Description
Object description
British officer served with 5/14th Bn Punjab Regt, Malaya Command in Malaya, 8/1939-1/1942
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as officer with 5/12th Bn Punjab Regt in India, 1938-1939: background to commissioning, 1938; attractions of service in Indian Army; initial service with Wiltshire Regt in India; characteristics of Pathans, Sikhs, Dogras and Punjabi Musselmen; loyalty and allegiance of sepoys; problems with supply of halal meat; problems with Pathans on leave; question of intrigue amongst Sikhs; provisions of Chalfield Report, 1938; raising battalion to British service standards; internal organisation of battalion; anticipations of war with Japanese.
REEL 2 Continues: eagerness of sepoys to fight. Recollections of period as officer with 5/14th Bn Punjab Regt, Malaya Command in Malaya, 1939-1942: journey from India to Malaya, 7/1939-8/1939; garrison duties, 1939-1940; training conditions; equipment unit provided with; degree of anticipation of Japanese tactics; respective Free and Vichy French presences in India and French Indochina; plans for Operation Matador for defence of Northern Malaya and its subsequent cancellation; need for defence of airfields; aircraft available and effect of dispersing troops to defend airfields; question of naval versus air considerations in defence of Malaya. Recollections of operations as officer with 5/14th Bn Punjab Regt, Malaya Command in Malaya, 1941-1942: role of battalion in defence of Kota Bharu, 12/1941.
REEL 3 Continues: participation in Battle of The Ledge; reasons for Thai co-operation with Japanese in obstructing his unit's progress to The Ledge; need to withdraw south; opinion of high calibre of opposing Japanese forces; question of 'milking' of officers and senior NCOs from British colonial troops; Japanese use of tanks; Japanese losses; Imperial Japanese Air Force attacks; role of Malays and Chinese in campaign; failure to use civilian planters; movements of battalion; local sources of Japanese intelligence; situation in Singapore; opinion of surrender of Singapore, 15/2/1942.
REEL 4 Continues: work of Independent Company on Malay Peninsula; capture at River Slim, 1/1942; handling by Japanese captors; Imperial Japanese Army apprehensiveness about facing Australian units; treatment by Japanese; formation of Indian National Army and his attitude towards it; question of Japanese marksmanship and story of botched Japanese attempt to execute brother officer and his troops.
