Description
Object description
Transcription (16pp ts) of an account written by him shortly after his release from Japanese captivity in 1945, recalling his experiences as a Royal Navy Lieutenant in the battleship HMS PRINCE OF WALES at the time she was sunk by Japanese aircraft off the coast of Malaya on 10th December 1941, describing her last few minutes before he swam off and was picked up by the escorting destroyer HMS ELECTRA which took survivors to Singapore, where he was put in command of a party of sailors for dockyard defence duties, amongst other `odd jobs' before being appointed assistant beachmaster at the northern end of the Johore Causeway at the time of the final evacuation of mainland Malaya, witnessing the Causeway's destruction in a last attempt to stem the Japanese advance on Singapore, spending the final days before the colony's fall in the gunboat HMS GRASSHOPPER, one of the last ships to leave the island before its surrender, with the intention of reaching Java with a large number of evacuees on board, coming under fierce aerial attack in the Lingga archipelago during which the vessel was badly damaged and had to be beached on one of the islands, initially tense encounters with the indigenous inhabitants with whose assistance he eventually reached Singkep to make contact with the Dutch Resident, proceeding from there to Sumatra and on to Java where he went aboard the destroyer HMS STRONGHOLD for passage to Australia, surviving her sinking after engaging with Japanese Navy ships en route, going into Japanese captivity for the remainder of the war; with photocopies (3pp ts) of Forbes' official reports to the Admiralty on the loss of GRASSHOPPER and STRONGHOLD (1945), with photocopies of correspondence dated 1992 between Forbes and the Royal Naval Staff College pertaining to the wider circumstances of the loss of PRINCE OF WALES and REPULSE in December 1941; folder of papers pertaining to a Joint Services Staff College wargame `Exercise Volga' (1952) with analyses of Soviet `Cold War' policies, development of Communism etc, including also a carbon copy of a 1948 lecture by Forbes on the Malayan campaign, 1941 - 1942.
Content description
Transcription (16pp ts) of an account written by him shortly after his release from Japanese captivity in 1945, recalling his experiences as a Royal Navy Lieutenant in the battleship HMS PRINCE OF WALES at the time she was sunk by Japanese aircraft off the coast of Malaya on 10th December 1941, describing her last few minutes before he swam off and was picked up by the escorting destroyer HMS ELECTRA which took survivors to Singapore, where he was put in command of a party of sailors for dockyard defence duties, amongst other `odd jobs' before being appointed assistant beachmaster at the northern end of the Johore Causeway at the time of the final evacuation of mainland Malaya, witnessing the Causeway's destruction in a last attempt to stem the Japanese advance on Singapore, spending the final days before the colony's fall in the gunboat HMS GRASSHOPPER, one of the last ships to leave the island before its surrender, with the intention of reaching Java with a large number of evacuees on board, coming under fierce aerial attack in the Lingga archipelago during which the vessel was badly damaged and had to be beached on one of the islands, initially tense encounters with the indigenous inhabitants with whose assistance he eventually reached Singkep to make contact with the Dutch Resident, proceeding from there to Sumatra and on to Java where he went aboard the destroyer HMS STRONGHOLD for passage to Australia, surviving her sinking after engaging with Japanese Navy ships en route, going into Japanese captivity for the remainder of the war; with photocopies (3pp ts) of Forbes' official reports to the Admiralty on the loss of GRASSHOPPER and STRONGHOLD (1945), with photocopies of correspondence dated 1992 between Forbes and the Royal Naval Staff College pertaining to the wider circumstances of the loss of PRINCE OF WALES and REPULSE in December 1941; folder of papers pertaining to a Joint Services Staff College wargame `Exercise Volga' (1952) with analyses of Soviet `Cold War' policies, development of Communism etc, including also a carbon copy of a 1948 lecture by Forbes on the Malayan campaign, 1941 - 1942.
History note
Cataloguer SWW