Java

Confusion, battle, surrender...

Many machine-gunners on board the Orcades recall the bewildering night re-embarkation at Oosthaven, Sumatra, on 15 February 1942.

The Australian troops - without their machine guns and armed with old rifles, knives and bayonets - were supposed to defend two airfields, 300 km to the north. According to reports from Dutch military intelligence, the nearest Japanese troops were more than 320 km away.

The Japanese, however, were already within 18 km of Oosthaven, so the landing force had to beat a hasty retreat back to ship.

"We left the Orcades during the afternoon and tied up at a wharf at 1930 hours. At 2030, the decision to return to the Orcades was taken. None was sorry. We started re-embarking onto the troopship at 2330 hours. And this was the day that Singapore surrendered!!"

(Des Jackson, ex-POW, 2/3rd MG Bn)

The Orcades was then diverted to Batavia (now Jakarta) on Java, where the bemused troops finally disembarked two days later, having heard in the meantime that Singapore had fallen to the Japanese.

"There was a vast convoy of enemy troops on its way, and the idea as I understand it, was that our role was to engage the enemy, exchange a few shots, pull out, take up a new position, dance all around the place to keep them guessing as to how many troops there were...So it was a strategic role, a delaying tactic...We were expendable."

(Claude Roediger, ex-POW, 2/3rd MG Bn)

The 2/3rd MG Battalion was sent to defend Batavia's civil airport, Kemajoian. On 22 February, 27 Japanese Zeros bombed Kemajoian, killing one machine-gunner and wounding six others, including Private Les Wrigley.

Private Wrigley escaped capture by the Japanese by being smuggled out on a river-boat that managed to reach Colombo (now Sri Lanka). He was the only member of the 2/3rd to fight in all three arenas of war - the Middle East, Java and later in New Guinea.

In late February, the Allies lost key defence craft (HMAS Perth, USS Houston and HMS Exeter and Jupiter) in the Battle of the Sunda Straits near Java. The Japanese were thus able to land many tens of thousands of infantry, who rapidly made their way through the island.

In a brief but intense battle, the 2/3rd MG Bn - with the 2/2nd Pioneers, the 2/6th Field Engineers and other troops - defended a strategic river crossing in open countryside along the main inland road at Leuwiliang, south of Batavia. The 2/3rd MG Bn was heavily outnumbered, yet briefly stopped the main Japanese advance until the order to withdraw due to lack of reinforcements from the Dutch.

"That fight went on from just before dawn until dusk. We started pulling out at about four o'clock and most of the reserve platoon came forward to the hillocks and started firing to help us pull out...We [C Company] were extremely fortunate to get out at all, let alone get out without further casualties."

(Des Jackson, 2/3rd MG Bn)

Lieutenant Tim Brettingham-Moore, a 21-year-old law student who had to take command of the 2/3rd troops after three senior officers were captured by the Japanese, was later awarded a Military Cross for his gallant leadership at the Battle of Leuwiliang.

Leuwiliang was the site of the only fight against the Japanese on Java during the War. On 9 March, less than a month after the Orcades had first berthed at Batavia, the 2/3rd and all other Allied soldiers on the island were ordered to follow the Dutch Army's decision to surrender, thus becoming prisoners of war (POWs).

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