Diary of John William Cardwell Wyett, 1942 - Part 17

      

MONDAY -December 28th, 1942

A busy morning in the office arranging pro patrols
& interviewing people.

TUESDAY-December 29th, 1942 
 

Data- I.J.A. 
Organisation
Regt- 2600.- our Bde. Has own engrs & H/Th alt. Sometimes arty. 13 MO’s & 72 orderlies. 

Div - 3 regts. 

Medical - 13MO 72 orderlies /regt. One Fd. Amb/Div (10 MO 480 stretcher bearers ), 13 Motor amb)
Little tpt for stores - rest march. 4 Fd. Hosps (mobile) / div. 9 MO 90 orderlies
Always one well fwd. & leapfrog. Base hosp always well back (SINGGORA - K.L.) Nurses
in base hosp only. All medical orderlies & SB's are combatant & fight. Also MO's when
medical unit att when they lead men. Wounded attended only when objective reached
or lull. Left to kill themselves if retreat. Do not respect Geneva Conv. clauses re enemy
wounded nor captured med. sup. 'All enemy wounded or not are bad -: kill them.'
Respect red cross or veh & units. NOT brassards except where carrying wounded
then do not fire. Preventive medicine good; frequent inoculations cholera, small-pox
T.A.B. Infected scabies, tinea of feet & neglected ulcers common. Vit B inj is part of treatment
for severe malaria.

Special Ky Engr Gps.
Sigs - W/T & telephone with one man well fwd with phone. W/T & ground strips for air.
Bn

Equipment.
Boots very poor. Rubber soled sneakers hard on feet. Carry these for jungle work &
crossing streams & swamps. Some have sep big toe for tree-climbing. No socks
or only cotton. Wrist compass (not as good as our pneumatic). Rifle almost heavy as ours with
smaller bore (25). Steel cored high velocity bullet pierces armd is & carriers. Auto pistol 

about .32 similar to Mauser. Clips 8 shot. Lt auto m.g. similar to Bron but lighter. 

Fixed often from hip like Tommy gun. ^Also fork to drive into trees.  ^MMG has bar stand & hard to see. JAP very pleased with it. Hy m.g, air cooled fast

with strips. Hand grenades - fear ours & own no good. Small mortar fixed 

from thigh or on grid. Very light & portable. Small HE bomb 200-300". NO 

rifle grenade. Mtn gun ∝ 100mm 4-5000". 6 min to mount & dismantle. Carried by

6 men by hand or a bicycle. A/Tk grenade (magnetic) not much good. HCH grenade.

A/Tk gun similar to ours but lighter. Tin hat heavier than ours & deeper. Tied on with tape. 

Carry respirator & toxic smoke canister wh is used to extricate from tight corner.
 

Rations.

Soldier does own cooking when & where possible, usually in pairs. Hard rations 

consist of uncooked rice & dried fish. Rice is brought to boil & upended
in dixie near fire. In 40 days advance down MALAYA I.J. Guards lived on 

country, drawing no rations. All men carry individ. water sterilizing outfit, 

quinine (sometimes Atabrine) Vit B tabs (yeast). JAP has no watercarts. Garrison 

gets bal diet of rice, fresh veg, soya bean soup, fresh fish & occasionally meat.

                                                
Tng & Tactics

A lot of P.T., range-practice & bayonet practice. Not much good with bayonet - jump when

lunging & have no butt strokes. They are easy to disarm. Trained for bursts of rapid movement. 

Run at jog-but Im, walk ^march 2m, run 1m, rest 15 mins. Run 2m march 1m run 1m with sprint at end & 

bayonet practice for 5 mins. Carry rifle, amm, bayonet, and haversack, w bottle & steel helmet. Our tps

can walk the legs off them. Trained only in attack & have little idea of defence of posn. 

Rarely move far from rd or track. Pls on coys given objective & left to reach it as 

soon as pos. Garrison attempts little recce. Infiltration at night & climb trees to get 

our posns. Dislike our Tommy guns, grenades & 25 prs. Used & liked our A/Tk rifle vs brons.

Mobility highly devel by means of bicycles. Carry big loads & carry thru swamps & across 

rivers. Majority came whole length of MALAYA on bikes. II MT of 30 cwt with cab built over 

engine. Short wheel-base & very manoeuvorable. Bad drivers - like speed & have poor 

judgement. Never attack frontalf - locate enemy & try & outflank, keeping up fire

a front with a few tps & many automatic weapons often reinforced with cra^ckers. 

Move a lot at night & always in close order. JAP admit this a failing. Even in daylight 

move in bunch 30-50 strong along rd on bicycles. Adv gp of ∝ 30 full of coy then bn.

Bn comd has call on air. Keen on camouflage & have strips sewn on uniform to 

take pieces of bush. Nets on tin hats similarly. Uniforms dyed green for MALAYA.

Afraid of bush-fires. Drink a lot of water when working & marching. Own offs or NCO's 

will shoot men if any sign of cowardice. All lack initiative & get confused 

trying to work out alternative if anything goes wrong. Amused of cruelty. Individ brig

is very good but not so good above ptes. Mortars well handled with FOO well fed 

with phone & line marked to give distances for ranging. Int excellent. Staff offrs all 

over MALAYA living as native CHINESE or MALAYS. Japs since recognised as members of cooly 

gang digging defence posts. Knew all formations & units & names of all offrs & appointments. Have 

good maps of Aust & very recent photographs of towns installations etc in NT & N Qld. Have   

questioned personnel re N Qld NT & WA.

JAP statements re MALAYAN campaign.

Used 75,000 tps & had 75,000 in reserve at SINGGORA. Had trained in jungle warfare 

in Far. Indo-China for 6 mnths.

ENDAU -

One bn attacked & turned back as too strongly held. Later one dir.

Casualties END-MORS-JLNG approx 2000. Main losses at JOOLYE EST. Approx 12,000 tps

passed through JLNG & down to JB first action via KOTA TINGGI . 5 Imp Jap Gds came 

ALOR STAR-[[?1PCH]]-SEREMBAN-MALACCA-MUAR-BAKRI-PARIT SULONG-RENG- PONTIAN KETCHIL- JB- 

KRANJI- WOODLANDS-NEESOON-Reservoir-Racecourse. Then back to JB & on to SOMMATRA.   

ISLAND - JAPS asked why not used arty during preparation period & during crossing of 

strs? Why not more mng's covering waterfront? Why so few tps in the obvious 

place at narrowest portion of str? (Japs assumed CHANGI & Naval base heavily defended) 

Why no big counterattack when TENGAH aerodrome was reached? (fds of fire).

3 pronged landing - 2 lots of 5000 & one of 3000 during night 8/9 & further 

10,000 in NW of island at dawn. 50,000 on island. Imp Gds driven off 

just west of causeway ^LCK Rds arty & mg fire. Turned west into S.KRANJI - N of BT PANJANG

MANDAI-NEES OON. 1000 men swam,

Diagram - see original document