Cambridgeshire Regiment was sent to fight in the Far East

VJ Day - August 15, 1945 - marked the complete end to World War II - while celebrations were held across Europe in May when Germany finally surrendered, those fighting in the Far East had months more of conflict and brutality to endure.

Often described as the 'Forgotten Army' it was this theatre of battle that thousands of men from the Cambridgeshire Regiment found themselves fighting in.

Jungles, swamps, over-heated remote islands, and snow-capped mountains were the backdrop to the war in the Far East - it covered a huge and varied area and an enemy who had failed to sign the Geneva Convention.

A cutting from the Wisbech Standard, April 10, 1942, featured the faces of the men missing in action. Top row from left: L/Cpl J E Frost, of Railway Road, E Welbourne, of Elizabeth Terrace, Pte G Reed, of Church Road, Emneth, Sgt J R Weston, of Guyhirn, L/Sgt G W Wenn, of Walpole St Peter, Pt G Parker, of Summerfield Close, Dvr G L Heath of Barton Road. Second row from left: Pte B Nicholls, of Friday Bridge, Pte E Nicholls, of Walpole St Peter, Sapper AF Taylor, of Orchard Drive, Pt R Tawn, of Napier Terrace, Cpl CH Bloomfield, of George Street, Pte J E Thorold, of Norwich Road, Pte RR Neal, of Emneth. Third row from left: Pte S Mews, of Parson Drove, Pte JW Burbridge of William Road, Pte GF Goodrum, of Upwell, Pte LJ Young, of North Brink, Pte RW Copeman, of Elizabeth Terrace, Pte HG Babcock, of Coldham Hall, Pte E Lenton, of Verdun Road. Bottom row from left: Pte GR Gilbert, Cannon Street, Pte C J Campbell, of Albion Terrace, Pte SC Firmage, of Russell Street, Pte LB Bennington, of Walsoken, Pte DT Burnham of Terrington St John, Pte WH Brown, of New Street, and Pte WC Martin, of Norwich Road. (Image: Wisbech and Fenland Museum) Men from Fenland, and Cambridgeshire as a whole, as well as Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, and Suffolk, found themselves off the farms where they had largely worked and conscripted into this vastly different land.

Paul McGregor, a Wisbech-based historian, has researched and written books on the conflict in the Far East, where 23,000 troops from this area were shipped at the start in December 1941 when Japan joined the war with the bombing of the US naval base in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii.

But Paul said sadly, less than a third returned home four years later when the war was finally over.

What happened in between to these men and women, there were nursing corps also stationed over there, was the stuff of nightmares.

The Japanese commander reads out the terms of surrender for Singapore on February 15, 1942. The picture was taken by Ron Higgins, of Ramnoth Road, Wisbech, who was an RAF reconnaissance photographer. (Image: Wisbech and Fenland Museum) Paul said: "Originally, the Cambridgeshire Regiment was due to go to North Africa to fight Rommel in the desert.

"They had trained for war in Europe, including fighting a pretend battle to capture Edinburgh. They were not trained or prepared for what they would actually face in the Far East."

En route to North Africa the troop ships carrying them were diverted first to Cape Town in South Africa, and then on to the Far East - Singapore to be precise.

They arrived in Singapore at the start of 1942, and their ships were coming into port just as the Japanese were carrying out an air raid.

"If it were not for the low cloud cover and the rain at that moment, then they would probably all have been killed as they disembarked, and that would have been that," said Paul.

Sapper Bernard Pentelow died in the Far East in 1943 - his family only learned of his death at the end of the war in September 1945. (Image: Wisbech and Fenland Museum) Instead, they survived and found themselves in Singapore, which had been a British Naval Base since 1922.

"The trouble was," said Paul, "No one had really ever decided what the purpose of the base was. It was poorly fortified, and there was no air cover."

Among those stepping off the ships in Singapore was Sapper Bernard Pentelow from Tydd St Giles, and two brothers from Guyhirn, George and Horace Kerridge 

Bernard was just 20 and was in the 287th Field Company Royal Engineers, who, like his comrades in arms, was shocked to be facing an enemy in the heat-filled jungle. He wrote about his experiences in letters home to his family.

Renowned artist Ronald Searle was among those to be captured in Singapore in 1942, this image of a 'fit for work' parade on the Burma railway features in a book by Wisbech historian Paul McGregor. (Image: Wisbech and Fenland Museum) "It was not what they had trained for; they really were ill-prepared," said Paul.

Meanwhile, the Japanese were tumbling down from the north, cutting their way through the jungle and heading for Singapore.

"It had been thought the jungle was impenetrable, but the Japanese did not let that put them off," said Paul.

There were many skirmishes that brought huge losses, and non-combatant soldiers found themselves on the frontline with the infantry.

This picture of Singapore Cathedral in 194 was captured by Ron Higgins, of Ramnoth Road, Wisbech, who was an RAF reconnaissance photographer posted to the Far East. (Image: Wisbech and Fenland Museum) The Battle for Singapore raged for little more than a week from February 8 to 15, when the island's commander, General A E Percival, surrendered.

"He was duped by the Japanese. They somehow convinced him they had greater numbers than him - there were 90,000 British troops and only around 35,000 Japanese, but he believed the Japanese that he could not win, and took the decision to surrender," said Paul. It was considered the worst defeat of the war.

"The truth is the Japanese were nearly out of ammunition, and probably would have lost had the fighting continued just a few more days," said Paul.

Instead, the British, Australians, New Zealanders, and many other nationalities on the island found themselves rounded up and imprisoned.

In March 1942 the Wisbech Standard was printing pictures of the area's young servicemen and women to mark their 'coming of age' a month later the paper was covering their loss in the Far East. (Image: Wisbech and Fenland Museum) Some were sent to the infamous Changi Gaol, others were taken off to be prisoners of war across the Far East, including in Japan itself, and of course to work on the 'Death Railway' between Thailand and Burma.

There were 150 prisoner of war camps in total.

The Japanese did not keep good records of who was captured or where they were being kept.

Families back home had no idea of what had happened to their menfolk. They often had to wait years to discover whether they were dead or alive.

Survivors of the Japanese prisoner of Singapore War camps pictured in the Eastern Daily Press in October 1986 at an exhibition in Wisbech Museum to mark VJ Day. (Image: Wisbech and Fenland Museum) For weeks at a time, the Wisbech Standard front page carried head and shoulder images of local men either killed, injured, or missing. In one week's edition, those named included three sets of brothers from Wisbech.

"Missing was the worst, as no one really knew what that meant," said Paul.

While the families waited back home, facing their own horrors of war, their men, and of course, the many women who were also over there, were enduring untold brutality at the hands of their captors.

"The Japanese did not believe in surrender, and had little respect for the Allied soldiers who had chosen surrender rather than death in the service of their country," said Paul.

The Wisbech Standard featured the faces of those missing in the Far East every week throughout April 1942 - this is from April 17 and includes three sets of brothers. Pictured from top row: CQMS CJ Carse of Norwich Road, L/Sgt EA Oates of Railway Road, Cpl G Bamber, of Ramnoth Road, Pte H Franklin, of St John's Fen End, Pte RB Hyam , of Council Road, L/Cpl GV Hyam of Council Road, Pte ER Harrop, of Horseshoe Terrace. Second row: Driver CW Capps, of Emneth, L/Sgt C Tomblinson, of Elizabeth Terrace, Pte SJ Bird, of Emneth, Cpl GR Plitsch, of Southwell Road, Pte H Plitsch of Southwell, L/Cpl GAE Pratt, of Outwell, Pte J Mann, of Church Street. Row three: Pte WA Johnson, of Southwell Road, Pte P Wymer, of Railway Road, Pte R W Wymer, of Railway Road, L/Cpl GH Feetham, of West Walton, L/Cpl BB Norman, of West Walton, Pte HW Pearce of Bannisters Row, L/Cpl B Stanfrod of East Street. Fourth row: Pte R Gree, of Park street, Pte R Markillie, of Parson Drove, Pte AC Cox, of Outwell, Pte FO Trundle, of Nordelph, PTE RA Smith, of Little Church Street, Pte SA (eligible surname) of Henry Street, Sgt Wadlow of Walsoken. Bottom row: CQMSEF Williamson, of Stow Road, (name eligible of next man) of Chapnall Road, Pte RG Wilson, Agenoria Street, L/Cpl C Hall, Parson Drove, Pte FJ Woods, of Boyces Lane, Pte CW Rutterford, of Burcroft Road, Pte CH Baxter of Ementh. (Image: Wisbech and Fenland Museum) Prisoners were deliberately starved, put to work for the Japanese, and kept in conditions that led to diseases of all kinds. 

"Cholera was the biggest killer; it would strike in waves, killing hundreds at a time," said Paul.

Japan was finally forced to surrender on August 15, 1945, after America dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"Ironically, there were Allied prisoners of war who survived the bombing of Nagasaki as there was a prisoner of war camp near there," said Paul.

Members of the Wisbech Singapore Club pictured at a reunion to mark VJ Day in August 1995 - they were at a party in the Locomotive Pub. (Image: Wisbech and Fenland Museum) VJ Day was celebrated here, but in a more low-key way to the jubilation of VE Day, and then it would be months before the men started to return home.

"Shipping the men home took time. They were in such a poor physical state, and the delay was deliberate to give time to fatten them up a bit and get them fit for home," said Paul.

The first prisoners to return to this area arrived back on September 26, 1945.

Sgt Leslie Suttle, of York Terrace, Wisbech, was the first man to step off the train in Wisbech. He had been captive since February 1942.

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"Sgt Suttle and a soldier from March, were the first to return. Hundreds of people gathered first at the station in March to cheer them off the train, and then at Wisbech," said Paul.

But it was not all celebrations. The family of Bernard Pentelow, who had waited eagerly for news, discovered he had died two years earlier in 1943.

His brother Norman, however, did survive and return home. He had been in India.

"What happened in the Far East was simply horrific. It makes me so angry, and so sad at the same time," said Paul. 

He quotes Ronald Searle, the celebrated illustrator and creator of the St Trinians School series, who was among those captured in Singapore in 1942.

Ronald was held in Changi Gaol for the whole of the war and defied his captors to draw sketches of what he saw around him.

Paul said: "He described himself as 'a repellently diseased 25-year-old'  when he was released from Changi with the remaining survivors of what he called 'a wickedly inept political sacrifice'."

He continues: "That anger was justified, the troops in Singapore were poorly equipped, unprepared for what they had to face, and they had to defend a military base the use of which had never been properly thought through.

"The men of the Cambridgeshire Regiment paid the ultimate price, and that is why VJ Day is so very important for this area. We must remember the sacrifices they made, and what they were forced to endure."

Wisbech and Fenland Museum has a special exhibition of images, newspaper cuttings and personal papers to mark VJ Day, it is open on Friday, August 15 and Saturday, August 16 during normal museum opening times, and also by private appointment.