SHEPHARD Arthur Frederick VX39088 HQ Coy [Guer]
Newcastle Sun (NSW : 1918 - 1954), Thursday 13 September 1945, page 2
Survivors The Jungle
'Sun' Special and Australian Associated Press.
SINGAPORE, Thursday: — Three men who had been dead to the world for three and a half years came out of the jungle yesterday in Upper Johore to learn that the war was over.
One was an Australian, Sgt. Arthur Frederick Shephard, 2/29th Battalion. He said he was the last known survivor of a party of 150 A.I.F. men who made' a stand against the Japs near Segament on January 19, 1942. Shephard comes from 79 Victoria Street, Coburg, Melbourne. The others were a British rubber planter, J. M. Cotterill, and a Scottish soldier, Pte. Dugald Stewart. The three had not met until they reached Segament. Each said he , had heard of parties of Australians and Britons wandering through the jungle in 1942. Last Of 150 Men Shephard, who told a story of frightful privations until he was picked up by Chinese guerrillas, clutched the pay books of five comrades he had buried. Shephard said: 'We were ordered to stop Japs near Segament and fought for 48 hours before we found we were surrounded. 'We were then ordered to split up into parties of 150 and make for the coast. 'But we ran into a Japanese ma-chine-gun nest and three-quarters of us were wiped out. 'My party was soon reduced to six Aussies, two of whom died from wounds about the time Singapore fell. 'The last of my cobbers died from some strange jungle disease on April 29, 1943, leaving me alone.' For months Shephard roamed about the jungle, sometimes on his own, until he finally joined us with Chinese guerrillas, who looked after him ever since.
Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Wednesday 26 September 1945, page 3
Australian Guerillas In Malayan Jungle
From Our Staff Correspondent, T. L. Goodman
SINGAPORE, September 25 (A.A.P.).— Three members of the Australian Eighth Division have arrived here after spending, three and a half years in the Malayan jungles constantly hunted by Japanese patrols
As far as they know the three men, all of them Victorians, are the sole survivors of a group of 28 Australians who took to the jungle when their retreat to Singapore was cut off.
The men are VX39035 Lieut Russell McCure 4th Anti-Tank Regiment of North Brighton, Victoria; VX39088 Sgt Arthur Frederick Shepherd, 2/29 Battalion of Coburg. Victoria; and VX48313. Cpl H. R. ("Blue") Ryan 2/29 Battalion, of Bairnsdale, Victoria
I heard of the three guerillas from members of the " plantation army"— men who parachuted into Malaya before the Japanese surrendered —and followed them to Singapore. Lieut-McCure I located at an air transit centre just as he was about to embark by ship for home.
SOME BELIEVED SHOT
Lieut McCure who is 36 said that he believed that some of the other Australian escapees had been shot by the Japanese and several had died of illnesses brought on by malnutrition.
"We had to live almost solely on tapioca during the first 18 months with occasionally a little dried fish or meat paste," he said. "Later we had some vegetables but we were always short of food. We have eaten everything in the jungle except tigers and we did not catch any tigers, although we saw some tracks. We have eaten elephant meat, rats, snakes and even young hornets ."
" My regiment was ordered to carry out operations at Bakri nine miles south of Muar early in 1942," he said. "Then came the withdrawal and I found myself a member of a mixed crowd of about 200 men.
"After tramping for about a week we reached Kangkai on the west coast and decided to break up into small parties and take a chance.
"I was the only officer in my party of nine— all Australians, and we decided to make north again and try to reach the coast and get a boat to Sumatra.
"At the River Muar we met members of the Chinese Communist Party who warned us of the treacherous Malays and urged us to try to get to Singa-pore. We spent a week with the Chinese and then contacted some English officers from a commando units who had carried out demolitions behind the enemy line. We were joined by other Australians who brought the A.I.F. total to 28.
We heard of the withdrawal to Singapore and so we stayed with the commando officers for a month and helped them to damage the railway. We heard then that Singapore had fallen and Japanese patrols were searching for us.
"We set out for the west coast and met native guerillas from Sumatra whom the Dutch had organised. Most of the rank and file had deserted but their officers worked with us for a time.
We paid 700 Malayan dollars for a boat which never arrived, and then decided to make our way back to the commando dump and try to get north towards Siam.
''However, we met the Communist guerillas again and my party has been with the guerillas almost continuously since February 1942, mainly in the jungle country in the Muar district.