Towns And Country's, Billets, Far East Prison Camps, Prison Ships, And Routes Taken with the R.A.F.
Initial training was in Blackpool.
Embarkation posting to Hoylake, Kirby Stephens, Liverpool.
First Posting Carew Sherton , Tenby Wales.
Train to Greenock , boarded SS Esperance Bay, which was converted from a frozen beef transport to a troop ship - not fit for Rats or Japs..
About twenty five to thirty ships in convoy, including the Ramilees R.N Cruiser, and about ten Rivescort vessels.
First port of call was Freetown West Africa.
Second port was Durban South Africa .
Changed troopship to the Dunera , which was used for transportation of the Italians in the Middle East .
Jan 1942 - we set sail for the Far East, destination Singapore.
After about six weeks crisscrossing the ocean to avoid torpedo attacks, we learned Singapore had fallen and we were sent (as red herrings in my opinion) to Java, landing at the port of Batavia.
Even after being contacted by the Dutch Air Force, and being told to “sail elsewhere” as they were about to declare it an Open City.
But, as I said mentioned before, I think we and many other ships, were sent to this destination to cause the Japanese to dispatch troops to deal with this situation and, secure before making a move for Australia .
RN vessels broke off from the Convoy to tackle Japanese naval and troop carriers with great success
One of these namely Exeter and famous for its exploits in the scuttling of the German Pocket battleship in Montevideo
After landing at Batavia , and waiting for transport to move to our chosen destination, we were advised by the wireless operator from the SS Dunera that we had very little hope of success on the Island, as there was no Air Force left - or navel support.
That is apart from what was battling with the Japs in the Java seas
.But being young and listening to my father who was a soldier on active service in the First World War, and also in the second I knew the penalties for desertion.
So unlike of those on the quayside who got back on the ships at dusk and stowed away and were landed back in south Africa and were given the sentence of twenty one days in the Brig.
We for our patriotic stand sentenced ourselves to four years in jap prison camps....
As a young airman at the time this was the only decision I could make, after all I had left Britain when it was being bombed and shelled, and I knew what it was like to be part of this situation, so I was not afraid or ignorant of what war was about.
But I learned the hard way, different places, and different ways of tackling things.
So I was transported to the Dutch East Indies air field hoping to give protection till they had got the planes assembled to take on the japs
But as sometimes happens in war, they were diverted to another destination, so there Were no planes to protect. We were then taken to join up with some Australian's In a town called Butenzorg.
Some of these troops had been in the battle for Tobruk and were war hardened, so we were not greenhorns to the situation in front of us
And our intentions were to fight if we had to, and obtain our freedom from the situation we found ourselves in, namely lack of Air support, and Navel supremacy, owing to both services being lacking in number to deal with the Jap Air force and Navy.
This was because there was quite large battles and engagements going on in the java seas
Both were quite successful from a navel and air point of view.
But there is a limit to your duration of battle, when you are outnumbered in ships and planes.
With no re enforcements to look forward to………
That was as far as I got, after that it got way to heavy for me when they ended up in the POW camps etc.