POW - After the surrender

POW - after the surrender, 1942 - Stories

Surrender 15/2/1942

1) Marching to Changi

NX70416 - GALLEGHAN, Frederick Gallagher (Black Jack), Brig. - CO. 2/30 Bn.
NX36521 - PERRY, Leslie George (Les), Pte. - D Company, 16 Platoon

"Our CO Colonel Galleghan gave us a rousing speech, saying that we would be out by Christmas - but he didn't sat what Christmas," Les said.

He remembered marching 15 miles to Changi to three storey buildings, formerly the Gordon Highlanders, where all the furniture and beds were removed before they arrived.

It was there that their stay in Changi Prison began.

(Source: Les Perry - interview in Narrandera Argus, 15/8/1995)

2) Brigadier Maxwell's luggage

NX27443 - CRISPIN, Kenneth Ernest (Ken), L/Cpl. - BHQ, Intelligence
NX59485 - BAYLISS, William Clifford (Cliff), L/Cpl. - BHQ Company, Intelligence
NX70416 - GALLEGHAN, Frederick Gallagher (Black Jack), Brig. - CO. 2/30 Bn.

"Then came the surrender. The 2/30 Bn didn't surrender. We were still unconquered. But, Higher Command had surrendered and we became prisoners of war.

I remember that night. The C.O. told Cliff Bayliss and Ken Crispin that Brigadier Maxwell's luggage had been dropped by mistake in Raffles Square and would we go across and collect it. So off we went, without any arms, of course, as these had all been collected.

On the way, every 20 yards or so, we'd pass groups of half-drunken Nips celebrating their victory, and we never knew whether we'd be offered a cup of saki or a bayonet in the belly. At last we reached Raffles Square and were peering about by the light of our torches, when a staff car stopped alongside us, and a Japanese officer, in perfect English, asked us politely, what we were doing. When we told him, he said we'd have to leave it and return to our unit. We were outside General Yamashita's HQ.

So the Battalion went back to Changi - this time to Selerang Barracks, where the Gordon Highlanders had been, out past Changi Gaol. Here our memories diverge; for the Japanese broke the Battalion up and some of us went to different places.

(Source: Makan No. 244, Dec 1978)

3) Outside Tyersall Palace

QX20003 - TUCKFIELD, Colin James (Col), Pte. - D Company, 17 Platoon

As I write the date on the attached cheque (15/2/74) my mind wanders back to that day, 32 years ago, when we sat in utter bewilderment in our slitties outside Tyersall Palace, savouring the utter silence, rendered more so by the occasional rifle shot, which followed the days of bombardment. It was a day of contrast - of noise and quiet, of war and "peace", of freedom and imprisonment, of ugliness and beauty - yes, even beauty.

Do you remember when we passed out of the chaos which was Singapore, with its corpse-choked canals, its smoke and stench, the tangle of trolley wires and the wreckage of buildings; how marching to Changi in the evening, we passed a spot where, in lovely silence, millions of fireflies were blinking on and off like Christmas Tree lights? It was, for some, the last beauty they beheld.

(Source: Col Tuckfield, Makan No. 214, Mar/April, 1974)

4) Manor Hall

NX55473 - O'DONNELL, Colin Squire (Col), Sgt. - C Company, 15 Platoon
NX70453 - TAYLOR, John Lindsay, Capt. - BHQ, M.O.

"Regarding the St Patrick's School at Katong being used as 10 Aust. Gen Hospital. I was evacuated to there from the Singapore General Hospital after the Capitulation.

"After John Taylor had pushed my eye back into its socket and bandaged it, I was sent to a temporary A.G.H., called "Manor Hall" I think. A Major Claffy, fortunately an eye surgeon, operated on me; stitched the bottom eyelid and got the tear duct working

"When the Japs commenced shelling near this hospital, patients were taken to either the Cathay Theatre or Singapore General. As I was a walking wounded, I was put in charge of the kitchen on the floor, which we occupied at the Singapore General. When orders came from the Japs, that we were to be evacuated., they also said, that we were to take nothing with us. I decided that each stretcher case would take as many tins of food as would fit alongside his body on the stretcher, covered with a blanket. The excuse, if the Japs checked them, was that it was their week's ration of food, authorised by the Jap. Captain; we did not know his name. Nobody was searched and, although the men were told to hand in the tins at Katong, none were so I gathered up all the cutlery, that we had, and handed that in. Obviously I could not eat that.

"I don't recall any 2/30 Bn men being with me at Singapore Hospital or Katong, or how long I stayed at Katong, I do know, that I was really glad to rejoin the 2/30th at Selarang Barracks later."

(Source: Makan No.249, July / August, 1979)

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Last updated 24/08/2022