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2/20th Battalion

A.I.F.

INITIAL BATTLE STATIONS

On reaching the Singapore-side of the causeway, we were loaded onto trucks and taken to our battle stations on the Island. The area proved to be exactly where the Japanese launched their final assault on Singapore, resulting in curtains for so many of our boys - some 350 odd were killed, plus the wounded. Fortunately there was not too much rain.

"A" Company was on 22nd Brigade, right on the shore of the Straits of Johore, across from the Sultan's Palace in Johore Bahru, which Japanese General Yamashita used for his observation post and Army Headquarters. It was only about 3 to 4 miles away.

Tokyo Rose, the Japanese propaganda radio announcer, told us they would give us a week to prepare for their assault.

ARTILLERY WANTED TO FIRE

Our artillery observed train-loads of Japanese troops unloading at Jahore Bahru station and requested permission from Malay Headquarters to shell the station - they were sitting ducks.

Malayan Command refused permission to fire, claiming it would give our positions away. It was unaware that the Japanese knew our positions as well or better than we did, thanks to Malay collaborators and even Japanese easily passing themselves off as natives and seeing for themselves.

We sent our own patrols back over the Straits, under cover of night. One patrol under Harry Dietz, 2/20, moved through all of the Japanese assembly areas. The patrol observed their gun and mortar sites and their tank assembly area.

With an almost unlimited supply of ammunition available on Singapore, our excellent Artillery Regiment could have caused havoc in the Japanese assembly area, yet thanks to General Percival's lack of perception, the opportunity was lost, until too late.

SUPPLIES AND RATIONS

We received virtually no barbed wire to prepare any form of defensive area and just had to make the most of it.

Rations were barely sufficient and we were always hungry. I discovered a small pawpaw plantation on an island in a creek over on our left flank. The little island was formed by the mouth of the Kranji River which isolated us from 27th Brigade which was manning defences on our right, at the Singapore Island end of the Causeway. The pawpaws were magnificent - the best I have ever eaten! I ate at least six a day of large, yellow, dead-ripe fruit, that fell into the hand if touched. Luscious! The last for many a day!

There was a week of waiting. It was very frustrating and boring, with little to do other than watch and wait. There was no provision of tools or wire to construct even a semblance of a defensive position and it was too wet to dig funk holes or weapon pits.

OUR AREA

Our area bordered the shoreline by 200 yards of mangrove mud flats. It was not a particularly pleasant area in the middle of night, being the habitat of salt-water crocodiles, where sentries were located isolated and alone from the main force. (I can't remember which was worse, the total darkness or the moonlight.)

One day we thought we had bailed up a Japanese scout in a dense patch of jungle growth. Several of us surrounded it, ready to give whoever was in there hell, when eventually out came a large pig, obviously part of some Chinese squatter's missing herd, which had probably been turned loose to fend for itself.

JAPANESE ASSAULT STARTS

At 10. 30 pm on the Friday night the Japanese shelling commenced from some 400 guns and 5 " mortars. The barrage continued non-stop, day and night, until 10.30 Sunday night when the first Japanese troops commenced landing on Singapore from assault craft, which were heavily shelled by our artillery and 2/20 and 2/4 M. Gun Battalion was assisting, 21/8, 2/19 and our 2/20.

Remarkably and fortunately, no barrage or landings took place on the "A" Company position. We were on the extreme right, with mangrove mud flats on our front. The area was viewed as most unsuitable for such activities.

Around midnight we abandoned our positions and without being told anything, took off in single file, to contact the rear of "A" Company. The night was black as ink except for flame from our guns just ahead, and plenty of intense battle fire. Upon meeting up, we took up temporary defensive sites in the pitch dark and, with sentries posted, tried to get some sleep.

Before dawn we were roused again and headed towards Battalion Headquarters to our west. As dawn broke, we marched past, and just in front of, 25 pounder guns of 2/10 Field Regiment. The barrels of the guns were red to white hot, for a distance of 2 feet back from the muzzles -the result of hours of non-stop and desperate shelling of Japanese landing sites.

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.