The Ient Family: Family History

Singapore

I boarded the boat about August 1941, which as you recall, was just prior to 7 December 1941, when war broke out in the Far East. So in effect we got to Singapore during peace time, which was great! Whisky was 10 bob (10 shillings, now 50p) a bottle, fags were cheap, everything was dirt cheap – you were able to save money. It was too hot to work; you finished work at 12 o’clock and the rest of the day was your own. What we found there were no aircraft, so nothing for us to do. There were hundreds of us by that point. So they had spent all these thousands of pounds on us in training to be riggers and fitters and wireless mechanics and all the rest of them. So what they do? They gave us rifles and bayonets, and marched us up and down! We were doing drills. Then war was declared in the Far East. To release the army, we were put on guard duty. RAF tradesmen doing this guard duty business! Well, the Japs came down (through Malaya) to Singapore. I’ll tell you about the fall of Singapore another time.

It was an absolute shambles. For instance, you could have any choice of a car you want; if you wanted a Rolls Royce you could go down to the dock and pick yourself a Rolls Royce, or a Daimler, or whatever you wanted. The civvies had gone and left all that gear behind them. We were told, no more people to leave Singapore. There was nothing we could do, all the ships had gone. Anyway, this squadron leader who was in charge of us, he came along and he said, 'I’ve just received word,' he said, 'every man for himself.' Well, you won’t recall, but Singapore fell over Saturday/Sunday, over the weekend.

The Japs had got into Singapore, infiltrated, got the MacRitchie reservoir and turned the water off. So that was that! This was Thursday morning – Japs all over the place!


NEXT

---