At the point of a bayonet
THE man circled is Private Frank Baker, who shared three-and-a-half years of Japanese ‘hospitality’ with my late father, Harry Bugg.
Frank told me the story of that picture. The Japanese rounded up the tallest Allied soldiers they could find and posed for the camera to show that though smaller, they were the victors. So the men were from all different Army units.
Frank’s height — he was over 6ft — got him in trouble in the PoW camps as the diminutive guards would beat him up to exhibit their superiority.
Frank and my father were in the Reconnaissance Corps, part of the illfated British 18th Division who were heading to North Africa, but were diverted to Malaya. Their troopship, the Empress of Asia, was attacked by Japanese bombers on February 5, 1942, and sank 20 miles from Singapore.
With 1,800 troops, they were rescued by an Australian sloop, HMAS Yarra — it was sunk with all hands a month later, defending a convoy against Japanese cruisers.
Frank had a lucky escape from the Empress of Asia. Trapped below decks, he headed to the engine room to end it all quickly. However, one of the crew told him ‘I know a way out, chum,’ and led him up a series of ladders inside one of the funnels and then down onto the deck.
After the rescue, the troops were landed in Singapore and fought in the Allied retreat until the surrender on February 15. After spending over a year in Changi prison, they were shipped to Formosa (now Taiwan) and several hellish PoW camps including Heito and the copper mine of Kinkaseki.
In September 1945, they were rescued after the Japanese surrender by the aircraft carrier USS Block Island, carried to Manila and then returned to England.
John Bugg, Fareham, Hants. ON THE left of the picture is a soldier with a moustache. His name was David Moffat and I got to know him well between 1977 and 1982, when he was the custodian of the mediaeval Longthorpe Tower in Peterborough.
I would often call in for a chat as my two small children liked to play with his dog, Toby.
He told me about some of his wartime experiences in Japanese PoW camps and how on one occasion, though starving, he had resisted the temptation to eat a rancid pig. Some of his comrades did eat it and subsequently died.
David died on November 3, 1993, aged 74. From the Forces War Records website, I discovered he was a gunner in the 125th Anti-Tank Regiment of the Royal Artillery and was captured on February 15, 1942 — the day Singapore surrendered.
After their capture by the Japanese the troops were marched to Changi prison. Many were transferred to Thailand in late 1942 to work on the Burma Railway.
David spent the rest of the war in PoW camps, until he was released in September 1945.
Dave Sankey, Elston, Newark, Notts. THE longest in terms of time began on August 14, 2010, on the China National Highway 110 (G110) and the Beijing– Tibet expressway (G6) in Hebei and Inner Mongolia. The jam stretched 62 miles and lasted 12 days.
Crawling along at two miles a day, it took three days to pass through the congestion. The cause of the jam was due to the skyrocketing number of cars in China and the use of the route by trucks Singapore surrender: The British soldiers facing the bayonets of Japanese soldiers in this famous photograph include David Moffat (left, with moustache) and Frank Baker (circled) bringing construction supplies to Beijing. Ironically, those supplies were for roadworks to try to reduce traffic jams.
The longest in distance was the LyonsParis jam in February 1980. Hordes of returning holidaymakers, icy conditions and poor visibility caused a hold-up that stretched 109 miles over 48 hours.
The worst motorway jam in Britain was on April 5, 1985. It stretched for 40 miles on the M1 between junctions 16 and 18. The cause was roadworks.
Jeff Holden, Newport, Shropshire. FURTHER to the earlier answer, the rock singer Bruce Springsteen dodged the draft by convincing the board he was mentally unfit.
In 1984, he told Rolling Stone magazine: ‘I got a 4-F. I had a brain concussion from a motorcycle accident when I was 17. Plus, I did the basic Sixties rag, you know: fillin’ out the forms all crazy, not takin’ the tests…I thought one thing: I ain’t goin.’
He then went on to write Born In The USA, which included the lines: ‘Sent me off to a foreign land. To go and kill the yellow man.’ Colin Britton, Uffculme, Devon.
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QUESTION A photograph taken during the surrender of Singapore in 1942 shows British soldiers in tin helmets with their hands raised in front of Japanese soldiers with fixed bayonets. Who were the soldiers and did they survive the war? QUESTION When and where was the longest traffic jam in the world? QUESTION Other than Muhammad Ali, how many Americans refused the draft to fight in Vietnam?