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7607793
Lance Corporal
Raymond Hilary Cooper
Known as ‘Bob
1917/07/16 - Born Sparkbrook, Birmingham
Son of Beaumont William and Kate Cooper
Husband of Lavinia Cooper
Royal Army Ordnance Corps
Att. 48 Light Anti-Aircraft, Royal Artillery
Workshops
1943/02/01 - WO 417/58, Casualty List No. 1087. Missing
1943/05/13 - WO417/60, Casualty List No. 1133. Previously posted Missing, 01/02/1943, Casualty List No. 1087. Now reported ‘Missing believed Prisoner of War’
1943/07/15 - WO 417/63, Casualty List No.1187. Previously shown on Casualty List No.1133 as Missing believed Prisoner of War, 01/02/1943. Now reported a Prisoner of War.
Japanese PoW
1942/03/08 - Captured Java
Japanese Index Card - Side One
Japanese Index Card - Side Two
In November 1943, the Japanese decided to ship the sick back from Ambon to Surabaya, Java. A total of 540 men, including a number of Japanese sick patients, were taken on board the 4,645-ton passenger-cargo ship Suez Maru. In two holds, 422 sick British (including 221 RAF servicemen) and 127 sick Dutch prisoners, including up to twenty stretcher cases, were accommodated. The Japanese patients filled the other two holds.
Escorted by a minesweeper W-12, the Suez Maru set sail from Port Amboina, Ambon, but while entering the Java Sea and about 327 kilometers east of Surabaya, Java, Netherlands East Indies, the vessel was torpedoed by the American submarine USS Bonefish commanded by Cdr. Tom Hogan. The ship started to list as water poured into the holds drowning hundreds, many managed to escape the holds and swam away from the sinking ship. The Japanese mine sweeper W-12 picked up the Japanese survivors, leaving between 200 and 250 men in the sea. At 14.50, the minesweeper, W-12, under orders from Captain Kawano, opened fire, using a machine gun and rifles. Rafts and lifeboats were then rammed and sunk by the W-12. The firing did not cease till all the prisoners were killed, the minesweeper then picked up speed and sped off towards Batavia (Jakarta) at 16.30 hours.
Sixty-nine Japanese had died during the attack, 93 Japanese soldiers and 205 Japanese sick patients were rescued by the Japanese. Of the 547 British and Dutch prisoners, there is reported to be one survivor, a British soldier, Kenneth Thomas, who was picked up twenty-four hours later by the Australian minesweeper HMAS Ballarat, this has not been confirmed.
Died
Age 26
29th November 1943
Place of death - off Kangean Islands 6º 22' South by 116º 35' East.
Cause of death:- Sinking of the Suez Maru by US Bonefish
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Pacific Star
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War Medal
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1939-1945 Star
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Loved Ones
Son of William Beaumont Cooper and Kate Cooper
Husband of Lavinia Cooper, of Perry Barr, Birmingham
Memorial
Column 109.
Singapore Memorial
Information
Katherine Ryker
Java Index
Hell Ships - Suez Maru
Commonwealth War Grave Commission
KEW Files:- WO 392/23, WO 361/2181, WO 361/1616, WO 361/1742, WO 361/1222, WO 361/1530, WO 361/2018,
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