cc	1945 14 JULY T.A.B. " 5cc
13 "	VACCINATION	31 " PLAGUE " 5cc	25 " DYSENTERY 5cc
13 "	PLAGUE NEEDLE	1944 2 JAN DYSENTRY " 5cc	18 SEPT VACCINATION
28 "	GLASS ROD	2 " T.A.B. " 5cc
" "	MALRIA TEST	6 " CHOLERA " 1cc
17 MAY	CHOLERA NEEDLE 1cc	6 " PLAGUE " 1cc
19 "	MALARIA TEST	10 " DYSENTRY " 1cc
24 "	CHOLERA NEEDLE ½cc	10 " PLAGUE " 1cc
6 JUNE	DYSENTRY & CHOLERA (G/ROD)	20 " VACCINATION
28 JULY	CHOLERA TEST	9 MAR CHOLERA NEEDLE ½cc
		9 " MALARIA TEST

" R A F F L E S "

U L U SEDELI TO P.O.W.CAMP

On the afternoon of 6 Dec 41 we were in

high spirits several of the code words dealing "oh the

war had come out and we were waiting for "Raffle to

come through. Most of the Officers this day had arranged

to go to a party at Malacca and had gone in early

in the afternoon. Lt Baxter & myself were going

down to the Jasin Club after tea to have a party on

our own.

About 1600 hrs a message came through

as "Raffles" and Maj Stinger took it, not [[.............]]

to check back but [[......& .....]] at the time knew nothing

about it so we didn't know what to. Anyhow word

was sent into town for the return of all Officers and

we warned the troops.

Approx 1900 hrs we had definite word of

Raffles and later we decided to pack up and the mad rush

started. All gear personnel & equipment had to be packed

Kit bags stacked and tanks loaded, also the troop carrier

had to be sorted set and put into Coy [[.........]]

The CO called a conference and we

were given our orders, destination which was the 34½ MP

past Kota Lingi. My Coy was [...] beg that day and

we had a job getting everyone ready in time but we

managed it alright and the Bn was moved away at

the given time in Coy convoys at 20 minute intervals.

My turn came, I was last out and we

moved out with out 11 troop carriers and 5 Coy trucks

I led in my truck and set the face as laid down

so M I H & 17 V T M

The move to Kota Lingi was long

we had over 200 miles to travel and at the speed it

was very monotonous and as we had to drive all night

and most of the day to midday. I relieved my driver

several times as he was beginning to nod off.

When we arrived at out site, we debussed

and went into our billets which were setup up and much

better than in thought we would have. We remained in this

camp for a few days and whilst we were there we had

quite a lot of Admin work to do such as ammo, equipment,

[[....]] rations, checking of weapons and a 1001 small jobs.

After a few days my orders were to move

to the Ulu Sedili area leaving from the 37MP to the 52 MP

to patrol and look after 1 made headquarters at Ulu Sedili

and spread the Pls out along the road. It wasn't long

before my area was spread to the 63 mile peg and later

I had to place one M(13) at the mile peg so this

gave us from the 37MP to the 66MP quite an area.

The main work in this area was to

be prepared to block the road and be prepared to fight. The

exploration of tracks East to the west from the Road and

West of the road when we had completed the East. There

are endless tracks in this area and it was quite a job

to get around them all.

My final dispositions were 15Pl at the

44 MP 14Pl at Ulu Sedili and 13Pl at the 66 MP and

Coy HQs also at Ulu Sedili, but this time we had

moved into a Malayan Forestry Officer's home (Ghan) and we

were very comfortable.
Melaria was very bad and the Coy suffered

heavily so much so that on Pl became full of inexperienced

men and was quite a worry the Quinine & nets to my mind

could not have been used to the but advantage although the

N.C.O's would not admit it.
We very rarely had any excitement, one of

the Coy trucks tipped over one day but luckily no one was

injured and the truck only slightly damaged. I also had a

section of carriers alotted me, in these I would occasionaly

carry out a patrol.

I had to do a terrific amount of travelling

during our stay here never doing less than 100 miles

per day every day, the trucks stood up to the work well

giving very little trouble.

Our food was very good but at first the 'B'

Echelon truck had to travel 180 miles per day this was too

much so I arranged to have them moved up and things

were much better after that.
There was a Coy of J.M.F. in the area

they were Indians attacked and their main job was to

guard bridges, and did not entail any work. There was an

A.I.F officer (Lt Rowe) with them as adviser.
We remained in this area until the 10 Jan

and our stay was really more of a holiday than being on

active service. Occasionally we had visits from different

ones the Brig, Col Thyer but mostly everyone just

raced past. It was here that Maurie returned me

after an absence of over two months he had been an Brigade

HQ's.

The amount of traffic on this road to Mersing

was terrific and there was never less than two or three

trucks broken down on the side of the road. The men

work very hard on patrols and did a lot of defense works

including wiring, fill boxes and a dozen other

things.

About the 8 Jan 42 we began to hear rumours

of our possible move to the front line and our position would

be taken over by another Unit. On the afternoon of the

9 Jan I was visited by an officer (White) of the Dogeras an

Indian Regiment and I learnt then they would be coming

into our area. I gave him all the available information

including maps etc and he arrived next morning with

his Coy to take over. In the meantime I had received

my orders as to time of move, etc

We moved off at 1245 on the 10 Jan 42 with

a convoy of 1 Armoured car 5 Coy Trucks and 7 troop

carriers. The trip was again slow.. We had approx 160 miles

to travel the first day and we went via the Jemaluang
X Roads Ayer Hitam to a small place called Paloi where

we slept the night. We had a good night.

When we left, we left rather hurriedly

I had two long patrols out so I left one truck behind

to pick them up whilst we went on Lt Wagstaff had one

patrol and Gl Keane the other. Late the first night at Paloi

Lt Wagstaff arrived but the other patrol hadn't came back. We

later learnt when they eventually caught us up that they

had been out off by swollen creeks in the Jungle and

went through the 2/19 Bn to G.B.D. then on to us.

We had a good meal at Paloi we camped

by the side of a Chinese Lance factory and they did all they

could for us.
Early next morning we set off on the

last stage of our journey to Jementah Rubber Estate which was

on the Uinar road from Segamat on the 40 M.P. We arrived

about lunch time and after lunch I went to Bn to receive

my final orders for the occupation of the position.

It was rather a good position and we

got in before dark and made ourselves comfortable for the

night. The ground was [[lully]] and Coy HQs was on the top

of a hill.

We had very little excitement here the worst

feature was rain of which we had too much.. At this

time too the 11 Indian Div was withdrawing from Malacca

and the amount of traffic passing through was tremendous.

During 24 hrs at least 4,300 vehicles of all kinds went

through and the road was, we were told, a continuous

stream of traffic for 72 miles.

It was here we had our first inking

of the Japanese, on out right flank about 15 miles NW

we could see planes and hear gun fire and this was in

the Gemas area. The Japanese we advancing down the

Kampur Road and were heading for Gemas.

On the 12 Feb we heard we may be

moving towards Gemas and another Indian Unit

would be taking over from us. This was good news because

the men were bursting for a fight.

Our 'B' Echelon had a lot of trouble in

this area getting our meals up, mainly because of the

traffic they were caught several times in traffic jams and

held up for hours, but neverthelss we always managed to

get a feed.

On the 13 Feb I was ordered after first

having done a recce of the area to send an advance

party across to the Paya Lang Estate which was between

Batu Anum & Gemas and on the right flank. So I

sent Capt Fox and on Pl over with instructions as to the

position to be recce for the Coy when we arrived.

On the morning of the 14 Feb the officer from

the new unit taking over arrived so I showed him around

the area and handed over to him. When he had finally

taken over I began to move the Coy out and embussed

for the move to Pay Lang. It was during this time

that we had our first glimpse of the Japanese bombers.

We set off and after travelling a fair way. I

noticed everything stopped on the road and looked out of the

truck and saw the bombers were still about. Not far from

there start began machine gunning and bombing Segamat.

Along the road the started to Machine Gun was us so

we stopped and ran for cover.

When that was over we embussed again

and completed our move over we without further incident.

When we arrived at Paya Lang Capt Fox was there

waiting at the rendezvous and was talking to Capt Tracey

and The Brig. I pulled up and we had a discussion

and I found the Brig had new ideas and we took

up a slightly altered position, but really not much

different to the original. This was a Dunlop Estate of

16000 acres and contained 75 miles of road so it was a

fair sized area and only 'D' & 'C' Coys to look after it on

the huge frontage.
We eventually got the Coy resettled and

into position and everyone a meal. Thing I had to find

Bn to receive my final orders. Rubber Estates are very

difficult to travel in One never knows where North is and

it is quite easy to get lost especially in such a big Estate.

By this time too we had only 2 Coy trucks run others had

been sent away by brigade as they said they gave away

the Unit positions too much.

The Coy now was very much spread out so

much so that intercom was difficult and to overcome this

we grabbed all the cycles we could each Pl having up

to 12 cycles and 6 [[...]] Coy HQ's they proved very useful

and saved our runners miles of walkng. Coy HQ's also

acquired an old "Chev" 4 and this was promptly christened

"Annie" and the boys set to camouflage her. They certainly

made a mess of it. One would never recognise it as a car,

nevertheless she proved very useful and saved us quite a

bit of petrol.

The Pls as I said were scattered, this was

necessary because of the area to patrol. It was a large area

and we adopted the "Paddock system" for patrolling, that is

the area is divided into blocks and a Pl made responsible for

its own block. Our frontage was a river the S.MUAR over

which we expected the enemy to infiltrate on our flanks.

We had the 2.30 forward at GEMAS and

an Indian Bde on our left flank on the main SEGAMAT-

GEMAS Rd near & along the 130-1 M.P.

Whilst on the Estate Sor Buswell, John joined

us as an interpreter from the J.V.E. and he remained with us

until the 11 Feb 42. He was quite useful, helping us alot

with the natives and as the PAYA LANG Estate was his old territory

in with life he was indispensible as a guide. He was a likeable

chap and got on very well with the rest of the men he had

occasion to be in contact with and never grumbled at jobs

he was given, though he would be called on any hour of

the day or night to do some interpreting.

Our life was fairly easily and the Pls had

very little excitement the most was doing some demolitions

and shooting & Malay out a boat on the river when he

refused to stop for questioning. There was a beautiful home in

the area it was owned by, at least lived in by the assistant

manager before the war and like 1000's of other homes was

deserted and many valuable, clothing, furniture etc left behind

One day I had a very unpleasant job in having

to evacuate the natives from the area in case of accidents. It

was pitiful to see the 100's of woman and kiddies with no home,

little food and no where to go. Still it was that or maybe get

killed by stray bullets. The Kampling in the Estate had already

been machine gunned by the enemy causing 12 casualties

amongst the natives.

Also one day we heard the familiar sound

of our Buffalo fighters and lo and behold we counted a dozen

locating a like number of our bombers. They came over twice

this day and that was the one & only time we ever saw

our bombers in action and nearly the last time seeing our

fighters in the air in the front line. We learnt later that they

inflicted heavy damage on an enemy convoy in the TAMPIN Rd

Needless to say during all our stay here the enemy dive bombers

were in the air, the main task seemed to be locating our Arty

whom they disliked very much, The divebombers were a single

engine, low winged, monoplane, with fixed undercarriage, very maneuverable and

fast. Their bombers were huge twin engine jobs and very fast, our

fighters we learnt could not catch them so that was that.

The red spot of course was always visible on the underside

of each wing. Practically evertime before bombing they would

let go a burst of machine gun fire then drop their eggs which

had quite a good sting. The divebombers sometimes came

down low and even threw out hand grenades. Very few were

ever slot down by small arms fire, and our A.A. Guns

and everything but hit a plane.

I forgot to mention here Lt Wagstaff's Pl managed

to require one of the Estate old trucks , and she was old, she

was a "Morris Commercial". One day he landed with a party

of over 30, 2/29 Bn lads and to see this thing with men

all over it and the engine boiling, well it was really funny.

We were now beginning to get our first taste

of sleeping out nights, but we managed very well, some of

the Pl areas had sheds which some were able to use, but

as we never slept exactly in the same spot each night in

our areas, most of the sleeping was done out in the open. We

managed very well though building smalls tents with groundsheets

and rigging up nets underneath, we always carried these if

possible as mosquitoes were very bad and also dangerous.

Our meals were kept up to us very well our .C.Q.M.S never

seemed to fail in coming through and we often had two

hot meals a day and heaps of other food and water.

Bathing was an essential which had to be

watched, but the men grabbed every opportunity to bathe and in

this way much skin disease was kept out. We had quite

a good little creek.
On the 15 Jan the forward coy in the

afternoon first contacted enemy and later the whole Bn was

fighting and they put up a marvellous fight inflicting

very heavy casualties on the enemy. That afternoon later

night they were withdrawn some through our area and

we feed and looked after them as well as possible until

they reorganised. They had very many harrowing stories to

tell and of course we were all ears. One truck on the

way out was hit in the rear by an A/TK Rifle which resulted

in a box of grenades being hit these exploded killing the

driver, the passenger then grabbed the wheel with one hand, pulled

out the hand throttle and rolled through the lines, when clear

he pushed the dead man out and came on needless to say he

did not present a very pleasant sight having gore all over him

from the dead man's seat. In that Coy they had very few

casualties although they had been in heavy fighting.

We did not have much longer to stay at PAYA LANG

Estate as we were later to learn. We kept on our usual routine

until the morning of the 17th about 0100hrs, I received a ring from Bn

to say we were moving across to the Fort Rose Estate. Particulars of

the move had been given us earlier at a conference so we merely

had to wait the word to move. On receipt of this order I sent

the O R around with a message to Pls and stated we would

rendezvous at 'D' Coy HQ's. Our Coy HQ's packed and were

ready to move in second. The transport had to go another way

but we used Annie to help in our move.

Coy HQ's reached 'D' Coy O.K. & on time but no sign

of any of the Pls. I waited & waited at last a man came

in and reported 13 Pl in but there was still no sign of the others

and as daylight was approaching and we had to cross the road

and some open country we or at least I was anxious to get

the Coy moving. 'D' Coy could wait no longer so they

moved off and after a time which seemed like ages 14 & 15 Pls

came in. We wrecked "Annie" & the old truck and set out

after 'D' Coy. We reached the road just about daybreak

and before this we had been way laid by some Indians

whose area we had to pass through and they were not taking

any risks. We eventually got through O.K. and arrived at

our destination which by this time was very lively. there

was plenty of gun fire and the dive bombers were very busy.

I took over from Capt Swartz as he had been with

the 2/30 whom we took over from. They were of course, very pleased

to see us and get out for a spell. We finally got into position

dodging dive-bombers all the while. Late in the afternoon things

began to liven up and the enemy had used mortars on some of

our patrols. Early that night some mortars opened up in front of

our position and we spent some hours trying to get our Arty on

to them. I sent out a patrol and we found, at least the patrol found

that the enemy were packing up & leaving.
Later on that night there were sounds of fighting

on our right flank and it appeared to be with the Indians. Shells

we constantly flying over & on us. About 0200 hrs on the

19 Mar 42 I received the information we were withdrawing as

the enemy had overwhelmed our right and we were in the process

of being cut off. I was to be last out but as 'D' Coy were

late we moved off with Bn HQ's on the CO's orders. We

had very little time left again before daylight and it meant

a hard long march as far as Segamat.

We moved along quite well and although the

men were knocked up having had no sleep for two nights, and

we were guided along a wrong road for about a mile and we

were still, as soon as daylight broke, being hounded by the planes.

We reached the main road some miles north of Segamat where

we were fortunate enough to be picked up by transport which

took us South of Segamat to BUKIT SIPIT.

I forgot to mention that at Fort Rose we were

joined by an Officer from the Dutch Army. His uniform was

green as was his tin hat he wore sand boots carried a sword,

pistol (Automatic) and had beautiful leather equipment and really

looked like a soldier. He had been in charge of Guerilla forces

which had been let loose behind the enemy lines.

Once on the march out we were held up for

1½ hours by enemy planes circling overhead searching for us.

1 2

As I said before we were transported to BUKIT SIPIT and

just before reaching our destination we were held up for awhile by

the truck in front stopping and we learnt that one of my Coy had

accidently shot himself whilst travelling in the truck (Pte Doyle) so he

was taken out and left on the side of the road until we could find

the Padre. We then moved on to our rest area and settled down

for a much needed rest & feed, there was a deserted food dump near

by so we had heaps of tucker.

Later I was called to a conference with the CO and we

moved forward to meet him. The other Coy Cmds & I and it was

there we learnt that we were to take up a position on the

SEGAMAT R front with an Indian Regt on our left and the

2/30 Bn some distance behind in reserve and we had to move in

before dark. We then move back to the Bn and I issued instructions

to the Coy and had a feed, wash & rest then the CO & Coy leads

went forward and we did our recce arranging with our Coys to

be brought forward by Maj Armstrong. Doyle was finally buried by our boys in their Rest Area. Also [[WOff]] McHUGH war sent to HOSP.

We got into position OK a very difficult and unpleasant

position as we had far too much area to cover but nevertheless

we were to hold until we were ordered otherwise. That night

except for shelling was quiet until the blew the main bridge

and the blast from that nearly lifted me off the ground. We were

by now becoming used to sleeping on the ground, uncomfortable

as it was.

Next morning loomed and the planes were with us

again, they only ever left us during darkness as we obviously

had nothing to hunt them away with. There was another

conference and I was to learn later after this conference that

the Bde were withdrawing that night and I had to go back

and protect the embussing point. Capt Fox had to go on a

recce party of the rear area.

We had an early bender and set out straight after having

to go 5 miles and I wanted to take it steadily as the men

were tired and we had to be there by 1600 hrs. After moving some

distance through the Rubber I noticed we were away from our area

the road so I ordered Lt Urse who was leading to watch out

After 1 ¾ hrs I checked up and to my horror found we were right

off the track and practically heading N so after much cursing of the

said Lieut and trouble I managed to get back to the main Rd

and we discovered that after our 2 hrs we had done exactly 1 mile

of course I was furious and then I was forced to clap on the pace.

After a hard gruelling march we eventually reached our

destination and during this time quiet a number of men had to

fall out on the way I met Lieut Paul [[Bole]] I 0 but he didn't know

anything. We arrived about 1½ hrs late and I met Lieut Mellion

I O 3 who gave one all the [...], mainly the job was feetrotting

against possible enemy patrols in a huge area and closing in as

the Bde embussed. Mellion gave me a nip of [[Suki]] which revived me a

little and I issued orders to the Pl [[....]] and then awaited the

arrival of the Bns Indian, 2/20, 2/26, my Coy was to be last

away of course.

It was eirie waiting as it was pitch dark and

we finally got them all away then I had to stay behind with

Maj Shaw 2/12 Fd Coy and under the blowing of bridges as we went.

It was good fun though dangerous and the mess those Aussie

[[....]] make of bridges well!! We also set alight to a village.

Lieut WATCHORN was primarily responsible and under the supervision

of Maj Shaw and he did a very good job. In the village

we set on fire there was tons of Raw Rubber a Railway Station

homes & goodness knows what and it lit up the sky

for miles. However we completed all the bridges and then set

out to find the Units whom we heard had gone to YONG PENG

Owing to counter [[mandered]] orders we were not sure

where the Units were Originally they were to move & rule north

of LABIS and it was there Capt Fox was waiting for the Coy with

guides also from the other Coys. We missed them and went past

LABIS and about 4 miles past towards YONG PENG I noticed Pte

Kinder on the side of the road, so Major Shaw stopped and I

learnt that Major Stringer was in the vicinity waiting for the Bn

which by this time had sailed past them in convoy. Whilst

we were discussing where the Units may be Lieut Mellion caught

up with us so we sent him back to tell the guides to come on

and then Maj Stringer went on with him and I stayed with

Maj Shaw.
We finally found Maj Shaw's show but we could

get no information as to 2/26 Bn so I decided to sleep

the last couple of hours at the 2/12 Fd Coy which I did. It was

here that I first struck [[Les]] Bourne not looking very happy either.

When morning arrived Maj Shaw lent me his truck and

went looking for the Bn which I found on the YON PENG -
BATU PAHAT Rd and there I joined my Coy who were still

resting and who had only a scrappy breakfast because as we

learnt later the truck had got bogged and couldn't get through.

I had a bath here and felt a bit better though

dog tired and dying for sleep. Lieut Moore arrived on a M/cycle

and took me down to Bn where I received order from

Pt Col Boyes to move forward into a reserve position. I moved the

Coy forward but, on arriving found there was no room for me

so after seeing the CO again and liaising with the

other Coy leaders I finally took up a position which wasn't at all

satisfactory in my eyes. The planes were still overhead and strangely

enough there were some A/A Guns 3.74 [Bofors] somewhere handy and

the planes were doing their best to get them and we were showered

with shell splinters from the AA but no one was hurt.

We dug well in here and had no trouble with tools

the [[bays]] by this time had learnt their necessity and carried

them as far as possible. We slept one night here and rested well and

well by this time our C.Q.M.S. had caught up with us and

he also managed to get us a change of clothes which were very welcome

as we had had the ones we were in on for nearly a week.

Next day we received orders to move to an embussing

point on the AYER HITAM Rd and we were to leave before the 2/30 Bn

who were on our left flank. We moved out in an orderly fashion

and embussed O.K. and took over a position occupied by the

"Norfolk" an English Regt and they went down the Rd. This was

on the AYER HITAM-BAUT PAHAT Rd. There we had 2 Coys forward

the 2 'D' Coy (We had 'D' of the 2/29 with us) then coming back 'C'

then 'A' then 'B' Coy HQ Coy & Bn HQ's. The Sigs managed

to get a phone onto us and our CQMS found us O.K. and

kept the meals up to us. We also had the same A/TK Sgt

as we had had with us at GEMAS.

We settled in here OK. the ground was very

low & swamp and we were hoping it wouldn't rain and it didn't.

Our job was mainly patrols and watching for Japanese dressed as

civilians, We remained that after noon and night of arrival the went

day & night and on the afternoon of the next day the 24 FEB 42 I

was called to Bn by the C.O. and given order to Recce my own

position on the KLUANG Rd with the object of blocking or warning

the Unit of any approach from the KLUANG side of AYER HITAM,

I sent word back to Capt Fox to Bring up the Coy and I was taken

forward through the much bombed AYER HITAM to a position I

chose about 1 mile along the Rd, this position I recce and then

wait for the Coy to arrive I was on my own and was pleased

to use or 'DR' arrive and he was for my intercommunication with BN

I didn't have long to wait the Coy arrived just

on dusk an I got them into position just before light failed altogether

We had a quiet night and some dug in and some left it until

dawn but we were all dug in by lunch time next day. their

patrolling started first thing in the morning over a wide area. We

had an excellent lunch although rain came down and spoilt it for

us a bit. Then about 1400 hrs on the 25 Feb we had our first

bombardment, the first barrage did not do any damage but

it was soon followed by a second and it was in this barrage

we had our first man killed in action [[.....] Bannah. In all there

was one killed & 6 wounded. We managed to get an ambulance

up to a point to which the wounded were carried back. The

stretcher bearers did a very good job and work under shell fire

with apparently little fear of being in the open.

The shelling & mortar continued all that afternoon

and even bombed our patrols so we had to be very carefull

and watch routes and check men in and out. We learnt

later that the rest of the Bn had suffered too, the two fwd Coys

had their share then 'A' and so back to Bn HQs, but the

strange thing was they didn't shell the position we had just

left, revealing excellent intelligence work on the part of the enemy.

We didn't know of course which, it was by our observation or

5th column work, more likely 5th Column.

That night or at least late afternoon the C.Q.M.S

landed and told us the ambulance had been hit but not

seriously on the way out. All this time we had our eyes

skimmed for a possible attack at dusk and the C.Q. was the

first to see any movement most likely his fresh eyes were

better able to [[....]] moving objects in that light. Nevertheless

we had by this time received word that we were to move

out at 2000hrs to an embussing point on the SIMPANG - RINGAM Rd.

We didn't worry about having any tea and sent the C.Q. off

arranging to meet him at the 56MP

Time dragged on and previously I had recce an

area for an F.U.P after withdrawal. We commenced the withdrawal

and just as the leading or fwd Pl (14) was pulling out they reported

seeing movement just on their right flank and we were able to

hear the rustle of the long grass across the road on our left flank.

However we reached the F.U.P safely and we set out for the main

Rd on a cross country route previously recce by Sgt Fraser during

the morning, and we were fortunate too as it was a most

difficult track. After much struggling we reached the main rd

safely and set out for Bn rendezous. when we reached it

we found Maj Stringer and 'D' Coy and we had orders to move

along the rd until the transport came to pick us up.

We moved along the rd alright having frequent

halts as the men were tired & nervy it was now we were

having the experience of "fighting all day, and marching all

night". We had to march about 5 miles until we struck the

buses which we gladly hopped on to and then set out for the

next halt, the 45M.P.

On reaching this destination, we had to wait

around in the dark for some until all the traffic cleared

and there was plenty of it. As soon as it was clear we moved

into a Bn [[Servveto]] for the night and after having a bit

of a feed we settled down to try and get a little bit of sleep.

Incidently our C.Q. had been sent to the wrong MP so we

had to [[...]] the rations we managed to carry with us. It

was a peaceful night though the ground was hard, there was

the noise of traffic and we were damp, cold and miserable

but it didn't seem to stop us sleeping and we had a bit of

much needed rest.

Last edited by:

Sam scott

Last edited on:

28 July 2025, 11:35 am

Last updated: 28 July 2025