'Roaring Reggie' Newton
This site is new and its operator is still driving it with ‘L’ plates displayed front and back so please bear with him. However, its intention is to be a tribute to and a source of information about NX34734 Captain Reginald William James Newton, 2/19th Battalion, AIF. So far this site contains information about reading for anyone interested in exploring further Reg Newton’s story and for those interested in the WW2 Pacific POW experience generally. I have started a page of links for those interested in doing some further reading or research and the rest will build as we go.
Summary of 'Roaring Reggie's' Story
Reg's Career Prior to the Railway
Captain Reg Newton was the CO of HQ Coy in the 2nd AIF’s 2/19th Battalion, a unit recruited mainly from the NSW Riverina district. As part of the two 8th Division brigades sent to Malaya in 1941, Reg Newton went onto fight briefly in the epic Battle of Muar before fleeing into the jungles and swamps of Johore and being captured about a fortnight later on 10th February 1942. From there he was sent to Pudu Prison in Kuala Lumpur where he remained until October 1942. There were over a thousand POWs in Pudu prison and more than 170 of these were Australians. This is where Reg took charge and learnt a number of techniques and tricks required to deal with the Japanese successfully. There is evidence that Reg was not a well-liked officer prior to captivity and he was not universally liked at Pudu but he certainly came to be respected. In his time there, only six Australians died of disease or complications from battle wounds. Another three men from his “wing” were executed for an attempted escape which Newton, rightly, strongly discouraged: these three were an AIF sergeant, an expatriate Australian who was a Kedah Volunteer and a Dutch pilot.
Reg Really Shines on the Railway
SOURCE: AWM
After a brief sojourn in Singapore, Reg was put in charge of a group designated by the Japanese as ‘U’ Battalion which was part of the larger ‘D’ Force and went to the Burma-Thailand Railway on 22nd March 1943. This is where Reg Newton’s unique combination of talents and motivations really came to the fore. Whatever opinions of him may have been before, on the Railway, as a POW leader he was brilliant – not warm and fuzzy but single-minded about protecting his men. The difficulties and challenges seemed somehow to play into his wheelhouse and he fought tenaciously for his men’s rights, which is more than can be said for some other officers who were on the Railway. He was also willing to do deals and pull shifties with the Japanese; in fact, whatever it took and frequently that meant bearing the brunt of their brutality.
Of the 660 men in his battalion or butai, by the end of their time working on the Railway, only 37 had died. While that was tragic, it was also remarkable because that translated to a mortality rate of 6 percent when the losses for ‘D’ Force as a whole were 18 percent. The Australian component of the ill-fated ‘F’ Force suffered a mortality rate of 29 percent and their British mates experienced a diabolical 59 percent loss rate.
Moreover, it was not because ‘U’ Battalion was spared the worst of the conditions on the Burma-Thailand Railway. They worked on Hellfire Pass, on the Pack of Cards Bridge and on the Wampo Viaduct. They were at camps as bad as Konyu, Hintok and Tonchan South. They endured the monsoon, the speedo and the cholera scourge. They experienced some of the worst and most brutal of the Japanese and Korean guards including the notorious ‘Pommie killer,’ Sgt-Maj. Aitaro Hiramatsu, aka, ‘the Tiger’, who was the tyrant of Tonchan South.
Reg Leads Newton Force to Japan
After completion of the work on the Railway, Reg Newton was placed in charge of a 2,200 strong Japan party called ‘Newton Force’. This contingent sailed to Japan in an epic 70-day voyage from 1st July to 8th September 1944 on the hell-ship Rashin Maru which was so decrepit the POWs renamed it the Byoki [or sick] Maru.
They experienced submarine attacks and a typhoon but beat the odds and arrived safely in Japan. Ten of the ships in their original convoy of over 30 vessels were sunk. Upon arrival at the port of Moji near the Japanese city of Fukuoka, the members of Newton Force were effectively auctioned off to Japanese consortiums and sent to a variety of places and tasks which included ship-building, metal-smelting and mining. Reg Newton went to Ohama #9-B camp at a mine where the men worked under Japan’s Inland Sea extracting coal.
Here, once again, ‘Roaring Reggie’s’ leadership skills and care for his men came to the fore and he lost only one man on that terrible sea voyage and only another three subsequent to that in his camp in Japan.
Reg Newton's Legacy
SOURCE: ‘The Grim Glory of the 2/19th.’
After the two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese reluctantly surrendered, thereby averting the planned US invasion of the home islands which was predicted to cost the US between 400,000 and 800,000 dead and somewhere between five to ten million Japanese lives. Had invasion been required, there can be no doubt that every POW in captivity would have been killed before victory was achieved.
As for Reg Newton, he survived and, like so many others, returned to his home country and lived out the remainder of his years in respectable unremarkability. He is not celebrated in the same way as some other POW leaders are and that is in no way intended to detract from their efforts or their remarkable achievements. Nevertheless, the record of ‘Roaring Reggie’ Newton really deserves to be celebrated more because it shows what men can achieve when they work together despite the most horrific of conditions and adverse of circumstances. His story shows us even today that each of us has depths of strength and resilience we have never plumbed; it shows us how we all can be inspired to bring out our best and of the benefits that flow from clear direction and unity of purpose. Most importantly, his story shows us what great leadership looks like up close and personal and why it will always be an essential feature of the human condition.
Why was he called 'Roaring Reggie'?
SOURCE: Mansell Allied POW Site
‘Roaring Reggie’ got his name because of his very loud voice and it was not initially a term of endearment. A former POW interviewed in the landmark joint project undertaken by Dr Hank Nelson and Tim Bowden said “Newton had a reputation for aggression on the parade ground. One of his sergeants says: ‘We called him Roaring Reggie because he was Roaring Reggie. Christ, when he was on parade he made enough noise that he’d wake the dead.”
But the best example I have read of the behaviour that earnt him his name is retold by historian Peter Brune. It comes from the time in Changi as ‘U’ Battalion was preparing for its move to the Railway. Reg was addressing a party of 2/20th Battalion men and relations between the 2/19th and the 2/20th had been bad from their inception. Reg was trying to reassure them that he would protect their interests and command for the good of all, not just those of his own unit. So he got up on his box in front of the parade and called out in his loud voice, “Can you hear me in the back?” and a voice replied from the rear rank, “Yeah. Can you hear me?” Reg adopted his best officer’s demeanour and said sternly, “No.” The vocal member of the rear rank responded, “Well, get fucked then.” This was a critical command moment but, at six foot tall, Reg was a big man and so he got down off his box, strode to the rear of the parade and dealt with the unhappy individual quickly, physically and decisively. The self-appointed spokesman of the 2/20th Battalion found himself watching stars go round and wondering why he was lying on his back. Needless to say, this got the full attention of the assembled 2/20th Bn men and, while they may not have warmed to his style, they certainly realised he meant business. After this sketchy start, they came to unquestioningly obey this forthright leader whom they may not have loved and probably didn’t necessarily like but certainly learnt to respect and admire.
Tributes to Reggie by Those Who Were There.
There are many former POWs who lived to venerable ages who say they and a lot of their mates owe their lives to the work Reg Newton did on their behalf during their captivity. Here is a short collection of comments from some who were there.
VX259 Lt-Col. Edward E. ‘Weary’ Dunlop, 2/2nd CCS, on hearing that Reg would be in charge of one of the Japan parties, ‘Weary’ wrote in his diary: “Reg Newton … is a stout fellow.”
NX70643 Maj. Kevin James Fagan of 2/10th AGH, another legendary Railway medico, said that whereas some POW officers on the Railway would go to ground at the end of the day, “a fellow like Reggie Newton would be scrounging around trying to buy a few eggs for the sick, trying to organise the men to be together, finding out where everyone was and whether anyone needed a doctor – and all this before he even thought of eating or sitting down.”
NX35590 Pte Charles Arthur Edwards, 2/19th Bn, a Railway survivor who lived to the grand old age of 96. He was “the greatest officer that ever pulled boots on.”
NX8190 Gunner Russell Reading Braddon, 2/15th Fld Reg., author of ‘The Naked Island‘, inmate at Pudu and member of ‘H’ Force on the Railway, speaking of the transparent system of distributing food introduced by Reg at Pudu. “From the very beginning officers postulated their entire behaviour on the fact that they were responsible for their men. They would not eat until their men had eaten. It was military etiquette to the nth degree in favour of those who were less privileged. And it was magnificent. We were looked after by our sirs. And we needed to be looked after because life was grim.”
NX58091 Sgt John William Geoffrey O’Connor, 2/19th Bn, a Railway survivor. “He was a byword on the line. He fought the Japanese all the way and in lots of cases he blocked them.” Reggie instilled the men with the confidence “that what could be done would be done.”
QX17307 Bdr Hugh Clarke, 2/10th Fld Reg, a member of ‘D’ Force’s ‘T’ Battalion who went on to to write a number of books about the POW experience. He was impressed that Reggie’s masterful handling of the notorious guard, WO Hiramatsu, aka ‘the Tiger, got to the point where ‘the Tiger’ “would even oppose other Japanese guards or engineers if he thought that Newton’s men were being unfairly treated.”
NX67749 Pte George Thompson Shelly, 2/20th Bn, a Railway survivor who was a member of ‘U’ Battalion. “‘Roaring’ Reg Newton … was an outstanding officer … [who] kept us together and the Japs on their toes, especially ‘The Tiger’.”
NX59308 Sgt Francis Joseph Baker, 2/20th Bn a Railway survivor and member of ‘U’ Battalion. “The Tiger used to respect Reggie because Reggie was a fellow who would stand up and bellow at everybody, and of course that suited [the] Tiger down to the ground to think that we were being well-disciplined by our own officers. And he did run a tight ship. So the Tiger respected him to the point where they could argue, negotiate, and not do too badly.”
VX35131 Gnr Clifford Munro Moss, 2/4th Anti-Tank Reg., a Railway survivor. “Newton did not change character when he confronted Japanese guards who were shouting orders and grasping at their swords.”
SX14638 Pte Leonard Walter Gooley, 8 Div. Ammunition Sub Park, a Railway survivor and member of ‘U’ Battalion. “Reggie was in charge and because of that he stood up and took many a beating. Given what any Jap could do to you up there, Reg Newton was brave each day. A lot of times we thought he was going to get his head cut off. Everyone who was there would say that they got home because of Reg.”