A New Dawn
Chapter 9
Somewhere in Sumatra
They had been lucky that she, Jacqui and Katie had got a cabin together and she was so pleased when she saw Edna walk in; Georgina who was behind her had to keep going on for another cabin.
Molly hugged her repeatedly telling her how pleased to see her she was, Edna was given one of the bottom bunks. Molly not worried about the top one.
The ship was overcrowded with people; women, children and some of the older business-men all leaving it to the last minute believing that Singapore would never fall. There were the wounded soldiers being evacuated for treatment elsewhere and many of the hospital nurses and doctors which didn't leave on the ship yesterday were all on board. They were given sandwiches from the crew no chance of a hot meal as they steamed across the ocean towards Australia.
They had all settled for the night sleeping without covers as it was so hot, the ship lights were out so they were not seen and it was dark when they were all woken by an explosion. The Captain came over the tannoy telling them to go up on deck for evacuation. Not again she thought, maybe they should have stayed where they were.
"I can't swim Jacs" called Molly
"Me neither" replied Jacqui
"I can" both Edna and Katie said. Katie patted their arms "Don't worry we'll find life belts for you both."
Jacqui and Molly held hands. It was dark, neither could swim and they had no idea where they were.
The four of them held hands putting Edna in the middle of them. They were worried about her as she was so much older than them and felt they needed to look after her, although in turn she was worried about these young girls especially Molly. She was not only the wife of her one of her oldest friend's son, but she had become very close to her in the short time they'd known each other, having seen quite a bit of her while volunteering at the hospital.
They made it up on deck and were issued with life jackets which was a blessing as the ship was already listing badly and they had no choice but to jump into the sea.
They were all separated now and could hear people calling for friends, wives, husbands and children in the dark. Molly hated every minute of being in the sea and didn't think anyone would ever get her back in it again. It was dark and cold and she had no idea how deep it was as her feet flayed around. She had this urge to scream, but to who and what for there was nothing out here except blackness. She had never felt fear quite like this, the blind terror as she tasted the sea water panic as she lay back and thought of Charles and remembered his smile as her salty tears joined the water thinking she would never see him again, closing her eyes to hold on to the memory .
She was grabbed by Katie and pulled into a life raft; she threw herself on Jacqui as she realised that she was already in there both of them crying with relief. The crewman hovered in the area so that they could keep picking up passengers and they were pleased to see that Edna was pulled aboard. Followed later by Georgina.
Everyone must have fallen asleep as the night progressed because they had drifted and were now beached.
"Where are we" Jacqui asked the sailor
"Who knows" he replied shrugging "Sumatra or one of the islands"
They got out of the boat and looked around at the beeches to see suitcases floating in the sea and people, lots of people on the beach. People were starting to recover their luggage when Molly noticed that Georgina was up to her waist in water screaming at everyone asking where her luggage was. It was as if she was in some sort of trance, more concerned about her luggage and not taking in the fact they were marooned on an island goodness knows where.
They collected what they could from the sea as someone had spotted a hut and they thought they should move to that to get out of the sun. They sat there for what felt like hours but probably wasn't when they heard a truck and the crewmen stood looking expectantly hoping for rescue. It wasn't. It was a Japanese truck full of soldiers and they had no choice but to watch while the crewmen who had saved them were shot. Some of the passengers were screaming and started to run and they were also shot in the back.
The soldiers all had their bayonets fitted and even Edna held Molly's hand at that as she recognised that was not normal unless you were in hand to hand combat.
"Keep calm I think we need to do what they say" she whispered.
They were not offered seats in the truck but were told to walk in front of it and they had no idea how far or for how long. Families were separated as women and children were pushed to move and the men that had not already been shot led away in a different direction. All during their walk they heard screaming and gunfire. They found out later that there had been more survivors from their ship further round the beach in that group there were injured soldiers and crewmen along with 22 of the Australian nurses, the nurses were marched into the sea and machine gunned, the soldiers bayonetted. Of the 65 nurses on board their ship only 24 would ever return home.
Molly had a tight grip on Edna's hand and she gave her a weak smile as they trudged along the path with their meagre belongings and wondering what will happen to them. Why were some being shot while others being taken prisoner? Jacqui and Katie also linking arms as they walked together. All of them wondering about their husbands and if this was what was happening to them, what the heck was happening to their men back in Singapore.
They finally arrived at their camp, if you could it that. Just huts and the latrine could be smelt from quite a distance. As they arrived they saw others also arriving, they must have been on other ships that left Singapore the same night they did. Jackie, Katie and Molly recognised Doctor Mason and thought that at least they had a doctor here even if she was a bit of a tyrant when running the hospital back in Singapore.
Edna recognised the General's wife Mrs Sylvia Ashburton, she had met her many times at Raffles so she went to speak with her. She knew that she was an out and out snob but none the less her husband was her Rogers's commanding officer.
-O-
The following morning, they were all herded out the huts, the Japanese soldiers pushing and shoving them to get them moving. They were lined up as if they were soldiers, the commandant out in front of his hut. His English was very good and he told his lieutenant to show them how Tenko would work and how to bow. They were informed that they were just women, Molly and Jacqui couldn't believe that he said they were third class citizens as far as the Japanese army was concerned, the second class citizens being the soldiers that had surrendered. They were all shown how they should bow whenever they see a Japanese soldier. The girls had to give Mrs Ashburton her due, when she stood firm and refused so both Jacqui and Molly whispered that they should support her. It was only when Edna gripped their hands and said no it's not worth it did they agree to not support her. They stood there for hours, women and children in the heat of the blazing sun, bowing until they could convince Mrs Ashburton to concede not bowing for the Japanese but bowing so the children at least could get out of the heat and drink some water.
They finally got through the ordeal and were provided with a small bowl of rice and very watery chai.
"There's no way you can call this tea" moaned Jacqui
While they were sitting in what could loosely be described as a cookhouse they agreed that they needed a committee of some sort to make sure that jobs were done. Doctor Mason insisting that any water was boiled before it was used for food or drinking. They needed a spokesperson, Molly and Jacqui thought that it was bound to be Mrs Ashburton voted in as she was the Generals wife but she wasn't it was Edna. They were pleased as she is very reasonable and sensible, they hoped she would be able to speak with the Commandant about what was happening and if there was news of people they had left behind.
They felt that they had been very organised since setting up a committee, but like Edna a few on the committee were army wives and used to organising, admittedly this wasn't a charity event but none the less they worked out what needed to be done. Water was collected and boiled. Firewood was collected for the fires needed to boil said water and cooking. Daily the latrines were emptied and buried which also meant there needed to be work parties to dig the pits to bury it.
They felt that in 2 days they had achieved quite a bit and had already fallen into a routine of Tenko and chores.
The gates opened a week later and they saw a large party of more women, children and some nuns came through. Doctor Mason recognised one of the nuns and managed to have a quick conversation with her before they were moved off to one of the empty huts.
She reported back. Seems they were Dutch and their homes had been taken over by the Japanese, so they at least had their belongings with them, unlike them who had lost everything when the ship went down. They did have news though and that was that Singapore had fallen.
Molly and Jacqui hugged each other for support and cried neither knowing what had happened to their husbands. They realised that Katie and Edna were also in the same boat and looked around for them before including them in the group hug all hoping that they were still alive.
-OG-
Singapore
Charles was sitting on an upturned box his elbows on his knees looking down at his feet. They were terribly crowded in the barracks. They had been distributed across Selarang, Roberts and Changi barracks and gaol although the last was predominately for their civilian prisoners. There must be 30,000 of them in here. Every bit of space taken and nowhere to go without being able to smell the latrines. The food was questionable and they were short of water, the barracks weren't designed to take this amount of personnel.
The Japanese weren't that good at keeping order at the moment and there were various escapades of men going out into Singapore at night scavenging for food and wandering down to the beach for a swim, the only source of water to wash. He himself had watched two Malayans in a canoe come onto their beech to sell fruit to the soldiers imprisoned here. The Japanese guards let them do it then laughed as they started to machine gun them, laughing as they watched them zig zag across the beach to their canoe. They kept at it until the canoe drifted back to the beach and their magazine had run out.
They had heard back from one of the men who had gone under cover of darkness into Singapore city and come back with news that all the remaining doctors, nurses, orderlies and wounded at the Alexandra Hospital had all been shot or bayonetted. Over 200 in all and all he could think of was Molly and that could have been her if he hadn't convinced her that she needed to leave. He continued to twist his wedding band, knowing it was engraved with Adore you always and pleased that she had got away. Hoping against hope he was going to get through this and they would be together again. All he could see now was her smile in his mind's eye and it made him smile just thinking about it. He was so deep in his thoughts he didn't notice Lt Colonel Beck come and sit next to him.
"Well Charles I don't think they expected to take so many of us as prisoners and certainly not the officers" Charles shrugged still twisting his wedding band. "Seems we have to salute" he continued "and as there are officers of higher rank they want us to remove our pips. One star only allowed on the left pocket"
"Seems the Chinese are getting little mercy" he continued on "I don't expect we will ever find out the true figures of how many they have killed since being here – God help them"
He still felt the need to keep talking although he wasn't getting much of a response from Charles "Seems although they were happy enough to bomb the place, they aren't too good at repairing it and the cold storage godowns haven't been repaired so the meat has thawed. Food is going to get short" he looked across to Charles "We need to organise parties to start growing vegetables" Charles looked across to Beck then looked around at the thousands of men just sat there in the sun and heat before saying "Where"
"We'll ask if we can grow them outside the compound or anywhere" Charles nodded
"We need to set up details to keep the place clean before we all end up sick" again Charles nodded and sat up straight. He was an officer and he couldn't wallow, the men needed direction. He needed to stay focused and alert if he had any chance of staying alive to find Molly again.
-OG-
With the passing weeks the Japanese seemed to be taking better control and barbed wire was put on the perimeter walls to stop them going out at night for food and news and cutting them off from the other barracks and beaches.
After a month Charles saw Corporal Wiggerty walking across the compound, he hadn't really seen him, Sergeant Dawes or even Harte. He knew that Captain Hodgson was in Changi with the other Australians and they had regularly been going out on work details throughout Singapore. He hoped that he would get to see him soon for a catch up, see if he had heard from Katie and how they were in Australia. He hadn't heard a word from Molly and Beck had already told him he hadn't heard from Edna.
"Corporal Wiggerty" he called across what was the parade ground as he was making his way to the small vegetable patch they had set up.
Brian turned and smiled when he saw who it was but saluted none the less although it was hard to tell he was a Captain now that the uniform had had the insignia removed. They may all be being treated like shit by their captors but they were still British Army and respected rank.
"Sir" he enquired "Just wondered if there was any news from home" asked Captain James.
Brian's face fell as he responded, "No sir, not a word and I am really getting concerned now" he looked down momentarily "I know Jacs would have written by now"
"Well let's not get too worried just yet, the Japs could be holding the mail back" said Charles "Its only April"
"How the hell did we surrender to this shower" he asked shaking his head "Dave said he's never felt so ashamed"
"You have to look at the bigger picture Wiggerty, trust those higher up in command" said Charles gently "Food, Water supplies all cut off, the bombing of civilians, we couldn't continue with those sorts of casualties"
"No," he said looking down "But it don't make it any easier does it"
Suddenly there was a commotion as a group of Japanese soldiers came into the compound and they were looking for fit men for a work detail. Captain James was stunned as he saw men who could hardly stand being picked and couldn't work out their logic for how they were making the selection. He saw that Beck, Harte, Dawes and Wiggerty had already been picked and led away, when he felt the tap on his shoulder and it would appear that he had also been selected to go.
One part of him pleased to get out of this overcrowded barracks but the other part as he looked around he was leaving colleagues and friends behind.
They were marched to Keppel Harbour and loaded onto a Ship. It seemed to have had the fore and aft hold converted so that more men could be fitted in and the height between the decks was divided in half by means of wooden platforms head room was only 4ft so he was almost double to move about.
Straw had been placed on the floor so he guessed this is where they would be sleeping. The conversion meant that not only did he not have head room they had to access that via a steep wooden ladder and when lying down, which was the only way with the limited space. Their arms touching their neighbour and their feet touching those opposite. For him of course being so tall his feet were on the bed of the man opposite. There was no light, no air and he hoped that this wouldn't go on too long.
It did, they spent 6 days like this only being allowed on deck in daylight armed sentries on the bridge above them. Only one issue of rice and tea per day. Some of the men were terribly seasick on the journey and many ended up with dysentery. Eleven hundred men crammed into appalling conditions on a Hell Ship before docking in Saigon Harbour and the start of three and a half years of their next journey. Not that any of them knew that yet.
The Japanese Officer greeted them as they stood to attention on the quayside. He climbed onto a small podium where he gave a speech that basically told them that they should be grateful to the Imperial Japanese Army for sparing their miserable lives, they were beneath consideration for having surrendered but would be allowed to work hard to redeem themselves and for the benefit of their souls.
They were marched down the road past what looked like stables which was going to be their new home. Four barrack huts for them, a small hut for the camp office and quarters for the Japanese guards. They were all in a state of disrepair and the latrines and cookhouse were abysmal.
Lt Colonel Beck as the highest ranking officer in the group was called in to the Japanese office and given papers for them all to sign. It was to say they weren't to try and escape, they all knew it was their duty to try to escape and get back to the lines. The Japanese withheld food and water and made them stand to attention in the blistering heat and randomly beat them as they walked past.
"Right, we are all under duress" spoke Beck turning to them all with authority after this treatment had gone on for nearly two days "I don't care if you are all Errol Flynns, Clark Gables or even Mickey bloody Mouse but sign the papers" Charles had to snigger but it seems that all the men signed themselves as something other than their own name so their food was restored.