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Auction: 22002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 225

'A feat of endurance which assuredly will rank high in the annals of warfare… It says much for the morale of this fine Battalion that it remained a formed and disciplined body till the end.'

Lieutenant-General Percival on the 2/15th Punjab Regiment, it was men like Lance-Naik Singh which forged their repute.

A very fine 'clandestine Ops - Fall of Malaya 1942' M.M. awarded to Lance-Naik Beant Singh, 2/15th Punjab Regiment, who went deep behind the lines in disguise to Kuching in order to pass vital information on the enemy and also to investigate the disappearance of Captain Mata-ul-Mulk, a member of the Royal Family of Chitral

Military Medal, G.VI.R. (10055 L. Naik. Beant Singh. Punjab R.), very fine

Provenance:
Glendining's, 19 September 1989, Lot 613, when sold as part of a Collection Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Second World War.

1 of just two awards of the M.M. to the unit for this campaign.

M.M. London Gazette 25 September 1947:

'In recognition of gallant and distinguished services in Malaya prior to the fall of Singapore in 1942.'

The original recommendation - for an I.D.S.M. - by Colonel C. M. Lane, OC Troops Sarawak and Brunei states:

'This Non-Commissioned Officer volunteered to proceed in disguise on an important mission from Dutch West Borneo to Sarawak, when in January 1942 the British forces were operating in Dutch West Borneo. Although after going a considerable distance he was forced to return, though no fault of his own, he was able to bring back valuable information.

Soon after at Siloeas, in Dutch West Borneo, he showed most marked devotion to duty by reporting by telephone to Force HQ the movements of the enemy and our own troops. This duty he carried out under fire at times and by extreme energy transmitted valuable information at a critical period in operations.'

Remarks by Lieutenant-Colonel F.G. Milligan:

'This NCO, who was one of the 2nd Battalion, 15th Punjab Regiment’s Clerks, was one of the 2 men to volunteer for the extremely perilous task of going some 60 miles behind the Japanese lines back to Kuching to ascertain the enemy’s activities and the strength of the forces with which he was advancing into Dutch West Borneo. He was also given the task of finding out what was happening to our men who became missing in Kuching on 26 Dec 1941, and particularly in connection with the disappearance of Captain Mata-ul-Mulk. No praise is too high for the courageous manner in which he attempted to carry out this task. He is strongly recommended for the above mentioned award (MM).'

Beant Singh was from Padhiana, Jullundur and served with the 2nd Battalion, 15th Punjab Regiment during the Second World War. The campaign they shared in is covered excellently via http://www.kaiserscross.com/304501/521701.html and the story of the party he went in search of is recalled:

'Next day, Christmas morning, after unsuccessfully requesting orders from Singapore Colonel Lane ordered a withdrawal into Dutch Borneo. A group of British women and children along with the hospital detachment were sent ahead during a lull in the firing, and ‘A’ Company went to secure the vital ferry crossing at Batu Kitak. As these movements were proceeding a large Japanese force attacked the 2/15th Punjabis rear-guard in strength.

After a stiff fight, particularly by the Khattacks who machine-gunned a considerable number of advancing Japanese, four British officers, six Indian Officers and 230 Sepoys were killed or taken prisoner, wounded prisoners being bayoneted by the Japanese. Captain J.H.C. ‘Bruno’ Brown, OC ‘B’ Company, was amongst the dead having killed two Japanese with his revolver before a third bayoneted him. Lieutenant D.A. ‘Doggy’ Hodges, OC ‘C’ Company, was amongst the prisoners, having surrendered his company when it was surrounded and only two platoons were still able to fight. Only a few sepoys trickled back to re-join the Battalion. The Japanese casualty list for this rear-guard action was believed to have included 374 men killed, including the formation commander.'

As their movements took them onto Sanggau, they would stand firm to the last:

'Captain Fairburn’s Sikh ‘A’ Company put in an attack that seized the first enemy trenches but which ultimately failed when the planned Dutch flanking movement fell apart in a Japanese ambush that killed the Dutch commander. Badly sited and poorly controlled Dutch heavy mortars wounded Dutch soldiers and Punjabis alike and killed Subedar Kartar Singh. The son of Kartar Singh was serving in the Battalion and he performed his father’s funeral rites.

During the next day the Japanese tried to break through to Singkawang II airfield. Their progress was blocked by Subedar Faramurz Khan and two platoons of Punjabi Musalmans from ‘B’ Company. Faramurz Khan exhorted his men to fight to the end. After an all-day action the Punjabis were finally overrun in the early evening, having expended their ammunition. Faramurz Khan and many of his men were already dead but the Japanese were angry and vengeful because of the 400 or more casualties that they themselves had suffered. Only three Punjabis from these two platoons were seen again, and one of them, Lance-Naik Sher Khan, later reported that the Japanese wired together the prisoners taken, doused them in petrol and burned them to death.'

Having continued the Battle for as long as possible, concerned about the physical condition of the men Colonel Lane and Lieutenant-Colonel Ross-Thompson decided that further resistance would be futile and Sarfor surrendered to a Japanese Naval Brigade on 3 April 1942. Further note should be given to the dreadful conditions and privations that Singh would have endured assuming he was captured with his comrades:

'In captivity Sarfor was split up and placed in several camps in South-East Asia. All the British officers of the 2/15th Punjab Regiment survived captivity. Some were held in the Batu Lintang camp, Kuching, and mention is made of them in Don Wall’s book Kill the Prisoners. It was the Indian officers and soldiers who suffered the most from Japanese atrocities in the camps. Most men, led by their Indian officers, refused to join the Japanese-sponsored Indian National Army led by the collaborator Subhas Chandra Bose. This infuriated the Japanese, and in the Kuala Belait camp in Brunei Subedar Makhmad Anwar I.D.S.M. [later I.O.M. also] was flogged and hung by his heels until he was dead. Four jemadars in Kuala Belait camp (Akram Khan, Mohamed Anwar, Nazir Hussain and Lachman Singh) were made to dig their own graves before they were beheaded. It appears that fifty sepoys who had refused to collaborate were tied up and bayoneted or otherwise murdered.

One personal account of a sepoy in captivity can be found in Mark Felton’s The Final Betrayal. Mountbatten, MacArthur and the Tragedy of Japanese POWs. Naik Changdi Ram, 2/15th Punjabis, gave formal evidence after his release from captivity by Australian troops; the evidence records beatings, tortures and acts of cannibalism by Japanese soldiers performed on Allied European and Indian troops.'

The sheer numerical losses are staggering for campaign deaths and those who perished while captive, these being British Officers 9, Indian Officers 8 and Indian other ranks 434.

For the awards of Subadar Anwar, please see Lot 226.

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Sold for
£3,200

Starting price
£1100