Endau, 26th January 1942

[paulmcmillan]

Greg

Yes thanks for your inputs to Bill

re: Warrant Officer Stephen Dale BIRDSALL (551090) POW Death. Captured on 1942-02.26 Died 1944-09-12

Captured on 15 Feb 1942 in Java and Died on Board the Ss Kachidoki Maru Died 1944-09-12

https://www.roll-of-honour.org.uk/He...achidoki_Maru/

[greg]

Don / Paul,

Many thanks both, for your input.

Paul - your additional information on Birdsall confirms what I had, many thanks indeed for that. Sadly, he wasn't the only 100 Squadron man who died on the "Hellships", either as a result of the poor conditions on-board, or as a result of action by American submarines. LAC Leslie Tozer and AC1 Frank Files are two more who spring immediately to mind, who died aboard the "Suez Maru" on the 29th of November 1943 when it was torpedoed by US submarine USS Bonefish. They either drowned in the hold of the ship as it listed and took on water, or managed to escape only to be machine-gunned by a roving Japanese minesweeper which was picking up Japanese survivors.


Don - many thanks for your suggestions. I have a well-thumbed copy of Les and Pam Stubbs' "Unsung Heroes Of The Royal Air Force" which has served me well over the years. However, as with the CWGC listings, the way that RAAF personnel are annotated isn't always clear, particularly with regard to their units. I was looking at one RAAF chap in particular yesterday (Sgt P.C. Hay*, WOP/AG in K4188 in the second wave of the Endau raid), who I am certain was a PoW after the Battle of Endau, and couldn't find him listed. I've bitten the bullet and ordered a copy of his file from the NAA to see if that reveals anything.

*EDITED TO ADD: I must have had a brain freeze, I've been searching for a chap in the PoW lists who was killed in the Battle. I'll get my coat... :-)

Thanks again both, and all the best as always,

Greg

[Don Clark]

Stubbs: I could've thought of that, given all your work on 100 Sqn! Maybe useful for some other passing reader...

Perhaps the WW 2 Nominal Roll will be some use, as for the PoWs, the Results field shows under Posting at discharge the actual Sqn/Unit id (vs the more usual Personnel depot).

Search on that field is not offered, unfortunately, nor can the 1428 results be filtered thus.

Bit tedious to winnow, but its something.

Cheers
Don

[greg]

Don - no worries, look at my howler above if you want to regain some ground!! The nominal roll has been very helpful, thank you. It's a slog, but a useful one, looking through the list.

All the very best as always,

Greg

[greg]

Don,

I've not had a chance to have a good look around the site yet, but I have just found this while looking for details of WOP/AG W/O James Barnes: -

https://www.powmemorialballarat.com.au/

Follow the "PoW Search" link towards the bottom of the page, and it then allows you to search by unit.

All the very best,

Greg

[Don Clark]

New to me, Greg, thanks.

Finds 4 men noted as 211 Sqn. Of these, 3 are confirmed by prior 211 Sqn work.
Just to illustrate the potential puzzles of this sort of work, in case of interest for others, summary of the 4th case:

400671 Thomson SC repeatedly drew the usual surname muddles, as often recorded Thompson as Thomson. Service nos, so useful when incl.
Known to have been among RAAF aircrew trained at 72 OTU late 1941, his NAA file records that he had been posted to 84 Sqn by early Jan 42 (ie before 84 Sqn left Egypt for the Far East).
It was with 84 Sqn that he fell captive, as also noted by Neate/Scorpions Sting and by the Stubbs' roll.

Just to add spice, his NAA file includes a summary slip still ascribing him to 211 Sqn, though his Service Record page is clear & dated, but hence the Ballarat roll error, presumably.
The 211 Sqn/72 OTU/211 Sqn relationship was complex datewise and opaque to Aus record keepers.
Lastly, while some other 211 Sqn FEPoWs are so noted on the WW 2 Nominal Roll, Thomson's entry records him as 6 RAAF Hospital on discharge...

The fog of war.

Anyway, a valuable effort on the part of the Ballarat Ex-PoW Museum and thanks again for drawing my attention to it.