One of a Kind (2nd Edition)

APPENDIX I

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APPENDIX I

placed under the Singapore Fortress Command. Training was geared to preventing sea-borne

landings, weapon handling, construction of defences, section leading and street fighting.

VIII. THE VOLUNTEERS IN WORLD WAR II

All Volunteer forces were mobilised on 1

December, 1941, as there were strong indications

that the Japanese were about to strike, which they did at Singora and Patani in Siam

(Thailand) on 8

December. The Volunteers reported to their respective concentration

areas and were redeployed to their defence sectors. Every unit suffered heavy casualties in

the battle for Singapore. For the Singapore Volunteers as a whole, it was mostly a matter

of following the grim news of the Japanese advance down the peninsula at an alarming

rate towards Singapore and brief bloody encounters on the island itself when the Japanese

crossed the Straits of Johor. The SSVAF, however, did daily reconnaissance patrols in their

defenceless and miscellaneous collection of light aircraft from temporary runways in Malaya

and aerodromes in Singapore.

The Volunteer Navy probably had the hottest time of it. In 1941, the SSRNVR had became

the Singapore Division of the Malayan Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. With the sinking of

the battleship, Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser Repulse on 10

December, the RN

in the theatre comprised of some one hundred minesweepers and patrol craft under the

operational command of Captain, Auxiliary Vessels and manned significantly by the SSRNVR

and, separately, the so-called ‘Malay Navy’.

On 13

February, 1942, the Laburnum was

sunk. However, the Volunteers and the ‘Malay Navy’ were able to carry out major evacuation

operations. Sixty-one ships manned by the Volunteers got through to Sumatra and Java and

on to Australia and Colombo. But, an encounter with Japanese warships off Banka cost the

Volunteers 173 officers and ratings of whom 53 were known killed and the rest missing

in action. In addition, sometime in February, Panglima was sunk while evacuating military

personnel to Australia.

With the surrender to the Japanese on 15

February, 1942, while some dispersed as ordered,

many were identified and subjected to atrocious treatment as prisoners of war by the Japanese

in Changi prison and the Siam ‘Death Railway’. Many Chinese Volunteers who fell into the

hands of the dreaded Kempeitei (Japanese Military Police) were lost without a trace. The

Volunteers who escaped spent the rest of the Japanese occupation playing cat-and-mouse with

the Japanese while some joined the Force 136 resistance movement in the jungles of Malaya.

It can be truly said of the Volunteers in Malaya and the Straits Settlements that they kept

the faith.