Click here to go to Home page
Click here to go back the the main South East Asia page






The Japanese-headquarters had enough data at its disposal indicating that the Allies were planning a landing on Sumatra. To prepare for this landing allied patrols were sent from Ceylon. To carry out the reconnaissance, a special unit of Force 136 (Corps Insulinde) based on Ceylon, was set up to train for this task. Sumatra is a large island, 13 times the size of the Netherlands. A permanent defence of the long coast was impossible. Consequently an allied patrol could land undetected The patrols were put ashore by submarine and picked up again on a pre-arranged schedule. The chances, that a Japanese reconnaissance party could meet an allied patrol were, in this extensive territory, remote indeed. Yet it did happen once in Atjeh. In spite of the ensuing fire-contact there were no casualties on the allied side.

This incident was yet another confirmation for the Japanese enemy that the Allies were preparing an invasion. The landing or Sumatra was cancelled, because of the invasion in Italy where more landing craft were needed, than originally estimated, To defend Sumatra it was essential to dispose of both a large and mobile army. The men needed for it, must be supplied from Malaya. In the meantime the Japanese fleet suffered heavy losses. For this reason transport by sea was limited to the barest minimum and the shortest and safest sea routes chosen to reduce the risk of torpedo-attack. The shortest sea route between Malaya and Sumatra is from Singapore to the mouth of the Siak-river, also being the safest one, because there are a great number of islands where ships can find cover in case of need.

It is worthy of mention, that on this route not one POW transport was torpedoed.

The Siak-river is a deep one, freight-steamers of 800 B.R.P. can sail up to Pekanbaru. A voyage from Singapore v to Pekanbaru takes about 48 hours.

For a further transport from Pekanbaru to the west coast of Sumatra, there are two roads. One past the small town of Bangkinan and the other one past Taluk. The road which passes Taluk has no bridges across the rivers and 2) the link is kept by ferries. For a rapidly moving army, the ferries meant time lost Another problem for the Japanese army in Sumatra was a great shortage of trucks. The only solution to quickly move troops was to construct this railway 3) and at the same time to utilise it to transport coal, which was won from the Sapar and Karu mines.

This account has been taken from the book "The Sumatra Railway" by H. Neumann and E. Van Witsen




Top of page