Diary of John William Cardwell Wyett, 1942 - Part 17

MONDAY -December 28th, 1942

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

Data- I.J.A. 
Organisation
Regt- 2600.- our Pde. Has own engrs & H/Th att. Sometimes arty. 13 MO’s & 72 orderlies. 
Div - 3 regts. 
Medical - BMO 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.) Nurse
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 [[?]] 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 Enhr Gps.
Sigs - W/T & tlephone with one man well fwd with phone. W/T & ground strips for air.
Bn
Equipment.
Boots very poor. Rubber soled sneakers hard on fet. 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 covered high velocity bullet pierces armd c's & 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. ^MMG has bar stand & hard to see. JAP very pleased with it. ^Also fork to drive into trees. Hy m.g, air cooled [[?]] 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 gen abt 100mm 4-5000". 6 men to mount or dismantle. Carried if 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 carried wh is used to extricate from light 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 outfits, quinine (sometimes Atebri) Vit B tabs (yeast). JAP has no watercarts. Garrison gets bal diet of rice, fresh veg, soya bean soup, fresh fish & occasionally meat.

 

                                                 Tng & Tact

A lot of P.T., range-practice & bayonet practice. Not much good with bayonet - jump when lunging & have no butt strokes. Tey 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 or coys given objective or left to reach it as soon as pos. Garrison attempts little [[?]]. Infiltration at night & climb trees to get our posns. Dialihe our Tommy guns, grenades & 25 prs. Used & liked our A/Tk rifle vs [[?]]. Mobility highly devd by means of bicycles. Carry big loads & carry thru swamps & across rivers. Majority came whole length of MALAYA on bikes. II MT or 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 on front with a few tps & moany automatic weapons after reinforced with crackers. Move a lot at night & always in close order. JAP admit this a filing. Even in daylight move in bunch 30-50 strong along rd on bicycle. Adv gp of about 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-fire. 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 does wrong. Amused of cruelty. Individ [[?]] 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 etc in NT & N Qld. Have questioned personel re N Qld NT & WA.

 

                         JAP statements re MALAYSIAN campaigns.

Moved 75,000 tps & had 75,000 in reserve at SINGGORA. Had trained in jungle warfare in Fr. Indo-China for 6 mths.

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 via KOTA TINGGI ^for first action. 5 Imp Jap Gds came ALOR STAR-IACH-SEREMBAN-MALACCA-MUAR-BAKRI-PARIT SULONG-RENG- PONTIAN KETCHIL- JB- KRANJI- WOODLANDS_NEESON-RESERVOIR-ROCOCEUSE Then back to 3B & on to SUMMATRA. ISLAND - JAPS asked why not used arty during preparation period & during crossing of strs? Why not more mings covering waterfront? Why so few tips 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 a further 10,000 in NW of island at dawn. 50,000 on island. Imp Gds driven off just west of causeway by arty & mg fire. Turned west into S.KRANJI - N of CR PANJA MANDAI-NEESON. 1000 me swam,

Diagram