NX37431 - BALE, Dudley William (Schnapper), Gnr. - B Company
"August
15th 1945, Dudley Bale was in a working party of 350 men
engaged by the Japs in digging tunnels near their camp at
Bukit Panjang in central Singapore Island. The boys knew
that there was something in the wind from scraps of
information that had filtered through. At precisely 11
o'clock that morning they were called back to the camp and
instructed to assemble in the square.
"The
Australian Major in charge told them the good news, that it
was over, but not before he had the Australian flag run up
the flagpole. This cherished possession was made from scraps
of red, white and blue cloth for this very occasion. After
he had announced that they were free men, the men were
silent for a moment - you could have heard a pin drop and
then, a resounding cheer, that melted into tears of joy.
"Speaking
about this event with Dudley for a story, that I wrote in
the Port Macquarie News, he told me that he could remember,
to this day, every detail of what he described, as the most
wonderful event in his life.
"Within
minutes, the Japs sent up a fleet of trucks with padded
seats, they bowed and scraped to their former captives then
drove them to Kranji on the northern side of the island. As
Dudley said, 'They gave us cigarettes all the way. We
couldn't stop laughing.'
"A few
days later he met up with Bruce Campbell and they
commandeered a Jap car and headed for Singapore Wharf. The
Australian Hospital ship the "Manunda" had just pulled in.
They found that an old friend of theirs from Wauchope, Harry
Spraggon, was on board. He set them up with new clothes,
gave them a good feed, helped them to renew their taste for
beer and sent them back to camp.
"A few
days later Dudley was on his way home. Such was the change
to just a few months previously, when he was reduced to
chewing buttons to ward off pangs of starvation.
"Telling
me about it, Dudley said that he came across an Indian shirt
with a row of buttons and that night, he just stretched out
on his bed place and chewed and sucked away.
(Source: Dudley Bale, Makan No. 245 Jan / Feb, 1979)
