The 2/19th’s trip is described in the magazine as “the first organised body to go back over the old areas.” They had hoped it would attract more publicity and were particularly disappointed with the indifference shown by Australia’s national broadcaster whose chief was Charles Moses.

“It was thought that with his old association with 2/20 Bn. and 8 Div., he would have been sympathetic.”

Apparently he was not. Moses, it will be remembered, was one of two officers who accompanied Maj-Gen. Henry Gordon Bennett on his highly controversial escape from Singapore at the time of the capitulation.

One gets a sense of the adventure associated with the 1962 trip in that a full page of the account deals with the flight to Singapore in an Air India “Super Connie”. This is followed by a detailed discussion of the price of Scotch and beer in Singapore, for various brands in various quantities, comparing prices then with those of 1941. The price of petrol was an eye-watering 6s 9d—or something close to 70c—per gallon mind you. There is outrage at union activism in Singapore at the time of the group’s arrival so that the city’s cinemas were closed. Banks were affected also. “Just imagine the Commonwealth or Wales or CBC Syd. on strike.” Later, the Ford factory was passed: in former days site of the humiliating British surrender; at that time shut down due to strike action which rankled. As one can see, this is a highly idiosyncratic account but it was doubtless a product of its time, representing fairly the views of men returning to a place they had not seen for two decades and to which economic growth, increased prosperity and shifting attitudes had wrought significant change, a circumstance reflected in the comment that Singapore generally “smelt much better and sweeter and was much cleaner than 20 years ago”. Having returned to Singapore myself last year after an interval of 25 years,  I could only wonder how those men would look in awe on the present-day opulence of Orchard Rd, the beauty of the riverfront nightscape with prominent buildings illuminated or the spectacle of the Merlion precinct where the Marina Bay Sands dominates the skyline and dwarfs the former colonial buildings. On the other hand, Kranji cemetery was a sanctuary then as it is today: “Beautiful lawns and flowers everywhere. The granite and sandstone buildings are placed in such a manner that from every angle the atmosphere is reverent and quiet remembrance.” The travellers were interested to see the tower of the Sultan’s palace still visible on the other side of the straits. And that is significant because a little later the 2/19th’s tour party enjoyed luncheon at that palace where they were entertained personally by the Sultan and Sultana.

The group visited Changi jail and were allowed inside to see conditions. At that time many of the inmates were Commos of “the worst type you could possibly imagine”. The tour group saw there the execution yard “where the condemned Nips took off”. Their next stop was Selarang Barracks which were then in immaculate condition. They also looked at the Changi aerodrome—constructed by POW labour between September 1944 and May 1945.

In Johore, the party went to Jemaluang on the east coast where the 2/19th had been stationed at the time of the Japanese landings in the north. This was the village the battalion cleared of its civilian population then put to the torch on 13 December 1941. On the trip west from there to Parit Sulong, Reg Newton reflected on the battalion’s mad rush into action at Muar along the same road in the early hours of 18 January 1941. He wondered how Capt. Joe Pickup’s recently delivered and highly temperamental Australian-built Bren Carriers held together. At Malacca the group met the CO of 2 RAR, Lt-Col. Allan Stretton, “big physically and of efficiency and nature”—as he was later to prove overseeing rescue and rebuilding in Darwin after Cyclone Tracy. Here the group participated in a range shoot and reckoned that, in about fifteen minutes, they fired off twenty years of a whole company’s ordnance allocation.

The group spent a couple of days driving and walking over the site of the Battle of Muar. They found the landscape changed considerably: former hill-sections on the road had been flattened out and what had previously been tight turns were now long sweeping bends. At Parit Sulong, they erected a memorial tablet on the northeastern abutment of the old humped bridge. That bridge is no longer there: gone along with the tablet and replaced by a more modern steel structure. There is, however, a memorial cairn in the riverside park adjacent to the bridge. On the opposite side visitors to the area would have seen the restored former Public Works Department building which featured in the notorious massacre of 145 wounded Indian and Australian soldiers by members of the Konoye Div. of the Imperial Guards on 22/23 January 1941.

On their first night in Kuala Lumpur the group entered a restaurant owned and staffed by “surly and arrogant” Japanese. This discovery was made only after the Australians had started eating: “otherwise [they] would have walked out.”

A major focus of the tour was revisiting places along the Railway at which Reg’s ‘U’ Bn had worked—places such as Tarsau, Tonchan, Rin Tin and Tampie. Unfortunately, at Kanchanaburi they found permission to travel further had been withdrawn due to bandit activity in the area and a major military operation in response. Two of the party secured a fettlers’ trolley and made their way to the nearby Chungkai cutting but that was as far as they could proceed. The group was able to lay wreaths at the Kanchanaburi and Chungkai cemeteries and place a plaque in Kanchanaburi before heading back south.

A highlight of the southward journey was the stop-off at Kuala Lumpur which this time took in Pudu Prison where Reg and 177 other Australians were interned for eight months in 1942. They also visited the Cheras Road cemetery were six Australians who died of wounds or disease at Pudu were interred. This was the place where seven of eight escapees including two Australians were executed on 16th September 1942. The report mentions that the 1962 party saw the graves of these men and that is a detail I find curious since all other reports indicate that the escapees were buried in unmarked graves; moreover, their names are listed on the walls at the Kranji cemetery for those fallen who have no known grave. So perhaps the party was shown the general area where the bodies were thought to have been buried.

At Kuala Lumpur, the tour group joined the Malayan Prime Minister at a race meeting where they found that horses he and they backed kept winning, including a 50-to-1 longshot which all seven of them backed in the last race. The Prime Minister, they concluded, was a lucky guy. His luck may have been linked to the chance meeting trackside with the handicapper who was a former British officer Newton had had to deal with in Thailand. At that time the officer ran a canteen for personal profit. He was considered dodgy then and was undoubtedly dodgy still.

In Singapore the group was feted by the Crown Prince of Johore whose collection of vintage cars included 48 Rolls Royces—one from every year of their manufacture. Finally, on the last appointed day, the group made its way to the airport where they boarded a Comet for the flight home, the economy section of which was “very cramped”. Once in the air, however, the key feature noticed was the quietness of jet travel compared to the constant throbbing of a Super Connie’s four huge piston-engines. This was a sign of changing times as had been their experiences in parts of Asia which were vibrant and developing at a staggering rate. All Australians, Newton concluded should be obliged “to see the countries to the near north of their own” and learn from their energy and industry.

So the party arrived home early February to kith and kin having spent £325 each for the trip, £218.5.0 of which consisted of their air fare. In all, it was an unforgettable walk down a laneway lined with memories which were often far from pleasant but which must surely have helped its participants lay a few ghosts to rest and served to honour the memory of comrades and mates who were not granted the wonderful opportunity these men were of a second chance at life.

Chris Murphy
November 2023