Departures, Sea Routes and Landfalls

Abstract

There was no early plan to evacuate military or civilian personnel from Singapore. The ‘official’ evacuation took place very much towards the end of the Malayan Campaign and its scope was limited; yet, in its own way, it was as dramatic, and as tragic, as anything which occurred during the whole campaign. The large ships which left with women and children on board at the end of January have already been mentioned. Between 11 and 14 February a mass of small shipping was organised in the port area of Singapore to take away about 3000 people, about equally divided between the services and civilians. Rear-Admiral Spooner, who had been in charge of the Singapore naval base, took a leading role in the work of collecting together the merchant ships and such naval escort vessels as could be provided. It was a desperate mission and fraught with grave dangers. Sailing southwards from Singapore, the ships would head first in the direction of the Rhio Archipelago, part of the Dutch East Indies. To the south again, lay the large island of Bangka, and, beyond it, Sumatra. Java, the heartland of the Dutch empire in the East, lay more to the south-east, with its capital, then Batavia, on the north side of the island and approachable from Singapore. A number of named ‘straits’ indicated shipping passages between the island groupings in the South China Sea and the Java Sea. Of these, the Bangka Strait, to the north of Bangka Island, and the Sunda Strait, between Sumatra and Java, were to feature prominently in the evacuation routes from Singapore. Immediately south of the Rhio-Lingga Archipelago, and to the north of the Bangka Strait was another sea passage, the Berhala Strait, which gave more direct access to river estuaries in eastern Sumatra, particularly the Djambi (Hari) River and the Indragiri River. The Palembang (Moesi) River, too, offered access, but it was much closer to Bangka, which was to prove a great danger, as Palembang itself was captured early by Japanese parachute troops.