Judy: The Unforgettable Story of the Dog Who Went to War and Became a True Hero (27 page)
Read Judy: The Unforgettable Story of the Dog Who Went to War and Became a True Hero Online
Authors: Damien Lewis
Tags: #BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Military
Wordlessly Frank nodded his acquiescence, and on February 17, 1950, at 5 p.m. Tanzanian time Judy was put to sleep.
Judy's body was wrapped in the Royal Air Force jacket that she'd been given when she was made an official mascot of the RAF and laid in a simple wooden coffin. She was buried in a grave not far from the home she had shared with Frank in Nachingwea. Using pieces of white stone collected in the bush, Frank and his workers fashioned a polished sarcophagus over the grave, topped off with a plaque that reads:
In memory of Judy DM Canine VC
Breed English Pointer
Born Shanghai February 1936, died February 1950.
Wounded February 14, 1942.
Bombed and sunk HMS Grasshopper
Lingga Archipelago February 14, 1942.
Torpedoed SS Van Waerwijck
Malacca Straits June 26, 1943.
Japanese Prisoner of War March 1942âAugust 1945.
China Ceylon Java England Egypt Burma
Singapore Malaya Sumatra E Africa.
They Also Served.
Ambushed Under the Southern CrossâThe Making of an American Merchant Marine Officer and His Ensuing Saga of Courage and Survival
, Capt. George W. Duffy. An American merchant navy captain's memoir of his ship being sunk by a German raider and the Japanese POW camps spread over Java, Singapore, and Sumatra that he survived.
The Animal Victoria CrossâThe Dickin Medal
, Peter Hawthorne. Compilation of short stories covering the Dickin Medal winners throughout its history.
The Animals' VCâFor Gallantry or Devotion
, David Long. Compilation of short stories covering the Dickin Medal winners throughout its history.
Beyond the Bamboo ScreenâScottish Prisoners of War under the Japanese
, Tom McGowran, OBE. A compilation of articles and stories from the Scottish Far East Prisoner of War Association.
The Conjurer on the Kwai: Captivity, Slavery and Survival as a Far East POW
, Peter Fyans. Superb firsthand account of a British POW who used his skills as a magician and conjurer to stay alive in the Japanese labor camps and save countless other Allied lives.
The Defining Years of the Dutch East Indies, 1942â1949
, edited by Jan A. Krancher. Contains survivors' accounts of the Japanese invasion of what was then the Dutch East Indies and the
incarceration of the European, American, and local POWs and their forced labor on the death railway.
Escape to Captivity
, Peter Hartley. The story of a young sergeant in the British Army who refuses to surrender at Singapore and ends up being captured by the Japanese and imprisoned on Sumatra.
The Judy Story
, E. Varley. A short but engaging book written with the assistance of some of the Yangtze gunboat crews, telling of Judy's life and adventures.
The Jungle JournalâPrisoner of the Japanese in Java 1942â45
, Frank and Ronald Williams. The story of a young Royal Artillery officer who was held as a Japanese prisoner of war in the Dutch East Indies, as told through his diaries.
Marines Don't Hold Their Horses
, Ian Skidmore. The story of Colonel Alan Warren, CBE, DSC, who, having helped many escape the Japanese via Sumatra, ended up as a prisoner of war himself.
Prisoners in JavaâAccounts by Allied Prisoners of War in the Far East (1942â1945) Captured in Java
. As the title suggests, the book contains collected articles written by former POWs, compiled by the Java Far East Prisoners of War Club.
Prisoner in Nippon
, Ray S. Stubbs. Tells the story of the author's retreat from Singapore and capture by the Japanese and the years he spent as a prisoner of war.
Prisoners of WarâAustralians Under Nippon
, Hank Nelson. Stories of the Australian servicemen and women held in Japanese prisoner of war camps.
Spice Island Slaves
, Leslie J. Audus. Presents a history of the Japanese prisoner of war camps in Eastern Indonesia during the war years.
The Sumatra Railroad: Final Destination Pakan Baroe, 1943â45
, Henk Hovinga. One of the very few books telling the story of the other death railwayâthe one pushed through the Sumatra jungles by POWs. Encyclopedic. Definitive.
Survivors of the SwordâPrisoners of the Japanese 1942â45
, Brian MacArthur. Compelling stories from survivors from across the Japanese prisoner of war and slave-labor camps. An excellent read.
Unsung Heroes of the Royal Air Force
, Les and Pam Stubbs. A useful and informative record of the RAF airmen held as Japanese prisoners of war.
Yangtze River Gunboats 1900â49
, Angust Konstam. Short but excellent book about the Yangtze gunboats, including fine photos and illustrations.
Appendix: Original Documentation
I have decided to include in this book a sample of official documents obtained from the National Archives, the Admiralty, the Imperial War Museum, and other sources capturing the flavor and essence of some of the key moments in the extraordinary story of Judy and her fellows. What is especially striking is the underplayed, deadpan way in which those present at such eventsâwhich were extreme, even for a conflict as all-consuming as the Second World Warârelate them. They give a real sense of the nature of Judy's comrades during the war, and from reading these and more it seems clear why she was so devoted to her fellow sailors, airmen, and soldiers, especially when they became fellow prisoners of war. Each document is accompanied by a note outlining the genesis and purpose of the report.
Document One
Author's noteâthis is a report on the sinking of the
Grasshopper
, the vessel on which Judy was shipwrecked as they attempted to evacuate Singapore.
Narrative 7.
NoteâThere are probably officers, survivors, P.O.W. in Sumatra & Siam.
Prisoner of War Camp,
Mile School,
PALEMBANG.
P.N. Sherd, 9/9/45
4th April, 1942.
STATEMENT BY Mr. H. BARDEN, Eastern Bank, SINGAPOREâShip “GRASSHOPPER” (800 tons approx.)
We left Singapore 1730 hours on 13th February, 1942, but with Dragonfly: returned about midnight when we sailed again about 1000 hours on 14th February, one aircraft dropped one bomb that missed us. About 1230 hours two waves each about 25 aircraft bombed us. We were hit and the engine room began to flood. The ship was then beached near a small island in the Rhio Archipelago. Stores were offloaded and magazines destroyed. All personnel including 60â80 civilians were taken ashore. The skipper (Hoffman) arranged for us to go to Daboe where we arrived on the 18th or 19th February. Owing to the effect of blast on my back from bombing I went into hospital where Captain Kirkwood, I.M.S., had just arrived. On 23rd of February the Dutch from Djambi took about 40 of us to the hospital there. Another launch containing fit survivors from Daboe followed us, but went through to Padang. They were mostly serving personnel.
On 1st March we tried to go to Padang but the ferry launch had been destroyed by the Dutch as we retuned.
The Japanese arrived in Djambi on 6th March. We stayed in Hospital until 27th March, and after 2 days in the military barracks Djambi we were taken to Palrumbang where I arrived 31st March as prisoner.
In the party which went to Padang were Commander Alexander R.N., and Lieutenant Commander Reid.
Mr. H.M. James (Planter) died in Hospital at Djambi.
We left in Djambi Hospital a Mrs. Parr with a badly injured arm, Dalrymple (R.A.F.) wounded by shrapnel in the leg, Marine Faint (wounded), Miss Hartley, an elderly lady with slight shrapnel wounds in the leg, two Chinese nurses from the General Hospital, Singapore, and two Eurasian nurses. I regret I do not know what happened to the many people who were left in Daboe.
Document Two
Author's noteâthis is a report on the sinking of the
Dragonfly
, sister ship to the
Grasshopper
, which was shipwrecked as they attempted to evacuate Singapore.
Statement by Capt. R.L. Lyle (now Major) on loss of H.M.S. “Dragonfly” including statement on possibility of survivors landing in other places and a list of names of those known to have embarked, seen killed etc.
I have divided this report into three:
(1) Circumstances under which H.M.S. Gunboat “Dragonfly” was lost
(2) General itinerary of survivors from the place of loss to Colombo
(3) List of names of those seen killed etc.
e. Loss of M.M.S. Gunboat “Dragonfly”
At about 0200 hrs on the Feb 14, 1942, H.M.S. “Dragonfly” in company with H.M.S. Gunboat “Grasshopper” removed detailed evacuation parties of the various Brigades and Divisions which then remained on Singapore Island. At this period both ships were very badly shelled but appeared to sustain little damage and no casualties.
After steaming at probably maximum speed the remainder of the night, at 0930 the same morning (i.e. Feb) 14 a Japanese Flying Boat was sighted which was very obviously on reconnaissance. At this time H.M.S. “Dragonfly” was leading and H.M.S. Grasshopper was following about a mile astern.
The Flying Boat flew over the “Dragonfly” and dropped two bombs of small caliber. Both however were near misses and no damage was done. The ships guns went into action. The Flying Boat paid no attention to H.M.S. “Grasshopper.” As this plane was so obviously a reconnaissance aircraft, the Commander of our Gunboat decided to get under the lee of one of the small islands in the vicinity, in an endeavor to evade any aircraft which might be sent after us. To put this into effect our course was changed slightly. The Commander of H.M.S. “Dragonfly” was to the best of my knowledge by name of Commander Sprott. The Commander of the “Grasshopper” being Commander Hoffman. However, before reaching cover of the islands, large numbers of Japanese Bombers were seen to be approaching from a northerly direction and I was informed by the first Officer Lieutenant P.P. Shellard R.N.V.R. that he had counted some 123. On sighting of aircraft the alarm was sounded and all non-naval personnel were ordered below. I myself was put into the corridor between the officers' quarters forrard along with a number of other Army officers, and spare gun crews of the ship's forward guns.
By some means or other the Commander of the ship had been able to supply all personnel with life belts. There had not been a great deal of time to check up on the exact numbers on board the ship or get their names and Regiments, particularly as in getting to the ship on Singapore Island our parties had been very badly shelled and cut up, and many of the other ranks had lost their Officers in
charge. It was however estimated that the Naval crew amounted to 73 and that the total number of persons on board was about 225 i.e. 152 Army personnel of various Regiments that were made chiefly of men from 2nd Battalion The East Surrey Regiment, The 1st Battalion Manchester Regiment, my party of Headquarters, 6/15 Indian Inf Brigade, a few R.A.F. and a few miscellaneous people such as Intelligence Corps. The majority of the other ranks were quartered in, what I believe, was the ratings Mess Deck, aft.
From below we soon heard the aircraft circling overhead which carried on for some minutes, and from my position, which was sitting on the floor forrard, the next thing I knew was a colossal explosion and a complete ceasing of all avoiding action by the ship and the immediate stoppage of the engines, which had appeared to be going full out.
It was obvious to us that something very serious had happened and we therefore filed up the companion-way on to the deck.
On looking round I was able to see that the very worst had happened and that the entire ship, aft of the smoke stack, was just a mass of twisted metal, and the stern of the ship had completely disappeared. It is my belief that the depth charges which were in position for use had exploded, causing the chaos. On going closer to the gap it appeared that it would have been impossible for any man to be alive who had been in the after Mess Deck. However, we managed to get one or two very badly wounded men out through a bomb hole. It was not possible to do very much as the ship was by this time a good deal more than half submerged.
One leading seaman by the name of Brennan (I have reported this to the Navy C/O H.M.S. Sultan Colombo) by great presence of mind managed to get the one sound Whaler into the water. We also got clear two small khali floats. We managed to get the wounded that were lying about the deck into the one boat and a certain number of other able-bodied personnel got into it as well, before it became obvious that we would have to push her away or she would sink with the Gunboat. I along with a number of others remained on deck until Commander Sprott gave the “abandon ship,” when
we jumped overboard and swam away from her. At this time Commander Sprott was still on the bridge.
It was now a little after half past ten in the morning. I got some 100 yards away from the ship and turned round just in time to see her take the final plunge. As she was going under I saw two Naval Officers jump out of the bridge onto the ship's side, slip down her bottom and into the sea. All that remained of her to be seen after this was a short piece of her bows, and she remained in this position for some hours. The actual period which she took to sink from the time of the bomb hitting her I estimate as being a maximum of 5 minutes.
The next thing I saw was the Whaler on the far side of the wreck from me with a number of people hanging onto her life ropes. One empty khali float and the other with a number of men on it.
All this time large numbers of aircraft were circling round in squadrons and I was able to vouch for well over 60 planes. They had by this time seen our fate and had turned their attention to H.M.S. “Grasshopper.” They were doing the same to her as they had done to us. Pattern bombing by squadrons. For a time she appeared to bear a charmed life and never seemed to be hit. Literally hundreds of bombs must have been dropped near her. She was at this time perhaps up to half a mile away from us circling round in avoiding action. It is possible that some of those bombs severely shook some of those people swimming in the water so as to render them unconscious. We eventually saw the “Grasshopper” circle as if in avoiding action and make for an island which we could see in the far distance. I estimated that she had been hit, which turned out to be correct, and she was endeavoring to beach herself which she eventually did successfully before her after-magazine blew up.
I was given to understand later that H.M.S.
Grasshopper
only sustained some 8 or 9 fatal casualties.
To turn back to the plight of the survivors of the “Dragonfly” the Whaler was now collecting those that she could find in the water and she was getting very full.
The empty float had been occupied by large numbers and was seen to be making away in a direction that I presumed to be Sumatra where a very vague outline of coast could be seen.
The other float was making off to the nearest island which I have mentioned before.
There were still a number in the water who were some distance away from the Whaler. I found myself, after endeavoring to collect people into a bunch as I considered that way we should have a better chance of rescue or getting ashore by swimming, the only officer, I took charge of those that I had collected, a number of about 6 and shouted to others to join us. There were a few whoever who swam off on their own in the direction of the nearest island. I only saw one of them again. I should mention here that all the personnel I had been able to collect were Naval ratings.
By shouting and making signs at the Whaler, which was too far away to recognize persons, we were led to understand that she was too full to take more than the men that were in her immediate vicinity. I and my party therefore decided to endeavor to swim ashore which we set out to do.
By this time the aircraft, their mission fulfilled, had flown away, but some half an hour later we saw a squadron approaching us at a very low level coming from a direction which I presumed to be East. Before long it was obvious what they were going to do and that was to machine gun the life boat. They came down to what I believe is termed, naught feet, and machine-gunned the life boat in tiers of 2 & 3 at a time, the whole time keeping formation. They repeated this twice on the life boat and having dealt with them passed on and machine-gunned myself and party in the same manner. It was very obvious, even from the distance that we were away from the life boat, that they had sustained very heavy casualties. We were more fortunate in that no one was hurt.
Having, as already said, repeated this twice they flew off in the same direction from where they had come. We saw no more of them.
We saw the Whaler re-arrange itself and start off for the nearest island for which we were also making.
At about half past six that evening the Whaler which had been waiting behind picking up people, caught up my swimming party and some of us were able to assist the few able-bodied men in the boat to get the last half mile to the shore, which we reached about 7 o'clock that evening.
We took a count and if I remember correctly there were 27 men composed of 22 in the boat and the 5 who had swum with me, about 8 of those in the boat were in a very serious condition. Unfortunately we found the island to which we had got possessed no food or water and nothing very much could be done for the wounded, numbering considerably more than half of those remaining. I do not know the name of the island.
The following morning a Sub-Lieut, whose name I believe was Clarke, a New Zealander, arrived walking along the beach with 8 others. They had been on the second float and had got ashore a little further up to coast. This made the total count of 36. Others may possibly have got ashore by swimming to other islands in the vicinity, but in my own opinion, I am afraid that they must have been very few, as the majority of the ships' total complement, particularly those of the Army, must have been killed outright in the first explosion or were killed during the machine-gunning of the life boat.
The names of personnel that I can remember are give in part III under the heading of having landed or having died in the particular action.
(Sgd.)
General itinerary of survivors from place of loss to Colombo.
c. Referring to the last sentence of War Office Cable which says “state where he landed and possibility of survivors landing elsewhere,” I shall give a short itinerary as it is just possible that other of the ships company did land elsewhere.
As I have said in part (a) of this report the name of the island on which I landed is unknown to be but from having talked to the naval crew of H.M.S. “Dragonfly” I gather that it was estimated to be approximately 100 miles south of Singapore in the vicinity of the Sinkep Group of islands about 10 miles from one by the name of Pongpong. I do not know whether this is the correct spelling but to pin-point it, it may be of interest to say that Pongpong was where S.S. “Kuala” foundered with a large number of nursing sisters on board.