POWs LEFT LOCKED UP TO DIE ON SINKING SHIP BY CAPTORS
Hero’s son says those who managed to escape jumped into deadly water
IT has been described as one of the biggest war crimes of World War II and saw one of the largest numbers of British lives lost at sea. This is the heroic story of a Rhondda prisoner of war left to drown in shark-infested waters at the hands of the Japanese Army. On October 1, 1942, Kenneth Hughes, from Clydach Vale, found himself locked in the hold of a warship travelling from Hong Kong to labour camps in Japan. After being enlisted to serve in the Royal Navy on his 21st birthday, he had originally been chosen to escort the governor of Hong Kong when a change of plans saw him captured by enemy forces.
According to the quartermaster’s son, his father was one of only a handful to be picked to serve the navy from his home town, with many enlisted in the army instead.
Gareth Hughes, 68, said: “The only reason my father was captured in the first place was because he was there when Hong Kong was about to fall.
“There were three Royal Navy ships in Hong Kong at the time and my father was to go with the governor as an escort to Australia with the gold reserves.
“But he was returned to fly the flag and when he got there he was captured.”
Surrounded by more than 1,800 other prisoners suffering from tropical disease, the Welshman from near Tonypandy was forced to endure horrific conditions when the ship was hit by a torpedo fired by an American submarine.
Unaware that the Lisbon Maru contained prisoners of war, the USS Grouper fired three more torpedoes towards the 7,000-ton vessel – starting a 24-hour period which would see more than 800 British citizens lose their lives.
While the ship would take 25 hours to sink in total, the prisoners in the hold first started to panic