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2/20th Battalion

A.I.F.

ORDER GIVEN

R.A.P. (Regiment Aid Post) was only about 100 yards behind where I was fighting. So desperate was our situation, and just after I left for R.A.P., Colonel Assherton gave the order: -

 "Every man for himself - get out if you can!"

He ordered Major Merrett and "A" Company to be rear-guard and try to hold the Japanese off whilst the other Companies withdrew.

RAY NOLAN

On reaching the R.A.P. tent, I lifted the flap and walked in to see Ray Nolan from Taree, near home, who had enlisted same day as I did - No NX 640, one after me - lying on a stretcher obviously on which he had been brought in. I said: -

 "Good day, Ray, where is everybody and what is wrong with you?"

He said: -

"They are hoping to evacuate all wounded in ambulances."

He had received a bullet in his left shoulder which came out in the middle of his back striking bone and leaving outlet-wound large as your hand.

MOVING ON

Fortunately, again I did the right thing. Realising I wasn't going to get any attention there, I turned on my heel and walked out. The chap who had been with me in jungle at Mersing had joined me at R.A.P. Why he had left his post I never found out. Apparently had faith in making a survival effort. As we left tent he said: -

"What do we do now?"

I said: -

"I don't know, but it is not very healthy around here. "

WOUNDED LAY IN SCRUB

I dived into patch of scrub to get cover from view of intense fire. The track leading through the scrub was lined with blokes lying on the ground in various positions. At end of track, and other side of a circular scrub patch, a chap had a white flag on a stick waving it around, disgustedly. I said: -

"Pull that flag down or I shoot you. "

He did, overlooking the fact that I was unarmed except for a hand-grenade I had demanded from mate. I found out months later that all the chaps lying in the scrub were wounded like me, yet I knew the Japs would show them no mercy.

Tommy Donohoe and I walked straight through the scrub patch and out the other side, turning left downhill and almost immediately spotting Major Merrett leading survivors of "A" Company and the rearguard in the direction I was taking. Never having been in the area before, I thought: -

"Good, the Major will have a map and know where to head."

Sid was in the party too.

SURRENDER DEMANDED

We only travelled along the edge of jungle for I00 yards when a Jap stepped out of the jungle edge, immediately ahead of us, with his rifle to shoulder and demanded in English to: -

"Surrender! Surrender!".

Everyone stopped dead. 

Major Merrett, just ahead of me, with big revolver on his hip (which I expected him to use) waited a few seconds, then at the same time as pulling pin from grenade, I said : -

"Surrender be buggered, you stupid yellow bastard, cop this and share it with your mates." 

Why the Jap didn't shoot me, I will never know, unless he was out of ammunition and bluffing. Anyway I wasn't, and threw the grenade to lob behind him and cut off an escape. To my amazement, he had gone. He surely must have had previous experience with grenades and didn't wait to offer any opposition.

CROSS A DRAIN

We continued in same direction, coming shortly after, to a huge drain 10 ft deep and 10 ft wide. I think it was at the head of the Kranji River and draining a large swampy area. We had to get over it. We dropped down into the mud and hoped no one had a machine gun covering length of the drain. We negotiated the drain successfully (there was no time to think of the possibility of infection to wounds from hip-deep mud and water).

This was still much better than for many others who were cut off and had to try to cross the Kranji further down. Many were unable to swim - quite a few drowned despite wonderful efforts of one 2/20th officer, who, with a magnificent physique and being a strong swimmer, saved many.

Copyright © 2002, Elliott McMaster, "Glen Ora", Nabiac, New South Wales, Australia, 2428.  Original content in these Web pages is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be produced by any process or any other exclusive right exercised without written permission from the copyright holder.