Descent into Hell Read online

  Praise for A Bastard of a Place

  ‘Here is that marriage of good writing to good scholarship that one seldom comes upon. Peter Brune’s prose crackles and sparkles and he has done the hard work on the ground. You can smell the jungle. If Papua was a bastard of a place, this is a pearl of a book.’—Les Carlyon, author of Gallipoli

  ‘Brune is that rare combination of a great researcher, powerful historian and good writer, and A Bastard of a Place brings all those qualities together on the canvas of Australia’s greatest war story.’—Peter FitzSimons, Sydney Morning Herald

  ‘Any Australian high school that lacks a copy of this book in its library has ceased to teach Australian history.’—Peter Ryan, Weekend Australian

  ‘They are the custodians of the Australian Digger legend, typified by mateship, compassion and selflessness forged at Gallipoli . . . Triumphant is the Australian soldier to whom this book is dedicated.’

  —Christopher Bantick, Canberra Times

  ‘With the skill of a great storyteller, Brune blends these high-level strategic command issues with riveting accounts of combat and its aftermath, often letting soldiers speak for themselves . . . Brune’s book is a timely reminder that, despite the warmest alliances, nations sometimes have to stand up and save themselves.’—Geoffrey Barker, Weekend Australian Financial Review

  ‘. . . A Bastard of a Place undeniably ranks as the best book ever written about Aussie battles in Papua . . . Very highly recommended, and certainly one of the best books of the year.’—Stone & Stone Second World War Books website

  ‘Few are more qualified to write of the Papuan campaign than Brune.’

  —Chris Brice, The Advertiser

  Peter Brune is one of Australia’s leading military historians. He is the author of the bestselling and highly acclaimed A Bastard of a Place: The Australians in Papua, as well as Those Ragged Bloody Heroes: From the Kokoda Trail to Gona Beach 1942, The Spell Broken: Exploding the myth of Japanese invincibility, and We Band of Brothers: A biography of Ralph Honner, soldier and statesman, and is co-author with Neil McDonald of 200 Shots: Damien Parer and George Silk and the Australians at War in New Guinea. He lives in Adelaide.

  First published in Australia in 2014

  Copyright © Peter Brune 2014

  Maps by Ian Faulkner

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

  Allen & Unwin

  Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, London

  83 Alexander Street

  Crows Nest NSW 2065

  Australia

  Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100

  Fax:  (61 2) 9906 2218

  Email:  [email protected]

  Web:  www.allenandunwin.com

  Cataloguing-in-Publication details are available from the National Library of Australia

  www.trove.nla.gov.au

  ISBN 978 1 74114 534 2

  eISBN 978 1 74176 188 7

  Typeset by Midland Typesetters, Australia

  CONTENTS

  Foreword by Dr Rowley Richards

  List of maps

  Prologue

  PART I  PRELUDE TO WAR . . . the stresses and strains

  1   The sun never sets . . .

  2   The Far East and near north

  3   Singing from different hymn sheets

  4   Raising new divisions

  5   Malaya command

  6   Internal dissension

  7   The enemy

  PART II  THE CAMPAIGN . . . in the cleverest way

  8   An unpleasant surprise

  9   Bad news for the House

  10   The Jitra Line

  11   The defence of Gurun

  12   The withdrawal from Kampar

  13   Slim River

  14   Gemas

  15   The Battle of Muar

  16   To Parit Sulong

  17   A great scandal

  18   To the causeway

  19   ‘Cometh the hour . . .’

  20   ‘I drew my men back . . .’

  21   Further retreats

  22   Final days

  PART III  PUDU AND CHANGI PRISONS . . . purgatory

  23   ‘Roaring Reggie’

  24   Light of the South

  25   Purgatory

  26   The Singapore work camps

  PART IV  THE THAI–BURMA RAILWAY . . . the gods don’t give a damn

  27   The killer cycle

  28   ‘U’ Battalion

  29   ‘F’ Force

  30   ‘Where are the rest, Major?’

  PART V  SINGAPORE . . . the orphan

  31   Reckoning

  Acknowledgements

  Notes

  Bibliography

  FOREWORD

  I first encountered Peter Brune in early 2007 when he rang to request an interview with me. He wanted to discuss my experiences as a Medical Officer in the 8th Australian Division, AIF, during the Malayan Campaign, 1941–42 and, later, as a prisoner of war of the Japanese during World War II. During that initial phone call, Brune informed me that he had already written six books concerning the Papuan Campaign (July 1942 until January 1943), and that he was now writing a book on the 8th Division in the Far East. I was immediately interested and we agreed to meet soon after. Throughout our first interview, I was impressed by Brune’s dedication and determination to search for the truth. A few days later, I received a letter from him containing more than 40 questions to clarify his understanding of the medical terms and medications I had referred to during our interview. Brune is the kind of author who wants to make sure that even the smallest of details are correct.

  This first interview marked the beginning of my friendship with Brune: a man who is committed to obsessive fact checking and unafraid to ask awkward (but important) questions. His questions have kept coming ever since. We have had countless telephone conversations to clarify details in each chapter of Descent into Hell and it has been my privilege to follow the extensive research and cross-checking that has taken place to ensure the accuracy of this book. I am now delighted to have been asked to write this foreword.

  When considering the members of the 8th Division, we must remember that, first and foremost, they were true fighting soldiers who upheld the highest tradition of the Anzacs both in action against the Japanese and in captivity. These soldiers possessed courage and bravery, as well as the ability to improvise in even the most challenging of circumstances. Mateship was an outstanding quality of the Australians. I never saw a sick Australian who did not have a mate or somebody else to look after him.

  Since World War II there has been an abundance of books published on the experiences of these men. Some accounts, especially autobiographies, have relied on memory as a primary source of information, while others have been based on diaries and personal or official documents. It is my view that the books based on diaries and other documents are more likely to be authentic than those whose authors have relied on memory alone. During captivity, many men kept diaries in the optimistic hope that their words might one day be used in evidence in War Crimes Trials. After the war, original or expanded diaries were published by these me
n for two main reasons: first, for the information of family members and, secondly, for their historical value. Some diaries were published just as they were written while others were used as ‘aides memoir’—to facilitate expansion in the diary format or to permit conversion to a narrative format. Mostly they were strictly personal, describing their hunger, a broken denture, missing home and family, or other private feelings.

  Among the earliest books to be published was Behind Bamboo (Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1946) written by Rohan Rivett, a military journalist. (For a short period Rivett and I were in the same camp in Tavoy in Burma.) In 1951 Roy Whitecross wrote Slaves of the Son of Heaven, a personal account of his experience as a typist in 8th Division Headquarters during the Malayan Campaign and in Anderson Force in Burma during the construction of the Burma–Thailand Railway. I was the Medical Officer of Anderson Force and appointed Whitecross as a part-time medical orderly in my Regimental Aid Post to protect him from the working parties when his health was deteriorating rapidly. His book is a truly authentic account of only one man’s experience of the Railway. I knew him very well and can verify his story.

  Now we have Descent into Hell, a forensically written book by an academic historian, Dr Peter Brune. He writes objectively as an interested critical observer, without personal or family involvement in the war. Written over a period of nine years, Descent into Hell is based on more than 50 recorded interviews, diaries and official documents (some of which are held in the Australian War Memorial and National Archives), papers made available by participants or members of their families, and numerous books.

  In this compelling book, Brune tells the history of the 8th Division in the Malayan Campaign. His introduction describes the futile planning, construction and weak defence of the ‘impregnable fortress of Singapore’. It also features a commentary on the formation of the 8th Division, including a summary of the senior division and brigade officers eligible to command the Division. Brune records their animosities, especially the disgraceful conflict between some Regular Army Duntroon graduates and the Citizen Force Officers.

  After a description of some of the men in selected battalions who fought in the Malayan Campaign, Brune then reviews the fate of men in selected Forces who were prisoners of war in Malaya, Singapore, Burma and Thailand. He focuses on the Malayan Campaign, Changi and the construction of the Burma–Thailand Railway; he does not attempt to provide a comprehensive history of all elements of the 8th Division (for example those who were in Borneo, Rabaul, Ambon and Timor).

  Descent into Hell gives us an insight into the stark difference between the experience of prisoners in Burma and Thailand based on the contrasting geography in each country. In my experience of the Railway in Burma, there were initially neither villages nor shops, only occasional clusters of a few dwellings linked by ox-cart tracks through the dense bamboo and teak jungles. As the Railway progressed the tracks were enlarged to allow the Japanese trucks to carry supplies and material for the Railway construction. During the wet season the tracks became little more than ruts in thick mud.

  By contrast, in Thailand from the Burma border to Bangkok, the Railway ran alongside a road and navigable river (in effect a ‘four-lane highway’ with nothing comparable in Burma). Together, the road and river enabled vehicles and barges to deliver supplies to the several sizable towns, villages and shops, and the growing construction camps (both in number and size). These construction camps received a regular supply of rations and supplementary supplies of food and medicines. Such supplies were made possible by the operation of a highly organised black market of food and life-giving drugs.

  The 44 Australian Medical Officers and their medical orderlies who served on the Railway come in for special recognition by Brune. He acknowledges and praises their dedication and, in particular, their remarkable efforts in improvisation: without essential medical supplies or equipment, they treated men who suffered from a variety of diseases. Brune also stresses the importance of the need for close cooperation between the POW Commanding Officers and their Medical Officers. The Medical Officers who receive special mention in this book are: Lieutenant-Colonel Albert ‘Bertie’ Coates, Major Bruce Hunt, Captain Roy Mills and Captain Dave Hinder. (I saw Albert Coates in a jungle camp in Burma battling the effects of severe dengue fever. Such was the dedication of this doctor that he insisted on being carried on a stretcher to visit his sick patients. He was outstanding among remarkable colleagues.)

  Brune gives credit to some officers and condemns the disgraceful behaviour of others. He also gives credit to the courage with which the men (who were forced to undertake slave labour while being starved and denied adequate accommodation, rest and clothing) faced up to the shocking treatment they received from the Japanese and Korean guards. I was particularly impressed by Brune’s account of the different kinds of cruelty inflicted by the Japanese—and by some camp commanders and other officers—on our men.

  The author concludes this book by summarising the results of his research and revealing important facts that have previously remained unpublished or unverified. Having also studied other campaigns fought by the AIF in World War II, he assures readers that the fighting soldiers of the 8th Division hold a record second to none in the 2nd AIF despite statements to the contrary.

  This remarkable book, with its extraordinary commitment to accuracy and detail, is the only one of its kind relating to the 8th Division; it will fill missing gaps in the knowledge and understanding of most readers. This book is a chronicle of man’s unpredictability and man’s inhumanity to man (both Australian and Japanese) overwhelmingly overshadowed by genuine life-saving mateship. I thoroughly recommend Descent into Hell as essential reading for all Australians.

  Dr Rowley Richards, RAAMC Maj (ret.) MBE OAM KStJ ED MID MBBS HonMD Caus MD, FRACGP FACOM FASMF ACSM FAIM, RMD of the 2/15th Field Regiment, Anderson Force (Thai–Burma Railway) and Sakata Force (Japan)

  Sydney, August 2013

  LIST OF MAPS

  1. The Malayan Peninsula, 1941

  2. General Dobbie’s defensive line

  3. Malaya 1941, airfields

  4. Matador and Krohcol

  5. Malaya Command dispositions, 8 December 1941

  6. Kota Bharu, 8 December 1941

  7. Repulse and Prince of Wales, 8–10 December 1941

  8. The fall of Jitra

  9. The Japanese advance, 8–10 December 1941

  10. Gurun, 14–15 December 1941

  11. The 12th Brigade on the Grik Road

  12. The Battle for Kampar, 30 December 1941 to 2 January 1942

  13. Central and Northern Malaya

  14. Kuantan

  15. Slim River, 5–7 January 1942

  16. Westforce, 14 January 1942

  17. The 2/30th at Gemas

  18. B Company ambush site

  19. 2/29th Battalion, Bakri

  20. Bakri, 19 January 1942

  21. Westforce withdraws

  22. Johore, the West Coast

  23. Southern Johore

  24. The 2/18 th Battalion, Nithsdale Estate

  25. Namazie Estate, 28 January 1942

  26. Ayer Bemban, 29 January 1942

  27. Westforce, the 9th Indian Division, 24–30 January 1942

  28. Singapore, the vital ground

  29. Malaya Command’s areas

  30. The 22nd Brigade front

  31. The 2/20th Battalion, 8 February 1942

  32. The 2/18th Battalion, 8 February 1942

  33. The 2/19th Battalion, 8 February 1942

  34. The 27 th Brigade, 9 February 1942

  35. Singapore, 10 February 1942

  36. Singapore, 11 February 1942

  37. Singapore, 12 February 1942

  38. Singapore, 13 February 1942

  39. Pudu Prison, Kuala Lumpur

  40. Changi POW camp

  41. The Thai–Burma Railway

  42. ‘A’ Force, May to September 1942

  43. ‘A’ Force camps

  44. Newton’
s ‘U’ Battalion camps

  45. ‘F’ Force camps

  PROLOGUE

  Driver Joe Nimbs, 4th Reserve Motor Transport Company, 8th Division Australian Imperial Force (AIF):

  It’s dawn in Singapore City, Friday the 13th of February 1942. There is another stinking hot day coming up. The sky has a red glow, partly from the rising sun, but mainly from reflections of fires raging around the city and the docks at Keppel Harbour. As daylight starts to appear the air raid sirens keep wailing as Jap planes carry out their bombing missions unopposed. Between them and their artillery they are blowing the guts out of Singapore. We haven’t seen any of our aircraft for many days. The lack of air and land support are our main problems. The Japs have our forces, the civilian population and countless numbers of refugees, jammed into the south-eastern corner of the island.

  Our ambulances are in the grounds of St Andrew’s, the beautiful one hundred-year-old Church of England Cathedral, a landmark of the city. The Cathedral’s been converted into an emergency military hospital, and we’ve got the job of driving the wounded from the CCSs [Casualty Clearing Stations] to the church. Large red crosses have been painted on sheets and put on the roof to let the Japs know that this is a hospital and in the corner of the grounds the cooks are set up, giving anyone from any unit a feed.

  These beautiful Cathedral grounds, with their colourful tropical shrubs and well kept lawns are changing in appearance. The lawns are disappearing as graves are dug to lay to rest battle casualties that were too badly wounded to survive—the crosses are quickly growing in number.