The serial:

Largie Castle, A Rifled Nest Day 78

It was heart-breaking after the battalion had found its battle legs for it to break at Dipang. The only excuse is the weariness of the men

An eye witness wrote: ‘The troops were very tired. Constant enemy air attacks prevented them from obtaining any sleep by day. By night they either had to move, obtaining such sleep as was possible in crowded lorries, or were compelled to prepare yet another defensive position.

“The resultant physical strain of day and night fighting, of nightly moves or work, and the consequent lack of sleep was cumulative and finally reached the limit of endurance. Officers and men moved like automata and often could not grasp the simplest order.”

The young Argylls’ officer, Gordon Smith, longed for a proper night’s sleep and “to stop the killing, go home and be normal”. If front-line troops were engaged at night fighting or preparing a defensive position, the brigade staff were also extremely busy. Whereas a jock might be able to snatch 40 winks, commanders found it much more difficult, and progressively so, the higher the rank the officer held.

To stem the enemy’s advance south, Paris ordered the brigade to guard the northern approach to Kampar; the newly-formed British battalion (the Leicesters and East Surreys), the Gurkhas and companies from the Federated Malay States Volunteer Force, prepared a defence of Kampar.

Disaster

Brigadier Paris hoped that, with the move from Chemor to Gopeng and Dipang situated south of Ipoh, 12th Indian Infantry Brigade would have three days’ respite. But it was not to be. The Japanese followed up rapidly and on the 28th, disaster struck. By 3pm, the 5/2 Punjabs withdrew, 30 men to a lorry, and fell in behind the Argylls and Hyderabads so they could rest.

The men were exhausted but unable to nod off; continuous attacks from the air rattled the Indian troops, especially when enemy planes descended to the level of the tree-tops and took aim. The Indian soldiers realised the RAF would never appear.

Before noon on the same day, Japanese mortars pounded the Hyderabads and two hours later enemy patrols managed to reached their forward companies. The idea was to withdraw from Gopeng, allow the Japanese to occupy the town that night and shoot them with artillery early the next morning but the enemy pipped them to the post.

Battle commenced and raged on until midafternoon when the Japanese, supported by eight tanks, launched an attack against the tired Argylls, who were unprepared and without anti-tank backup. Although the tanks failed to break through the brigade’s defence, the Argylls were forced back on to the 5/2 Punjabs.

Morale in 12th Indian Infantry Brigade fell to an alltime low; the troops had contended with increased enemy artillery, greater air activity and Japanese tank assaults. Although the brigade held the enemy at bay for 48 hours, they’d no alternative but to withdraw to Bidor. The retreat began before noon on December 29, but ended at 6.15pm.

Confusion

Major Gairdner and the rest of his battalion “were coming back in confusion and some panic amongst the troops was discernible,” wrote Deakin. In their disorderly retreat, the Argylls had brought with them two of the Punjabs’ forward companies. Panic was spreading and Deakin, his second-in-command and Captain Luck, an officer in the 5/2 Punjabs, had to stop any further withdrawal of the men at the point of their revolvers.

“It was heart-breaking after the battalion had found its battle legs for it to break at Dipang. The only excuse is the weariness of the men and the bad example set by the other two battalions, including a British one (he meant the Argylls). It was panic that caused them to break.”

That afternoon, as it passed through Dipang, the leading Japanese tank fired shots at Stewart’s Brigade HQ, which stood 1,000 yards south of the hamlet. The brigade intelligence officer, Lieutenant Gordon Shiach, driving towards the invading tank, was shot in the groin: he died a month later in Singapore’s Alexandria Hospital.

Now the brigade, “which had so doggedly borne the brunt of the attacks by the greater part of the Japanese 5th Division, withdrew to Bidor,” explained Woodburn Kirby in his official history of the campaign. The 5/2 Punjabs were delighted now to receive anti-aircraft Bofors, the first time anything had been done to counteract the enemy in the air.

Ian Morrison of the press visited Stewart’s HQ. From the time the Argylls began their training in Singapore and South Malaya, Stewart made use of press publicity. He liked his lads to be photographed in the jungle, on parade and on route marches through the local kampongs.

The meeting between Ian Morrison and Angus might have looked like an old boy’s reunion: both were old Wykehamists, the same age, and keen athletes. Morrison appeared at a critical time for 12th Indian Infantry Brigade, now famous for its staying power and its ferocious attempts at delaying the superior Japanese forces.

He saw himself how overworked the staff were at Brigade HQ, providing instructions for dispatch riders, communicating with staff at divisional HQ and disseminating orders to brigade battalions and companies, sitting in on conferences between the commanders, not to mention providing instruction to teams of men responsible for transport, equipment, ammunition and rations from one place to another.

Contemporaries

Perhaps Morrison was thinking of Angus when he wrote the following. “Tired and worn after several days of pretty continuous action, but still amazingly cheerful, they were drawn from the oldest families in Scotland... When I hear people inveighing against the degeneracy of my contemporaries, especially those contemporaries who come from the old families of England and have been to the old schools, I like to think of those young officers of the Argylls.”

Many Argylls’ officers came from old Scottish families: my uncle, the Colonel, David Boyle of D Company, Angus Rose, and his cousin Michael Bardwell of B Company. Morrison wanted to talk to the men, so he could counter false rumours and write encouraging words about the campaign.

Captain ‘Bal’ Hendry was top of his list and Sergeant-Major Bing, who had taken on a number of Japanese soldiers at a railway station. After a hand-tohand fight, when not only fists but also teeth were used, Hendry finished off a couple by beating them with his army hat while Bing grabbed the barrel of his Tommy gun and used its handle to club a few more.

More on Monday.