Singapore February 1942

The decisions made by senior officers, regarding the evacuation of personal  was done in the backdrop of a rapidly deteriorating situation, as can be seen from this report by Commander P H S Reid, who was the senior commanding officer in the Palembang Prisoner of war camps.

Report by Senior Naval Officer, Prisoners of War, Commander P H S Reid

On the 12^th of February I joined the staff of Rear Admiral E J Spooner D.S.O., Rear Admiral Malaya.

On the morning of the 13^th of February, I attended a conference with the Rear Admiral, Captains Bell and Atkinson, Commanders Sprott, Frampton and St Aubyn and Lieutenant Commander Packard. The Air Officer Commanding, Air Vice Marshal Pulford was present for part of the time.
The withdrawal of Naval Forces from Singapore was discussed, the Rear Admiral gave us to understand that Singapore was unlikely to hold out for more than three or four days, and that Naval vessels and personal would be transferred to Batavia, Java for service there as they had became no longer useful at Singapore. Air and Artillery attack were making Singapore increasingly dangerous for shipping. But the army had asked for Naval assistance in withdrawing the garrisons from Tekong Island and Pengerang, these operations would probably be carried out by HMS Grasshopper and Dragonfly and small craft on the nights of 13^th , 14^th and 15^th of February and until their completion there would be no general departure, certain ships were to leave earlier, the policy was to take as many service and civilian passengers as could be got on board. The route was discussed. The dangers of air attack were emphasised, but no information had been received of enemy surface craft being in the Bangka strait or elsewhere on the route.

I was instructed to superintend the embarkation of passengers in HMS Kuala that afternoon, and to take the Commanding Officers orders (drafted at the meeting) to “proceed to Batavia via Durian, Behala and Bangka Strait, moving at night and anchoring concealed from air attack by day.

At 1700 hrs I returned from Kuala to Laburnum, and found that the Tekong Island and Pengerang operations had been abandoned. Orders had been issued for all Naval and other available craft to proceed that night to Batavia with the same sailing orders as for Kuala. All Naval shore staffs and the maximum number of passengers were to be taken.

There were delays in Service passengers reaching Laburnum, due to shelling and fires, my craft was one of the last to leave at 0030 on Saturday, 14^th  February 1942

As can be seen from this report, there was no knowledge of the Japanese invasion force in the Bangka Strait on the departure date of the 13th February , and any evacuation ships would have found it difficult to relay the presence of Japanese Ships as communication was almost impossible as the Singapore command centre would have been destroying  their radio equipment as the Japanese advanced.
 It seems that the British forces in Palembang at the airports P1 and P2  (RAF and Royal Artillery AA Batteries) were also unable to communicate to the evacuation ships, that the invasion by the Japanese had begun on the 13th of February.

 See Servicemen Roll below, compiled with the help of Michael Pether and Jonathan Moffatt.

There were two routes the evacuation ships took, one was the escape route set up across Sumatra to Padang, the other was to sail to Java through the Bangka Strait.

Click on Image to enlarge (click back to return to this page)

The escape route across Sumatra involved sailing up the Indragiri river to Tembilahan, then on to Rengat and Iyer Molek, road trasport was used to reach Swahlunto and finally a train to Padang. Ships to India/ Ceylon or Java left from here. The personal that failed to get on one of these ships became prisoners of war or Internees.

Escape Route across Sumatra (click on image to enlarge

The Evacuation ships heading to Java ran into a Japanese invasion force that was tasked with seizing Bangka Island and the oil refinery in Palembang.
 

Bangka Strait (click on image to enlarge)

The sinking of the ships in the Bangka Strait resulted in a great loss of life but for some of the survivors that reached Radji Beach , Bangka Island their ordeal became worse , the Japanese Army separated the service men , civilian men and women and the Nurses , the Service men were marched around a headland and ordered to line up as the Japanese set up machine guns , some of the men knowing they were about to be shot made a run for it . Similarly the nurses were ordered to wade into the sea and the Japanese proceeded to machine gun them . Some men injured on the beach where bayoneted where they lay , only three men and one Nurse survived this massacre , one of the men was Private Kingsely of the "Z" AOW RAOC, he met up with the Australian Nurse, Vivian Bullwinkel.  Nurse Bullwinkle suffering from bullet wounds and Private Kingsely had severe bayonet wounds they set off together to Muntok were they were seperated into the Womens and mens camps , they were both able to relate the story of the massacre but unfortunately private Kingsely died of his wounds on the 24th of March .
 The other service man to suvive was Ernest Alexander Lloyd of the Royal Navy , having ran into the sea to ovoid the Japanese , he eventually came ashore and walked down the beach , there he saw the bodies of the Nurses then further on the bodies of the civilians who had been either shot or bayoneted , he also eventually gave himself up to the Japanese in Muntok , there he reconised an American, E H German, who was with the civilians on the beach, the American was later seen in the civilian camp in Palembang.

    Bangka Island massacre

Radji Beach (click on image to enlarge)

 List of some of the Evacuation Ships (Palembang Records compiled by Commander P H S Reid)

The following Roll is in memory of the Service Personal who endured that terrible experience and the three and a half years of brutal captivity and those Servicemen who died during the evacuation or in the Prisoner of War Camps on Bangka Island and Palembang

    Servicemen Roll

If using a Window PC or laptop the file is searchable.

Documents

ADM 358/2875
WO 172/357
WO 361 / 2181
WO 208 / 4286
WO 361 / 1405
WO 361 / 1186
ADMIN 1 1895
WO 345
WO 361/1948
WO 361/2192
WO 361/1947
WO 361/1946
WO 1361/1948

Books

Unsung Heroes of the Royal Airforce                             by Les and Pam Stubbs
Unsung Heroes of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines   by Les and Pam Stubbs
Unsung Heroes of the British Army                                by Les and Pam Stubbs
Prisoner of Nippon                                                       by Ray Stubbs
No Bamboo for Coffins                                                by David Elio Roberts
Singapore’s  Dunkirk                                                    by Geoffrey Brooke
By Eastern Windows                                                    by William McDougall Jr
One Jump Ahead                                                         by Lt A J Mann RNVR Edited Author Harry Nicholson

Thanks to
Ronnie Taylor
Michael Pether
Jonathan Moffatt

Websites
FEPOW Family Website
Michael Pethers Evacuation Ships Page
COFEPOW Website
Malay Volunteers
Muntok Memorial Peace Museum
Commonwealth War Graves

Kevin Snowdon 2026
This Website is not public Domain

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