Slitherine

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Dec 28...We reached our planned rendevous point with 27th Brigade today, finding nothing save an abandoned, disabled lorry. There is also a disquieting absence of artillery fire. We traded some of our kit for rice with local villagers who informed us the Australians had pulled out in haste the day before our arrival. They denied having seen the Japanese. The Captain has ordered a night march to the West, to try to close with the Australians. He also forbade the use of cooking fires, a proscritption which went unheeded by Pvt. Duncan, the son of the
Anglican Minister in Khota Bahru. When the Captain discovered the fire he doused it with water and sent the young lad's rice carreening into the bush with his boot. The impetuous Private rose to strike the Captain, who, instead, sidestepped the blow, grabbed him by the wrist and elbow and directed him face first into a fig tree. When the lad awoke, he was shorn of his weapon and two front teeth.

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Dec 29...Our expedition reached a literal and figurative turning point today. After an all night march, save for a two hour respite at 2 AM, my squad, which was in the van, rounded a bend in the trail and chanced upon a beautiful mountain stream with clear running water. Imprudently, we rushed to the stream to take a drink and wash our faces. As we enjoyed the cool water, Private Jones suddenly stood upright, then assumed a half crouch. To our left, not 15 yds distant, were two well-tanned orientals wearing nothing but loincloths, standing thigh deep in the stream. Our indecision evaporated when the unlucky Private Jones, a father of two, was shot through the heart by a third, unseen member of their party. We scrambled for our weapons, returning fire and killing the two bathers. If the third member fired a second shot we did not hear it. This is how the war began for me. Everything before, which had seemed such a hardship, was now relegated to clinical sterility. Here, three men had lost heir lives merely to fulfill a biological need. As we dragged the lifeless Private Jones back up the trail, we were greeted by the Captain with his field glasses. In the valley below us was the macadamized East-West road to Johore Bahru. Upon it were perhaps 100 Japanese vehicles, many towing large caliber artillery moving, with no apparent urgency, to the West. This was not the tip of the Japanese spear. This was the tail. To our West were steeply sided ridges marching away into the mist, demarcating tributaries feeding into the river that coursed along the road. The terrain was imapssable. We were too late. Commonwealth forces had been driven out. "God help us", said one of the party. "There will be none of that!", the Captained scowled "Back up the trail, the lot of you, now.".

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ORIGINAL: Arstavidios

Humm does it mean they also wear kilts?

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ORIGINAL: Moondawggie

Could you possibly find transport to evacuate her out to us in California?

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ORIGINAL: Onime No Kyo

Yeah. WitP is being really unfair to ol' Tom. I think that he's one of the best commanders the RN had at the time.