WHITE Strachan McLaren VX48632 HQ Coy A Force

Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Saturday 2 June 1945, page 10

PRISONER OF JAPS FOR 2½ YEARS—AUSTRALIAN'S STORY

Special to "The Mercury"— Article

THIS is the story of Pte Strachan McLaren White, of Ballarat, who was with the 2/29th Battalion, 8th Australian Division. For two years and seven months he was a prisoner of the Japanese. It is more than a tale of hardship. His testimony shows that there is not only courage, but an unquenchable buoyancy in the hearts of our captured men. Through a grim record there runs a thread of hope in the evidence that Japanese treatment has not invariably been brutal. In this, the first of six chapters, Pte White describes the first phase, of captivity after the fall of Singapore.

OUR battalion arrived at Singapore on Aug. 15, 1941. It was at Kluang aerodrome on Dec. 29, that we were the first Australian unit in Malaya to come under direct enemy attack by air bombing.

We were in action at Muar, where, on Jan. 17, 1942, we destroyed some Japanese tanks. Then in the fight-ing retreat to break through encirclement we split into small parties. Those of us who reached Singapore reformed and were in action when the end came.

On the afternoon of Sunday, Feb. 15, we got word to cease fire at 7.30 pm. Singapore had fallen.

We remained at our last battle stations for two days and then received orders to move to the Gordon Highlanders' barracks at Changi, 17 miles away. We went under our own steam and in the charge of our own officers.

At Changi we saw no sign of the Japanese for three months, apart from an occasional Japanese staff car arriving with orders. Japanese guards were patrolling outside the camp area, but we did not contact them in any way.

During this time we were fed on our own rations for three days, then com-menced the Japanese diet of rice, etc. We lived in the barracks. After about 10 days of the Japanese diet, sickness started to break out, and the hospitals were soon full.

THE Japanese gave us approximately 20 acres of land to grow our own vegetables-tapioca plants, potatoes, beans, and other greens. During this period we worked about eight hours a day.

After two and a half months the Japanese wanted 500 men to go to Singapore on a working party. The day before they left I got malaria, and was left behind.

Four days later I came out of hospital, and was put in an oversea working-party. Thus I lost contact with the greater part of my battalion, who had been sent in the Singapore working party.

On May 15, 1942, our force-known as "A Force"— boarded the ship Celebes Maru. Conditions on her were appalling. One thousand men were put in two holds, in space that allowed about half a yard square to a man.

Our officers and medical officers were with us. Before we left Changi the Japanese told the medical officers they need not bring any equipment with them, as where they were going there would be plenty of supplies. At this time we did not know the Japanese tactics, and so had taken them at their word.

We were not allowed up on deck except to use the latrines, and even had to eat down the holds in the heat. The perspiration poured off us— many fainted. This kept up for nine days.

On the seventh day we pulled in at Victoria Point, where 1,000 men from one of the other ships were disembarked. A working party from our ship was sent ashore to wheel petrol drums, but that evening we moved off again.

At about 4.30 next afternoon we sighted the pagoda at Mergui. lt looked very pretty, all lit up by the sun, and situated about 200ft., from the sea.

* * * *

HERE the Japanese were not expecting us, and after disembarking we were put in the Mergui school. It was a very small school area only about 110 yards by 80 yards, with a tennis court in the centre.

The rooms in which we were quartered were 12 x 20ft., and 50 men had to sleep in one room. Sanitary conditions were appalling. Dysentery broke out, and many men went to hospital.

In addition to our own party— "A Force"— we picked up 500 Englishmen at Madang, on Sumatra and they also were quartered in the school area.

Many of the Englishmen and some Australians died of dysentery. The doctors found that instead of there being plentiful medical supplies, as the Japanese had promised, they had practically nothing to give the sick men.

After being there a week a party of three men tried to escape, but were picked up two days later and brought back to Japanese headquarters and locked up. The Japanese commander at Mergui got in touch with his superior officer, Lt Sheena, at Tavoy, who ordered that these men be shot.

Our colonel, Col Ramsay, appealed to the Japanese commander at Mergui for a lighter sentence. The Japanese commander— a sergeant— told Col Ramsay he could do nothing as the orders came from his superior officer.

He was persuaded, however, to appeal to his superior officer again for a lighter sentence, but the same reply came back. The next morning the three men were taken out in trucks and shot.

When the Japanese found out that some men had escaped everybody was pulled out of the camp in the middle of the night, and forced to stand out on the tennis court until every pris-oner was accounted for. We were there three hours without any clothes on.

* * * *

AT Mergui, the natives were very loyal and helped us in every way possible. The Japanese would send us to the wharves to unload ships that came in. They would have two guards around this area.

A lot of the boys used to dodge the Japanese guards and go up to town. I was in one party that went up. As soon as I got under the road bridge somebody grabbed hold of my shoulder, and as I turned round there was a native woman with a bowl of soup which, needless to say, was very acceptable.

After walking up the main road about 100 yards, a well-dressed native came out of a shop and beckoned us inside-there were six of us.

We went inside, sat down at the table, and he brought in chicken, sweet cakes, and coffee. We were there about 10 minutes when he asked us to move out so as to make room for others who might come up.

We kept on going up the main street collecting bananas and all sorts of tropical fruits. We came back to our area with our shirts fairly bulging with fruit and other things.

After work, we used to take our gifts back to camp with us, where we shared them with those who had not been able to get out.

After about a week the Japanese woke up to the fact that we were having too good a time and tightened up on different things.

THE next instalment of Pte White's story will tell of work in captivity in a phase—all too brief-that was made tolerable by kindly natives and reasonable camp conditions.

Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Friday 8 June 1945, page 3

PRISONERS-LUCKY FEW-SAVED BY AMERICAN TORPEDOES

Special to "The Mercury” - Article 6

CONCLUDING the story of his experiences in 31 months of captivity in Japanese hands, Pte S. McL. White, of the 2/29th Battalion, 8th Division, AIF, describes the fateful voyage in convoy from Singapore which was to bring death to many and liberty to a lucky few when the prison ships were torpedoed by American sub-marines.

THE beginning of 1944 saw us working in Thailand. In February; some of us were picked for transfer to Japan.

In March we were moved to Singapore. In the big River Vale Road camp there were already many British troops and, 750 Australians in one compound and Indian troops in other compounds. Other Australians were marched in, after a few weeks, to join our party for Japan.

Our doctors were allowed once a month to take our seriously ill patients to the main prisoner of war hospital at Changi.

The greater part of the 8th Division, with some civilians, were in the Changi area.

I believe these prisoners were building a fighter airfield. Many of them previously had been on the Burma-Thailand railway, and a few had been in Borneo and elsewhere in the Pacific.

Our work was now mainly on the Singapore docks. On Sept. 2, 1944, we were told we would be leaving for Japan in two days.

We knew that we would never reach Japan. We had found out how well the American submarine blockade was working.

* * * *

WE boarded the Rakuyo Maru. There were 1,300 of us-700 Australians and 600 English.

We were all supposed to flt into one hold, which had been subdivided with a false floor. Under a four-foot ceiling, men were crowded in too closely to lie down. The heat was terrific.

Eventually the Japanese had to allow several hundreds of us to live on deck.

Our ship pulled out on Sept. 6. On Sept. 11 it was joined by other vessels from Manila, making a convoy of nine transports and five escort vessels.

We knew that the Americans had spotted us. They got a destroyer in the moonlight before dawn on Sept. 12. She just vanished in an explosion and a flame of light.

At 5.25 am, the submarine attack was on again. Two oil tankers blew up and left blazing oil for miles. Then a ship with Japanese wounded and nurses, as well as 900 British troops, was hit by two torpedoes and went straight down.

That ship carried no Red Cross markings to identify her:

Then it was our turn.

The first torpedo tore through the bows, just missing the prisoners' hold. A second hit square below the engine room, and its explosion knocked me off my feet on the deck. The ship at once settled until the deck was only six feet above the water.

Our Japanese crew had taken to the lifeboats before the ship was hit.

The Australians did not panic. We threw over wooden rafts and hatch covers. Then, at a signal, everyone jumped.

I climbed on to a raft with another man from my company. We said: "We'll paddle her home."

After daylight we saw the main cluster of drifting rafts sweeping away from us on a current, while Japanese in lifeboats were picking up their own people from the water. One lifeboat came near us, and I asked if we could come aboard. The Japanese officer replied that a ship would pick , us up later.

* * * *

THAT night we tied ourselves to our raft, which was several inches under water. We went through an oil smear, which coated us from head to foot.

Three Englishmen on another raft drifted toward us and we lashed the two rafts together. On the third morning there was nothing in sight except a few oil drums and an occasional shark.

Then a school of fish began to follow us. They came right up and bit our toes in the water. That gave us an idea.

Using our toes as bait, we lured them to the surface, above the raft. We were able to catch two this way. We gave one to the Englishmen. The other Australian, Jim Lansdowne, and I ate the other. We could not finish it because it was so salty that it made us thirsty.

Late that morning we saw a submarine surface on the horizon. For hours we watched her as she moved slowly, picking up survivors. About 4.30 pm she head-ed toward us. We shouted and waved and the sub crew waved back.

Jim shook hands with me and said "Relax."

It was Sept. 15-just two years and seven months from our capture at Singapore.

That submarine picked up 73 survivors. No words of ours can express our gratitude for what the American sailors did for us on our voyage to Saipan, or for the kindness of the American medical staff at Saipan.