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spence -> RE: Southern Army HQ 10th January 1942 (4/10/2006 7:40:42 PM)
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Dateline BATAVIA - 13 January, 1942
More than two days after the fall of Singapore an a civilian amphibian plane arrived here piloted by an Australian and carrying several other Europeans and a Chinese Nurse.
Flying Officer Owen Price, RAAF, commandeered the plane in the harbor the morning after the surrender and dodged enemy fighters to escape first to Sumatra, refuelling there and thence to Batavia. They left behind a city cringing at the dubious mercy of a barbaric enemy.
Nurses Abigail Clark and Christine Markle claim to have witnessed the brutal rape and murder of several of their colleagues at Alexandra Hospital. They also said that Japanese troops rampaged through the wards just after the surrender bayoneting wounded soldiers and civilians alike. For a short time they had been captured and locked in a storeroom with several other nurses and doctors. They escaped into the hospital garden through a small window in the storeroom. Just after they had gotten out they heard gunshots and an explosion in the room they'd just left. They ran into Flight Officer Price in the garden and he told them to come with him.
Private Johnny Shaw, attached to 27th Australian Brigade, said "The C.O. had us stack arms and parade on the road just when the surrender took effect. About 10 minutes later this Nip tank and a bunch of little Nippers come down the road towards us. The Skipper's got this white flag with 'im and walks up towards the tank. A Nip Officer comes out from behind the tank, walks right up to the skipper; and then plugs him full in the face with 'is pistol. The tank cuts loose with its machine guns at the lads all lined up in the road so me and Dave 'ere take off into the bush. Later we can here the Japs finishing off anybody what didn't get killed straighaway. Didn't know where we were going but figured lookin for a way out was better than what we'd seen there. Next morning we run into the Lieutenant 'ere and he takes us along with him and the nurses.
Flying Officer Price had been serving in a RAAF Fighter Squadron but was assigned as Platoon Leader for an ad hoc infantry platoon composed of mechanics and other RAAF personnel after the squadrons last planes were shot down or evacuated. When word came down to surrender Price had left his company and gone to the Alexandra where his fiance, nurse Nancy Ming Chan, was stationed. He found his fiancee amid the sounds of grenades and gunshots and screams in the hospital corridors and was escaping with her out through the hospital garden when he met up with nurses Markle and Clark. Though the city had surrendered at 1800, throughout the night there was a constant cacaphony of machine gun fire, grenade explosions and blood curdling screams.
In the morning Price and the Nurses were joined by PVTs Shaw and Smudgeon near the harbor at the site of a brutal massacre. At least 100 Chinese civilians had been beheaded and the bodies piled in a bloody heap. The heads had been stuck upon stakes lining the side of the road.
Price lead his little group to a boathouse. Inside was a beat up Grumman amphibian which he took off immediately. A hour South of the city the plane was set upon by a Japanese fighter. "He played with us a bit, showing off I suppose; and then came in on us firing. Tore up the left wing pretty good...I guess if there'd been any fuel in there we'd have been in real trouble. He came around again and fired off a few rounds and then stopped. Maybe he was out of ammunition or his guns jammed. He was only 50 feet away and we could see he was pretty mad. After a while he just flew off. So here we are."
[image]local://upfiles/9007/25194B0F5396412B8CA81EE1AC6F4512.jpg[/image]
Flying Officer Price, RAAF
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