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Submitted by the late David Langton
Originally formed in June 1939, the 2nd Battalion finally became a separate
entity when embodied on 1st September of that year. It was not, of course,
purely a battalion of new recruits, for with the reorganisation of the
Regiment on a geographical basis those companies of the1st Battalion which
existed in the northern half of the county were transferred over to the
2nd . On the outbreak of war, Battalion H.Q. moved from Cambridge and
joined Headquarters Company and 'C' Company at Wisbech; 'A' Company was
at March,'B' Company at Ely and 'D' at Chatteris.
To begin with, shortage of equipment, arms, clothing and boots, with a
lack of instructors considerably hampered the companies in their efforts
to turn themselves into full-time soldiers, but the task was tackled with
great keenness by everyone and the fullest use made of the limited instruction
available. On November 1st the Battalion concentrated for the first time
as a complete unit at Melton Constable in Norfolk and was shortly afterwards
transferred to the 53rd Infantry Brigade of the 18th Division, thus parting
company with 1st Battalion which remained in 55th Brigade. At the end
of the month a further move took place to Holt , where companies were
assigned a variety of billets, including a condemned school and a disused
chapel. Here the first Christmas of the war was spent, chiefly memorable
for the generous gifts of cigarettes, woollen comforts and luxuries sent
by the people of Cambridgeshire and also for a large scale influenza epidemic!
In January 1940 the Battalion marched to a new station at Stiffkey on
the coast which, being a hutted summer camp by design, received the full
benefit of the extremely severe weather of that winter. The camp was on
the edge of the salt marshes and everything froze solid. Heavy snowfalls
disrupted communications throughout the district and companies were employed
in clearing roads and digging out railway trains until better weather
enabled a start to be made on platoon and company training. Guards were
also supplied to various V.I.Ps in the neighbourhood.
In the meantime a cadre of officers and N.C.Os was sent from the Battalion
at Wisbech, who were drafted to the Battalion as soon as their primary
training was completed. These new drafts were of first class material
and were badly needed to fill the gaps caused by the withdrawal of 'category'
men.
With the spring, training began to get under way, but the invasion of
the Low Countries resulted in the Battalion being allotted an operational
role and other considerations had to be shelved in a hurry. The unit took
over defence of a sector of coast and responsibility for a number of airfields
as well. The size of the task necessitated the dispersal of companies
over an enormously large area and, like the rest of the small garrison
of Britain at the time, the 2nd Battalion found itself holding the equivalent
of a Divisional front, 'A' & 'B'held the coast between Salthouse and
Cley, with Battalion H.Q. and H.Q .Company behind them, while 'C' was
at Fakenham and 'D' distributed between King's Lynn, Docking, and Hunstanton.
It took all day to distribute mail round the whole unit. At this time
a Mobile Group was formed within the Battalion for patrol and airfield
assistance duties and they were really the only people who got any training
at all. The remainder spent every day and many moonlit nights furiously
digging and erecting defences to the detriment of seaside amenities.
In July the Battalion moved back into Brigade Reserve and was at last
able to get down to training again while stationed at Melton Park and
later in Gresham's School, Holt. While at the latter station it was inspected
by the Prime Minister who appeared to be satisfied with it's appearance.
While in reserve, the unit held a mobile counter-attack role and was allotted
a number of double-decker buses for this purpose. In the numerous exercises
which took place along the coast, many headaches were caused by the problem
of how to camouflage these enormous Eastern Counties vehicles in flaming
scarlet. The drivers also had a peculiar habit of disappearing before
a practice alarm.
In August, coast defences were again taken over, this time at Sheringham
and West Runton. Here the Battalion sustained it's first air attack but
suffered no causalities though some were rudely awakened from their Sunday
afternoon siesta. Finally the defensive role ceased and it was moved inland
to Houghton Hall, Raynham and nearby villages, where the second Christmas
was spent in greater comfort.
With the move of the Division to Scotland early in January 1941, the 2nd
Battalion was sent to Dumfries. It was expected that orders would be given
to prepare for service overseas, but these failed to materialise and the
unit settled down to intensive company and battalion training over new
and formidable country, followed by Higher Formation exercises in severe
weather. Considerable hospitality was shown by Provost and citizens of
Dumfries and the Battalion came into contact with the Free Norwegian Army
stationed in the same town. Unfortunately the Norwegians had more money
and this gave them an unfair advantage in the eyes of the local maidens.
In April the Division moved down into Western Command and the 2nd Battalion
took up quarters in Crewe Hall, Cheshire. The summer was principally occupied
by Divisional exercises carried out over large distances into Lancashire
and Yorkshire. In addition, time was found for field firing on Ruabon
Mountain in Wales and company camps at Plas Power, near Wrexham . In August,
companies were dispatched to carry out defensive wiring tasks on the north
Wales coast and to help with the harvest in Leicestershire. Assistance
was also given in the evenings to local Home Guard units in Crewe and
large scale co-operation exercises with Home Guard, Civil Defence and
other units took place in Crewe, Birmingham, and Carlisle.
In October, orders were at last received to prepare for foreign service
and on completion of mobilisation the Battalion was inspected by H.M.The
King in the grounds of Crewe Hall. Last minute visits were also made by
the Bishop of Ely and the Honorary Colonel of the Regiment, who brought
wit him a personal message from the C.I.G.S.
On October 31st the Battalion sailed from Gourock in the Polish Free State
vessel, M.V.Sobieski and joined the 18th Division convoy off the Irish
coast. On arrival at Halifax, Nova Scotia, the Battalion re-embarked in
the U.S.S. Mount Vernon and began the long voyage to Cape town.
On leaving Capetown, the Divisional convoy continued on it's way to India
but the Mount Vernon, carrying the 53rd Brigade, parted company from the
other ships and put in to Mombassa on Christmas Day. Mombassa was found
to be about the hottest spot yet known; there were few facilities for
amusement except bathing and even this resulted in severe sunburn for
most people. However after three days the Brigade was on the sea once
more and it was soon known that it's destination was Singapore.
On January 13th the Mount Vernon arrived at Singapore in the middle of
an air raid, for which the ship was meant to be the target, but a sudden
squall of heavy rain and mist providentially concealed the vessel and
the aircraft unloaded somewhere else instead. In heavy rain the Battalion
disembarked and proceeded to a makeshift camp on the Bukit Timah racecourse
which consisted largely of mud, expecting to spend some weeks re-organising
and training after a long voyage. However, owing to the critical situation
on the mainland, these illusions were rudely shattered and the unit was
rather unceremoniously pushed into battle on the 16th without having time
to unpack. It was attached to 15th Indian Brigade and dispatched to Batu
Pahat in north Johore to relieve a composite Leicester-Surrey Battalion
(the 'British Battalion') and prevent the enemy occupying the town and
it's airfield. Within a few hours of arrival on the mainland the first
causalities were sustained from dive-bombing attacks.
The last few days in Batu Pahat were spent in active patrolling. Contact
was soon made with parties of enemy who had landed on the west coast behind
Battalion positions and were threatening communications. Before long,
many enemy forces driving south from Muar had built up a considerable
force round Batu Pahat on the north of the river and began to attempt
to break into the town. The British Battalion was brought back from reserve
to reinforce the small garrison of the town which consisted of the 2nd
Battalion, a company of the Malay Regiment and a battery of the 155 Field
Regiment. Even with the addition of the British Battalion it was a very
small force to hold a place of the size of Batu Pahat and meet attacks
from every direction. Meanwhile, the enemy continued to land troops behind
the defence line, and before long the defenders found it necessary to
form a complete circle, which perforce was only thinly held in parts.
The Japanese then attacked the troop positions of the Field Regiment,
taking them by surprise. A company each from the British Battalion and
the 2nd Battalion had to be sent to disperse the enemy and rescue the
guns. This was done with the loss of one gun only.
Having failed in their attempts to take the town by direct frontal attack,
the enemy next sent out a flanking force to work round to the south -east
and cut the Ayer Hitam road, the principal line of communication with
the rear. They succeeded in doing this on the 22nd, ambushing part of
the 2nd Battalion's 'B' Echelon and destroying a number of vehicles; the
R.Q.M.S. who was in charge of this convoy was wounded, but managed to
escape from the trap with two of his trucks. From this day onwards, no
further food or ammunition could be delivered to Batu Pahat and life became
rather austere.
The enemy now began to feel their way towards the town by the Yong Peng
road after crossing the river some miles outside the defence perimeter.
The garrison was by now so hard pressed for men that this road could not
be effectively patrolled so far from the main defences since all available
reserves were in daily use attacking enemy infiltration parties nearer
to the town itself. Although the Japanese were thus able to effect a crossing
of the river, they soon ran against 'A' Company's positions astride the
north-eastern entrance to Batu Pahat. They were promptly driven back into
cover each time they tried to break through. Similar attempts to cross
the Muar Road Ferry in the harbour area of the town were held by 'B' &
'C' Companies with the assistance of the gunners.
The last remaining line of communication with the besieged garrison was
the coast road to Benut but unprotected vehicles could not be sent up
by this route since enemy landing parties some miles to the south were
known to have reached the road and prepared blocks in places.
On the 23rd, orders were received by wireless for a withdrawal from Batu
Pahat to a position some mile down this road, where it was intended that
the garrison should halt and fight a delaying action to cover the establishment
of a further defence line through Benut. Soon after nightfall the complete
force broke off action and withdrew from the town without difficulty'
The Brigade formed up on the coast road with its vehicles and began the
march south, headed by the last armoured cars remaining and with its guns
disposed in the column.
No sooner had the move commenced than a further signal was received cancelling
the withdrawal order and ordering the force to reoccupy the town and hold
it for a further 48 hours to enable certain British units on the east
coast to be extricated first. It is profitless to question why and how
mistakes such as this are made; from a wider point of view it may be but
a small error and unimportant, but to the garrison of Batu Pahat it was
an extremely serious matter. Had no withdrawal order been given in the
first place, the town could have been held indefinitely without any trouble
since the defenders were well placed in carefully chosen positions on
which the enemy had made little or no impression as yet. Now, however,
they had in pursuance of orders withdrawn from these positions which thus
fell to the enemy without any necessity of fighting for them. The garrison
had thus to recapture the Batu Pahat by force before it could be held
for a further period and the enemy now had all the best positions in town.
The reoccupation of the town was effected by night attack, delivered by
the 2nd Battalion with the assistance of two companies of the 5th Norfolks,
which with their Battalion H.Q. had been sent up to reinforce the Brigade
just before the coast road became impassable. The attack was successful
though the enemy held on grimly to hill 127, an important feature, and
were only dislodged from this after a series of company assaults in the
course of which 'B' Company Commander Captain Cutlack was mortally wounded
and a number of officers and other ranks killed and wounded.
Throughout 24th, the Japanese made a sustained effort to retake the Batu
Pahat and pressed heavily on the defenders from all sides; the brunt of
these attacks were borne by 2nd Battalion and causalities began to mount
up. Street fighting developed in several quarters of the town and confused
close-quarter actions prevented the use of artillery to support the hard
pressed infantry but the Battalion mortars were in constant demand. In
the course of the day 'A' Company captured an enemy infantry gun.
On the night of the 25th the Batu Pahat force, having fulfilled the demand
made upon them, finally withdrew down the coast road to the village of
Sengarang where it was found that the last way out of the trap had been
already blocked and the force was surrounded. An enemy landing force had
erected blocks across the road and prepared strong positions to prevent
a break out.
From dawn on the 26th until 1630 hours in the afternoon continual attacks
were launched against these blocks in the hope of being able to clear
the road to allow the ambulances and other vehicles of the Brigade to
pass through, but in vain. Once again, the brunt of this action was borne
by the 2nd Battalion and every man was thrown into the fight including
cooks, drivers, signallers and batmen. The opening of the road was a matter
of desperate necessity for the Brigade was still carrying with it the
accumulated causalities of the last four days' fighting in the town, for
whom there was no chance of evacuation to hospital.
The enemy positions were well chosen. The only way of attack lay over
marshy ground, thickly wooded, with every clearing covered by both light
and heavy automatic weapons. By reason of the limited visibility in this
type of country the use of artillery to support the attacks was quite
useless and even mortars were employed with difficulty. Up to their knees
in mud and water, and hampered by the thick vegetation the companies struggled
to reach their objectives, suffering heavy casualties from concealed weapons
of the enemy; destroying one post after another only to find that the
Japanese position was planned in great depth, with every position covered
by another. While the battle was in progress, the guns in the village
itself were constantly attacked by Japanese aircraft and threatened by
infiltration parties who closed in on the houses armed with machine guns
and mortars. Behind the Post Office, the Field Ambulance staff worked
under great difficulties, being continually under fire.
When finally it was found to be impossible to open the road for the passage
of vehicles (there were found no fewer than six blocks and ambushes between
Senggarang and Ringit) the Brigade Commander gave orders to destroy all
guns and transport and to attempt to break out through the jungle and
link up with the nearest British forces who were believed to be at Ringit
or Benut. A bitter decision had to be made - such of the wounded as were
too ill to be moved were left in the village under the care of two doctors
of the 168 Field Ambulance. When the 2nd Battalion Padre heard of this
he elected to stay with them and share their fate.
When the break-out order was given at Senggarang, the Battalion was widely
deployed amongst the swamps on both sides of the roads with every man
in action. As a natural result, it was impossible to collect the scattered
sub-units into a complete Battalion in the time given in the order. However,
in companies, platoons, sections and groups of every size and sort, under
their respective officers and N.C.O's, the great majority of the Battalion
managed somehow to break out of the enemy ring and make their way back
to Singapore, 70 miles distant
.
The stories of the adventures of the parties who found themselves alone
in the jungle, desperately weary and hungry, hampered with many walking
wounded in need of assistance, and constantly harried by enemy ambushes
on the few practicable tracks and river crossings, would alone be sufficient
to fill a book. One can only say that by the qualities of great endurance,
faith and unconquerable cheerfulness these men won through; mud-covered,
exhausted, their clothing in rags they came back, their weapons in their
hands, the strong helping the weak. Some marched through swamp and jungle
till they contacted British units in Benut or south of that town. Others
found sampans and paddled down the coast, while a large group of 9 officers
and 400 men were taken off by naval craft from a fishing village on the
coast. All those who escaped were sent to Singapore in the hope that there
would be sufficient survivors to reorganise as a Battalion again.
However, there were many who did not come back and these were killed or
captured in the trap or succumbed to their wounds and exhaustion in the
mud of the mangrove swamps. As the survivors returned, the Battalion was
able to reorganise and re-equip at a temporary camp on Serangoon Road
outside Singapore. As the days went by and more and more of the 'missing'turned
up, each with stories of wild adventures to tell, the spirits of all ranks
rose high and the Battalion had its tail up as never before.
The rest of the Division had now arrived on the Island and contact was
made with the 1st Battalion again, but this rest period lasted a bare
five days, after which the unit found itself once more in the line, taking
over a sector of coast to the east of the naval base. Here there was a
complete lack of any sort of defence works and much digging and wiring
was involved, principally by night and often under shellfire from the
enemy batteries across the Straits. Any movement by day drew artillery
and mortar attention. Here the Battalion returned to 53rd Brigade. Air
attacks increased in intensity daily.
Shortly afterwards, as a result of the Japanese landings on the west coast
of the Island, the 53rd Brigade was ordered to carry out a withdrawal
in stages to the south to conform with the movement of the left of the
general line. This operation was successfully concluded although at one
time the enemy cut the road behind the Brigade and nearly caused a second
Senggarang. Finally positions were taken up on the evening of 13th February
to the north of Braddell Road but owing to darkness the positions could
not be thoroughly reconnoitred the same evening and information of the
positions of other units were scanty. The same evening, the C.O. with
a small party of officers and other ranks of the Battalion was ordered
away from the Island on an official 'escape' party and in spite of his
forceful protests to Brigade was compelled to leave his Battalion. Major
Stephen took over command.
Soon after midnight, the enemy attacked the Battalion line in several
places and a force which outflanked the Brigade came in from the left
and assaulted Battalion H.Q. which though mustering only 15 all ranks,
fought back stoutly and thus contained a complete company on its own.
Confused and bitter fighting ensued in the darkness and the Battalion
found itself assaulted from front flanks and rear. The C.C. was killed
while manning an L.M.G. and the Adjutant with several of the Battalion
H.Q. met their deaths in a gallant attempt to drive back the enemy with
the bayonet. All communications were cut and part of the defence line
was temporarily overrun, but Major P.T. Howard took command of the Battalion
and at dawn the line was reformed and gaps closed; the enemy withdrew
into cover and seemed to have exhausted his strength for the time being.
The following night further attempts were made by strong enemy patrols
to find a weak spot in the defences, but these were countered and the
line held. Throughout the 15th the Battalion continued to hold its ground
though its left flank was now in danger and communication with the rear
was no longer possible. In the late afternoon the Brigade Commander came
in person to deliver the order to cease fire, lest this be disbelieved.
The Escape Party
The 2nd Battalion Escape Party consisted of Lt.Col. Thorne, Capt. Page,
Capt. T.A.D. Ennion, Lieut. Squirrel, C.S.M. Randall, and Pts Bray, Clarke,
Desborough, Powell, Pells, and Johnson. These were the only men of the
Regiment detailed for this venture, since the 1st Battalion did not receive
the order until too late for it to be complied with.
On leaving the Battalion this party made its way to Brigade and there
joined similar parties from 5th and 6th Norfolks, afterwards proceeding
to the docks. here it was found that shipping was not available for the
whole Divisional party and the greater part were returned to the Y.M.C.A.
building to wait for the next night. Here Lt. Col Thorne was informed
of the true nature of the 'special'mission for which he and his men had
been selected and they at once asked permission to return to their unit,
only to be informed that they were under orders to escape and must do
their best to obey the order.
During the evening of the 14th the Y.M.C.A. building came under heavy
shellfire and received several direct hits. When the 53rd Brigade party
reported to the docks after dark they again found no ships and received
a message to the effect that they were to attempt to find boats and make
their escape unaided. The night was spent searching the docks for seaworthy
craft, and with the coming of daylight this task was hampered by continual
air and artillery strafing. Finally on the afternoon of 15th , the party
embarked 41 strong in a ship's lifeboat and began to row in the rough
direction of Sumatra.
After crossing over the Straits of Malacca and calling in at several islands
for information and supplies, at one of which the lifeboat was bartered
for a decrepit motor launch, the party reached Sumatra. Here they were
taken in buses over to the west coast and conveyed by ship to Java. After
a few days only on Java they were put aboard a small flat-bottomed river
steamer and taken to Ceylon being attacked by torpedoes on the way, but
escaping by reason of the vessel's light draught.
In the story of this party there is again a tragedy. While waiting in
the Y.M.C.A. on the 14th, before making their escape from Singapore, Lt.
Col Thorne was taken from them and ordered to join a number of senior
officers who were to be evacuated first. Regretfully, Thorne said goodbye
to the other Cambridgeshires and was sent off almost at once. He was never
seen again. When the rest of the Battalion 'Escape Party' finally reached
Ceylon, they made every endeavour to rejoin their C.O. but could find
no trace of him. After extensive inquiries amongst other Officers and
men who reached safety, they learned that he had arrived in Sumatra and
had been embarked in a vessel which was believed to have been lost in
the Indian Ocean with no survivors.
The news of the loss of Lt. Col G.C.Thorne did not reach those of his
Battalion who were in captivity until long after, when one of the few
letters to arrive from home gave information that he was reported missing.
Even then, there was still hope that he might somehow have survived and
been made prisoner somewhere in the East, but as the war drew to its close
that hope died away. The best tribute that can be paid to the memory of
this well loved Commander is this, that whenever, in slave camps of the
East, two members of his Battalion met together they asked each other
if there was news of the C.O.. For those of us who served under him, he
is remembered as he was that morning at Senggarang, tired, hungry, and
as grimy as the rest of us, standing on the open road in full view of
the enemy block, smiling and cracking jokes to cheer us on into battle,
his helmet as usual forgotten.
Epilogue
In the Second World War the Cambridgeshire Regiment went into battle for
only a very short space of time and took a small share in an ill-fated
and disastrous campaign in a remote corner of the Empire. It was not numbered
among the conquering hosts that finally overcame the forces of darkness
and it made no triumphal progress through liberated countries into the
land of the oppressors. Instead it was sent to fight for a lost cause
and its fate was certain before it ever landed on that far shore. There
were no laurels to win, only death and chains.
Yet in that brief action which preceded the Tragedy of Singapore both
battalions carried out the tasks assigned to them and were not found wanting.
They stood fast where they were ordered to stand; they were surrounded
and were not dismayed and they attacked the enemy with confidence at every
possible opportunity. They gave rather more than they received.
During the 1914 - 1918 war it had become a tradition in the Regiment to
expect to be assigned the hardest and most thankless tasks and go into
them gladly without fuss and without self-advertisement, in the spirit
of Leonidas; the year 1942 gave to the sons the opportunity of observing
the tradition of their fathers.
When the shadows closed in on the city of Singapore, the survivors of
the two battalions, united for the first time since that last camp of
1939, were cut off from the world for three and a half bitter years. The
history of those years was written in the jungles of Siam, on the infamous
Burma Railway, on the airfields of New Guinea, in the mines of Japan and
in the packed holds of prison ships. It is a tale of disease, degradation,
cruelty and death and much of it is best forgotten * NB1.
However, it also brought forth some things that should never be forgotten:
cheerfulness, comradeship, unselfishness and bravery and such are the
qualities that a regiment may be proud to find in its members, whether
in victory or in ruin. Though it was not for us to win laurels on the
battlefields of the world, yet perhaps after all we won a victory of our
own, for each man overcame selfishness and brought out the good that lay
in him for the benefit of his comrades in misfortune. Wherever fate led
them, Cambridgeshire men stuck together and the strong did their utmost
for the sick and dying. They also learned a loyalty which was not limited
to their own Regiment alone; many took it upon themselves to suffer that
others might have better treatment and of these the name of Lt. Col. E.L.V.
Mapey, O.B.E., T.D. will be remembered.
Until the end of 1943 a large number of survivors of the Regiment managed
to keep together in two of the main working parties; one of these Cambridgeshire
parties while working in Singapore contrived to build a wireless set and
obtain regular news from the outside world. When moved to Siam they smuggled
with them a large store of radio components out of which a certain officer
of the Royal Corps of Signals, encountered in Chungkai, was able to construct
five secret sets for distribution to various camps along the river. One
of these sets was retained and worked by this Cambridgeshire party , No.
5 working party, from Chungkai to Takanun and assisted greatly in maintaining
morale at a high level. On one occasion at Wan Tai Kien an officious guard
discovered the existence of this instrument, but was fortunately in need
of a wrist watch, so those responsible for working it escaped the usual
fate of discovered radio operators and were able to preserve the set into
the bargain.
When the Japanese commenced the sending of parties of prisoners overseas
to Japan and Formosa the splitting up of the men of the Regiment began
and from 1943 onwards they were scattered all over the Pacific. Some of
the prison ships were torpedoed on their way and most of their human freight
met death at the hands of our own people; in one such sinking one officer
and 90 men of the 2nd Battalion alone were lost. Among those left in Siam
there were soon casualties from Allied bombing attacks on the railway.
Throughout the captivity, accurate records of all deaths and burials were
constantly kept, although such things were of course forbidden. Whenever
a party containing Cambridgeshire men left for some remote or unknown
destination, the senior officer, N.C.O. or private made himself responsible
for recording the fate of his party. If he died, the next senior took
over the job and so it went on. Lists of casualties were buried in tins,
hidden inside bibles and sewn in shirts and miraculously all these records
survived, though many of the authors did not. In this way the fate of
almost every man of the Regiment was known as soon as these documents
came back to England at the end of the war.
There are many who deserve to be remembered for their work in those days
of misery, but special mention should be made of the medical staffs of
the two battalions, in particular Sgt. Easingwood for his work in the
cholera epidemic at Takanun at a time when he was himself a sick man.
Nor shall we forget Noel Duckworth, the Padre of the 2nd Battalion, of
whom it has been well said that he was a true servant of his Master.
Then after the long years came the liberation and the survivors began
the journey home from the furthest corners of the Far East. Some by plane
to Rangoon and India, some by ship to America and others to Australia
and thence to Southhampton and Liverpool. It was perhaps fitting that
one of those ships which carried them home again should be our old friend
the M.V.'Sobieski' on which the 2nd Battalion had set sail for Halifax
so long ago in 1941.
It was a very wonderful homecoming and it was made even happier by the
deputation from the Territorial Army Association of Cambridgeshire, which,
dodging back and forth with great rapidity, met every ship at both ports
to welcome home each member of the Regiment and arrange transport to his
own doorstep.
Regimental offices were at once established at Cambridge, Ely and Wisbech
and survivors of the headquarter staffs of the two battalions volunteered
to spend their leave compiling records and answering inquiries. With the
help of the T.A. Association this work was soon well under way. Each returning
group of ex-prisoners, as they reached home, sent in their casualty lists
to one of the regimental offices and within a few weeks complete returns
for both battalions were supplied to the Infantry Record Office. Part
Two Orders were published up-to-date and plans of the various cemeteries
in Malaya and Siam submitted to the War Office. Many hundreds of enquiries
were dealt with.
Throughout the days of captivity a plan had been maturing in the mind
of several members of the Regiment and had been discussed at length in
Chungkai in 1944. On the 17 February, 1946 this plan was put into execution;
a 'Cambridgeshire Weekend' was held, to which everyone who had served
in either battalion during the recent war was invited; they came in their
hundreds. On the Saturday, a separate reunion took place for each battalion,
the 1st in Cambridge Drill Hall and the 2nd in the Wisbech Corn Exchange.
In each town, as the men arrived, they were registered at a battalion
office, allotted accommodation in the town if they needed it and presented
with a souvenir book containing the history of the Regiment in the 1939
- 45 war. Records were prominently displayed so that everyone might know
what had happened to his friends and give such information about the missing
as he might have. There was a vast supply of food and an equally vast
supply of beer. The Commander of the East Anglian District and the Mayors
of the two towns welcomed their battalion home on behalf of the county
and this was followed by a first class ENSA concert at each reunion and
then, of course, everyone renewed old friendships and talked far into
the night.
On the following day, the two battalions were brought by special trains
to Ely, together with members of the Old Comrades Association and the
relatives of many of the fallen and marched up to the Cathedral for a
Service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance to which many guests and friends
of the Regiment had been invited. The address was given by Padre Duckworth
and the Bishop of Ely delivered a charge to the Regiment. Over three thousand
people were gathered in the great Cathedral, which made a magnificent
setting for a very memorable and moving service.
After the service the two battalions marched through the streets of the
city and the salute was taken by the Honorary Colonel of the Regiment.
It was a day of brilliant spring sunshine and the rout was crowded with
spectators from the towns and country.
Mobile canteens supplied the entire parade with food and drink and special
trains and buses began the task of returning the members to their homes,
some laying as far afield as Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The organisation and expense entailed by this weekend reunion was considerable
and the project could never have been attempted without the generous assistance
given by the Lord Lieutenant, the Mayors and citizens of Cambridge and
Wisbech, the Old Comrades Association, the W.V.S., the T.A. Association
and many others throughout the county.
A second opportunity for a reunion occurred on 29th of September, later
in the year, when the Honorary Freedom of the Borough of Cambridge was
ceremonially conferred upon the Regiment in recognition of its services
over many years in the cause of freedom. Every member of the Regiment
since 1908 received an invitation to attend the parade and some 1,500
were able to take part. Three uniformed parties as escort to the Colours,
which were followed by the Singapore Drums, in the place of honour. The
remainder of the parade, to the number of 1000, were in mufti, wearing
their decorations. Led by the drums of the Cadet Battalions affiliated
to the Regiment, the parade marched through Cambridge to the Market Place,
where the silver casket containing the Scroll of the Freedom was presented
by the Mayor to the Honorary Colonel. The flag of the 1st Battalion, concealed
from the Japanese during captivity, flew proudly from the tower of Great
St. Mary's church during the ceremony. When the Honour had been conferred,
the Regiment, led by its Colonel with ten of its past commanding officers
at the head, marched past the Mayor and through the principal streets
of the town. The entire Regiment was then entertained to tea by the Mayor,
Aldermen and Burgesses of the borough of Cambridge and the proceedings
ended with a party arranged by the Old Comrades Association in the Drill
Hall.
Honours and Awards for Services in the Far East
1. Malaya and Singapore
D.S.O 1
Bar to D.S.O. 1
O.B.E. 1
M.C. 2
D.C.M. 1
M.M 1
Mentioned in Despatches 11
2. As Prisoners of War, 1942 - 1945
M.B.E. 1
British Empire Medal 1
Mentioned in Despatches 4
Many Officers and Other Ranks of the Regiment served on othe fronts including
Norway, France and Belgium 1940, Middle East, Crete, East Africa, Sicily,
Italy, Burma and North-West Europe 1944 - 1945. Unfortunately, the record
of awards made to members of the Regiment for these campaigns is not yet
complete, but the list includes the following:-
M.B.E. 2
D.C.M 1
U.S.Bronze Star 1
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Padre Noel Duckworth - 2nd Battalion Cambridgeshire Regt,
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