|
|
Clarrie Thornton
The 4th Anti Tank Regiment had been sent to the Far East to help stem the invasion by the Imperial Japanese Army on Singapore and to slow down and hopefully prevent their invasion of Australia. The Japs invaded the North East Coast of Malaya and were advancing steadily but relentlessly down the peninsula on their way through the 'impenetrable' jungle in their surprise strategy to capture the 'impregnable' isle of Singapore through the back door.
As members of 13th Battery it was our job to stop any enemy tanks from breaking through our lines. My gun crew - Claude Brown, Ray Cooper, Jim Flowers, Lance Gilbert and Keith Fletcher, was assigned to support Colonel Robertson's 2/29th Infantry Battalion to hold off the Jap assault. On our way north, the 2/29th Battalion decided to rendezvous on the road between Bakri and Muar for the night.
Under the direction of our Troop Commander Bill McCure, we set up our gun emplacement well concealed behind a mound, on the corner of a bend facing straight down the road with an uninterrupted view of any Jap tanks that might come toward us. The intermittent rattle of gunfire warned us that the Japs were not far away and we settled down to a rather restless night.
As the day dawned, we heard the rumbling and clanking of tanks moving slowly down the road. Our hearts thumping, we quickly but quietly manned our gun, aligned our sights, loaded and were ready for action. As the tanks moved slowly toward us, I let them clank noisily past our gun position. When the first three had turned the bend and were side on to our gun, we gave them a burst of fire, hitting all three with armour piercing shells and stopping them in their tracks.
The armour piercing shells however went straight through the tanks but did not destroy them so I promptly sent a runner to Bill who quickly arrived with a container of high explosive ammunition which we hastily pumped into the Jap tanks, demolishing them. The tanks were closely followed by another two, which we briskly dispatched with the high explosive ammo. It was all very thrilling and the adrenalin was coursing fast in our veins.
By the time we stopped firing, the harassing Jap forces we had been sent to halt, turned out to be 12 000 select troops from the crack Imperial Army Japanese Guards, who were turning everything they had at us. Shells and mortar bombs exploded all around and we were under heavy fire and sniping from their infantry.
Suddenly we saw three more tanks heading toward us. This time one attacked us on our flank from the jungle. The situation was tense and frightening, for we knew that the Japs were now fully aware of our position. After an exciting duel with them, we managed to knock out the three of them too. When all eight tanks had been destroyed and were burning along the roadside in front of us, we just had time for a short breather as the Jap infantry began to close on us.
Throughout the action, my gun crew had performed magnificently, madly excited and cracking jokes as they loaded and fired the gun.
Lance Gilbert who had the job of loading the gun, gave each shell a kiss as he loaded it into the breech and called out. "Tally Ho." Claude Brown our gun layer, responded as he depressed the firing pedal. "There the bastard goes."
And so it went on for each of the seventy shells we fired.
This ritual had its origins in the events relating to one of our more gentlemanly officers taking his morning ablutions at our camp in Tampin. Each morning he walked across the parade ground to make his way to the officer's wash rooms, immaculately clad in a white towel wrapped around his waist, wearing his officer's hat and swinging his swagger stick, 'ever-so-properly'.
Whenever they saw him, Lance delighted in throwing a kiss and calling out, "Tally Ho," to which Claude responded, "There the bastard goes."
This was a bit too much for the officer to take lying down, so he called the troops together and ordered: "The use of loud and abusive language is becoming offensive. It will have to stop."
Of course it didn't.
Next time the officer marched across the parade ground for his morning ablutions he copped it again. "Tally Ho." "There the bastard goes."
The gentlemanly, but by now very irate officer, called the troops together for yet another pep talk. "This abusive behaviour must stop at once and so must the use of that awful Australian 'In and Out' word."
His oratory had the affect of more deeply entrenching the habit into Lance and Claude's daily ritual, which intuitively and gleefully they extended to their battle against the Jap tanks.
Captain Bowring of the 2/29th Battalion who witnessed the entire action, came over to talk to us. "Congratulations sergeant, you and your crew have done a remarkable job. It would not be possible to see better gunnery. The individual duels were terrific to watch and you won them all."
"By the way," he added, "Your boys are a pretty wild bunch, aren't they?"
To which his runner remarked brightly, "Thank Christ they're on our side Sir."
|
