Notebook of Avon Reah Smith-Ryan, 1942-1945

of much avail against these tanks. After he had

gone away we moved back through & found that all the
Indians had by this time faded.

7 & 9 pts were detailed with 1 run each as soon as

all stores were received from GHUIENAX.

A fellow (Pte Charter) was attached to us from

Bn Lpt section. A good man, Charter who maintained constant
watch over our vehicles at HQ & each others as plt sent back
for service. During the Coy sojourn at ADELAIDE RIVER N.T. we
had had Charter with us and then also found an excellent
man & so were pleased that he came to us again. I fancy he
asked his C.O. that it should be so. He remained with
us until the end of the campaign not returning to HQ Coy
until expressly ordered to do so after our arrival at SELARANG.

Sig officer sent us a DIR (Pte Kennedy) who

also remained attached throughout. He worked with [[?]]
who spoke highly of his work. I did not find out until
late in the show that he was a [[Junior?]] Kennedy and a
cousin of Tom Kennedy.

O/C Coy, with his driver, batman and the O/R

took up position with Bde H.Q. then located at 755181 off the
main road SINGAPORE - JOHORE the turn in being at the Singapore 
[[Dairy?]] Coy's sign. They continued to function with Bde H.Q. &
moved with them in this [?] shifts.

We had brought a number of tents from the

NAVAL BASE Camp, but they were not camouflaged. Some
were an ordinary dirty canvas and others were a beautiful
blue. These must have been [[?]], for but were definitely
impractical. for our  Bn H.Q. had a number of them
erected & even though the camouflage netting they stood out
like the proverbial organ stop. Evidently Bn were very
stuffy about letting us have some of their camouflage
nets even for our forward gun pits. Actually all we had
were begged, borrowed, scrounged or come by.

A Field Coy of 2/6 Coy had the task of [[?]]

tents for the DIV. On contacting them. I was told that

they could not do our job for days. I arranged to take

over the paint and my men did 10 tents. Only [[1%?]] could
make use of them & their C.O had all tents taken down at
dawn.

I visited all [[?]] each day & night and during

my absence on Tuesday Capt Champion C Coy and Bn
came with an order from Bn H.Q and took away about
100 belts of ammn. A small quantity of ammn and
unfilled belts was were also sequestered by 30 Bn.

Each Bn having [[?]] for feasibilities for 

our [[?]] was offered the services of the [[contracted?]] [[Bn?]] cook.

Only 31 29 Bn took advantage of the offer. Pte Bent therefore.

went over to 29 Bn returning to us after cessation of

hostilities. Hot boxes were passed over to 30 Bn and

our own tea containers were given to the [[pts?]] after the
first withdrawal those were lost. The three previous stores
bought at Wardside but never received into Coy owing to
our transfer to Darwin at the time would have been very
useful to Pts during their first few days.

Pay was made available to by Bn on Thursday

5 Feb. and was effected on 5-7 Feb acquittance rolls being
finally cleared up and returned to Bn on Sunday 8 Feb.
Delay was caused in paying as 8 & 9 P^ts had post on
exposed ground and could only be relieved by nights.

A stretcher bearer was obtained from R.M.O.

to attach to 8 Pt in COCONUT GROVE - 747223 - owing to their
isolation from their Bn. The P^t had meantime moved
to another area C Coy 2/3 Bn. I.B. was, however retained
to keep records of 8 & 9 Pl evacuations for C [[?]] [[?]].
It was unfortunate that the I.B (Pte E R Baker) should
have been the first man wounded of these Pls. Pte Baker
was originally a member of this Coy. who transferred to I.B.
He proved a good medical orderly. He operated with us during
most of our marches etc and became well liked for his work.
 

Friday 6 Feb.  In the evening I took my [[G.Q.A.L?]] Lieut [[Chal?]]
Batman with me as well as Dr Colbey and [[Flatmore?]].
We four went to 81st first & I was taken round their
positions & then went on to [[?]] White at Cpl Leasedale's
section & later a grenade exploded over on the far side of the
Straits & later on cries for 'Help' were heard down on the
wire in the water. Various odd shots were fired the reason
for which is not clear. I went down to the foreshore and
found the 2 i/c of the Inf Bde who declared the voice to be
that of his C.S.M. It appeared that a [[?]] patrol of
the C.S.M. and two men had gone out and in the
pitch dark had run across a barge load of enemy. He
threw a grenade and all three [[died?]] overboard, the two men
getting back by way of the Causeway but the C.S.M. was
not seen again. he had been recommended for M.M. too.
I went on and had a look at Cpt [[?]] section
& returned to Cpl Leasdale's are. Just as I and my
party were leaving there machine gun fire opened from the
other side. - I should say 12 guns at a minimum and
bullets started to whistle. I had often wondered why my
reactions would be on the first time they came my way.- I did
a very silly thing - ran up the [[?]] Road for 100 yards &
 

before having enough savvy to dive for the ditch on the side.
They had a lovely line on the road too but luckily their
early bursts were a bit high. So we regained (1st H.Q.
area safely & went to ground & after a while the enemy
fire ceased. I found out that Col. [[?]] & [[?]] Bunning
were in the Inf. Coy. [[?]] dugout having a conference.
I never saw the C.O. or [[?]] that night. Not very much later
Anderson the Inf. Coy. [[?]] "A" Coy [[??]] in front
decided that something was doing and sent up his four
reds - Down came 10 guns. Gosh it was good to hear
& they fired like a dream - 1 min rapid, 1 min normal
& 3 mins intermittent fire. Dan had 6 guns under 
his comd at this time and Mac 4. It seems quite certain
from talking with Japanese xxx during our later work
that an attempt to land at the Causeway that night
was abandoned. Mac's guns were a little late in
firing because he was in a quandary. The C.O.F. came
from the [[causeway?]] and his guns were covering Changi
tho' he was in  3^rd Bn area. However he decided that it
was better to support the 26 Bn if they wanted it [[??]]
[[shorter?]] than ret. fire if they did not want support.
After things quietened down I went
down to Leasedale's section and found that things were
 

quite O.K. and that they liked their positions. Several
men had been caught in the open but had managed
local cover and no casualties. I then returned, had a
few words with Don, collected my party and moved back
to 8 P^l. Sgt Sandilands took me down to Mac's dugout,
& I had a yarn to him for half an hour. Never have I 
enjoyed a cigarette a as much as I did one then. He
told me of his decision to fire and that the O/C Coy in whose
area he was, wasn't over pleased about it, maintaining
also that only three reds had gone up. I was able to
clear that one up at any rate & called on the Inf Coy
Comd. later to do so.
About [[?]] we went back to our truck and while
still in [[?]] road the enemy opened up again. We took
cover in a ditch and one bullet landed in the back of the [[?]]
between Campbell & I as we crouched together. Mostly though they
were high again & we continued on our way. Then we had
a puncture right over a shell hole - no jack or tools.
However a white road pole post for a fulcrum and a rubber
tree for a lever did duty for a jack and a hammer for a
spanner and we got her changed.
 

Saturday 7 Feb.  Desultory shelling during the day & a few flames
over I went up again late xxxx xxxx and got the completed
pay acquittances. During the day I had done the usual routine
of yarns to Bn and to Bae Rd to see Sam. Saturday night
they started shelling the 22 Bde men with a barrage that
steadily increased in intensity until the landing on Sunday night.
Sunday 8 Feb 42  This morning I asked Capt Yale (Bde T.O.) for
his plan for defence of Bae 'B' bch area. He asked me to assist him
by preparing such a plan and together with his assistant Lieut Haims
I made dispositions for occupation in case of necessity.
While visiting Eng Pts about 0300 hrs on the morning.
Monday 9 Feb 42  I was at H.Q. 81st when a runner came from
"C" Coy 30 Bn with a message that the enemy had forced a landing
during the evening in several places on the K.N. Coast - 22 Bn area.
I have found since, in talking with Japanese that they had pounded
that part with 400 guns from at night. I [[assumed?]] that quite
considerable gun and mortar fire had been brought on to our
men by [[man?]] at the Causeway etc during this time.
On return I called at our Bn. H.Q. and found
that they had received the information and were disposing for a
defensive line running from [[Buki Panjang?]] and the xxx [[?]] Rd
running [[back?]] to [[?]] on line Tank Trap.
 

I returned to [[Buckwoods?]] and ordered defensive
positions to be manned. Our portion of the perimeter was
covering the gully 400 yards west of [[?]]. Until this time
we had only manned our 2 L.M.Gs covering closely on [[Coy?]] area
from dusk to dawn.
Towards midday I heard that apparently12 men
had arrived in bad condition at 26 Bn area. I went across
and found that the party included men from 18 Bn & our D.Coy.
D Coy men were Ptes Attenborough, B [[Lucas?]], R Whitford & G. Shelton.
I brought them to my H.Q. fed & [[?]] them and took their story
of the landing (which was handed over to Bde [[?]] Capt [[Wimpole?]]
and allowed them to rest.
Bn. T.O. sent a warning order about midday that
Bde [[??]] would move that evening to an area off [[?]] Rd.
ref 789142, and about 1600 hrs we were ordered to move @ 1830 hrs.
2/26 Bn had asked me to provide drivers for 2 carriers. The benefit
of the short school for carrier drivers @ Bachelor was obvious.
I was fortunate in being able to have the use of 3 carriers to
shift my ammn and all stores in one convoy. The party was
about to have a meal at 1715 hrs when 2 R arrived from
O/C Coy with instructions to send all transport to withdraw all
 

heavy unnecessary gear and packs from 8 & 9 P^lts. I replied
that all vehicles were  loaded and standing by ready to move
to new area and that on arrival I would unload immediately
and carry out the order. As I was writing to reply, C [[?]] came
up and stated that enemy rifle fire was audible and that an
odd shot had passed close to Pte Miller. Bde announcement was put
forward and I ordered my [[?]] to leave immediately and with
[[?]] CSM and 2 [[?]] now pte's Morris & Lonsdale went in
search of a possible [[sampan?]]. It was a futile effort and we then
proceeded on foot towards the new area, having a meal at an
abandoned food dump. The road was at most times completely
blocked and vehicles were head to tail the whole distance. I have
never before seen such a road jam. I met Capt. Thompson
(C) Coy who was leading his H.Q. to vicinity 707165. as
44 Indian Bde was falling back. Owing to the confusion on
the road I lost trace of Henty & Campbell (CSM & CQM),
who had managed a ride for a vehicle for a short distance,
but I, with Lonsdale, Morris & Cpl G South & [[?]]
who alighted from their carrier @ Bn H.Q. and were left behind,
proceeded on my way taking short lifts as opportunity offered.
On the way after picking our way through
 

desultory shell fire @ [[??]] crossroads, I heard
voices in the dark mention 2/4 [[?]] Bn and on
investigation found them to be 8 men of D Coy lost and
riding on a gun carriage.