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Order of
Battle
Arrived 1630hrs 13/1/1942
Departed ? 15/1/1942
1) The day we bumped the
Japs
NX29116 - BROWN, Raymond John Tresillian, Pte. - B Company,
12 Platoon
NX37484 - FERRY, Raymond Joseph (Ray), Pte. -
B Company, 10 Platoon
NX47456 - ROWE, Aubrey Nelson (Jack), A/Cpl. - C Company,
15A Platoon
Mr and Mrs. Stan Brown, of Bankstown, N.S.W.
have received a number of letters from friends of his, who
say he has been recommended for a decoration. The action
that led to this recommendation is described by
Corporal A.N.
Rowe to his parents in West Kempsey.
"Young
Ray Brown made a name for himself. The
day we bumped the Japs first he was lying on top of a
cutting near a road. A bomb burst, undermining the bank, and
brought him tumbling down on to the roadway. In the fall he
lost his rifle.
Four Japs rushed in and tried to stab him
with their daggers, but he lashed out with his fists, and
punched and ducked to such good purpose that they could not
land a finishing stab on him, although he got 14 stab wounds
all told. He managed to take a dagger from one of them. He
killed two and wounded the other two, and was making his way
back when big
Ray Ferris (sic: Ray Ferry), from
Tamworth, saw him and got him on his back.
After carrying him for a mile they were again
attacked by Japs, so
Ferris (sic: Ray Ferry) had to
put him down. They had to fight their way back three miles,
and
Brown plugged along under his own steam. When they got
him to hospital they found he had a slight fracture of the
skull, as well as the stab wounds, but he is in the next bed
to me and is doing really well, though they won't let him up
yet. One gash in the back of his head lifted his scalp and
took eight stitches, and another one in the forehead has six
stitches.
A Queenslander named Edwards also put up a
good performance. He followed two Jap officers for miles
through the jungle on his own. At one stage he was tracking
the Japs, and, as she looked around, he found two tigers
stalking him, but he carried on till he could pass on the
information which led to the capture of the Japs."
(Source: The Australian
Women's Weekly [Microform], National Library of Australia,
mfm N 15, 1942 reel (April4, 1942))
2) Report by Captain D.J.
Duffy, Officer in Charge of "B" Company
Sungei
Gemencheh Ambush - Report by Captain D.J. Duffy
3) Withdrawal of the Ambush
Company
Withdrawal of the Ambush Company - 15/1/1942
4) Day 5 of the Return to
Malaya tour
NX37745 - ASPINALL, George Henry (Changi), Pte. - HQ
Company, Transport
NX26331 - HOLLAND, Bruce Hedley (Dutchy), Pte. - B Company,
12 Platoon
NX59635 - MACLAY, John Richard (Jack), A/U/Cpl. - B Company,
12 Platoon
The run to Gemencheh Bridge
through Tampin was uneventful. First stop was at the bridge
to enable George Aspinall to take some more photographs and,
after the previous day's visit and ceremony, the locating of
the ambush positions was easy. With the jungle growth
cleared away from the old bridge site, photographing views,
to the east and to the west was facilitated.
"Dutchy" Holland pointed out the
exact place he had occupied on the ambush day and told us
how the force of the blast had thrown him heavily to the
ground and momentarily stunned him. When we saw the short
distance that he had been placed from the bridge on the
rising ground and we recalled the generous amount of
explosive used, we believed that he had fared rather well in
an unhealthy spot.
Jack Maclay had been one member
of a small suicide squad, volunteers, who had to be single
and with no allotments in their Pay Books and for whom, on
the first call, there had been no one step forward. Their
task was to lie in the grass on the sloping approach to the
bridge; not to move once settled down, not even in response
to the call of nature, lest evidence of their presence be
shown by trodden down grass; when the bridge was blown, and
trucks had been halted on the Bn. side of the bridge by "B"
Coy "fire action", to toss bakelite grenades up under those
trucks which were near to them. In the absence of trucks, in
actual fact, they could roll their grenades only into the
midst of the cyclists.
Features at the bridge are
little changed. In place of a small timber mill with the
peaceful pigeon loft on top, there is now a kind of
refreshment stop consisting of two or three buildings, below
the size of what could be described as a kampong. The road
was diverted very little, forty or fifty metres perhaps. The
vistas and lines of sight remain largely as "B" Company knew
them. It still looks an ideal site for an ambush. After
clambering up the slopes towards Quarry Road, examining
still visible foundations of the original bridge and having
taken photographs of the scene from all angles, the party
embussed and proceeded the two and a half miles to the Gemas
battle area.
(Source:
248 - Special Issue, June, 1979
- 2/30 Bn Group Tour, Malaysia and Singapore)
5) Holding off the Japs
NX25556 - BLAND, Jack Robert (Kiwi), Pte. - B Company, 11
Platoon
NX26777 - COLLETT, Arthur John, Pte. - B Company, 10 Platoon
NX27464 - COLLETT, Frederick George (Fred), Pte. - B
Company, 10 Platoon
NX70513 - JONES, Frederick Arnold (Bill), Capt.
A kindly
thought from Mrs Collett, "I am enclosing a donation towards
the Malayan Nursing Scholarship Fund. It is only the widow's
mite, but every little helps. It is on behalf of my three
sons; Robert (Bob), 2/3 M.T., who died on the Burma Railway,
Arthur, who died of wounds in the Cathay in Singapore, and
Fred, who together with "Kiwi" Bland and others of "B"
Company had been the rearguard men, for holding off the Japs,
while the main body of Lt. (later Capt) Jones' party
rejoined the Battalion lines. Arthur and Fred being both
members of B Company., 2/30 Bn.
(Source: Mrs. Mildred Collett,
Makan No. 252, Jan/Feb 1980)
6) Checking the wire
NX46994 - McKINNON, Douglas Albert (Doug or Don), Pte. - HQ
Company, Signals Platoon
NX27001 - MOLONEY, Norman Patrick, Cpl. - HQ Coy. Signals
Platoon
Jack was one of the chaps, who had been
wounded at Gemas, in fact on the 14th Jan., when he and Doug
McKinnon were checking the sig. wire up to the Bridge. In
Singapore he was in the Hospital at the Girls' School "Oldenhall".
His brother, Norman, who was in the Provost Corps during
action and transferred to the 2/30 in Changi, was in the
same hospital, and there when the Australian Nurses were
evacuated from there.
(Source: Jack Moloney,
Makan No. 244, Dec, 1978)
7) First meeting
NX34792 (2/37501) - DUFFY, Desmond Jack (Mum or Des), Lt.
Col. - B Company, O/C
NX70439 - HEAD, Harry, Lt. - B Company, O/C 12 Platoon
At GEMENCHEH BRIDGE ambush, who could give us
an eye witness account, or a fuller story than we have, of
the meeting by Lieut. HARRY HEAD (D. 20/2/74) and 12
Platoon, with the two Japanese Officers and three soldiers
setting up a 4" Mortar - and the action which followed.
Again we might have another eye-witness account of the scene
at Capt. Duffy's B Coy HQ, as they waited in ambush for the
enemy to arrive at the Bridge. - those tense moments not so
easily described - but what a lot of tense moments Capt.
Duffy went through to bring to a climax his greatest thrill
- the success of the ambush and the first (infantry) blow
for Australia by its armed forces (RAAF was first) against
the Japanese. Who could give us this very intimate story
once again of the scene at B Coy HQ?
(Source: Makan No. 265,
April/June, 1982)
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Last updated
24/08/2022 |
