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6021127
Private
Herbert John Crompton
1916/10/11 - Born Tilbury, Essex
Suffolk Regiment
4th Battalion
18th Division
Service
The 4th Battalion were formed with territorials from the Suffolk area. After some basic training they were put on guard duty in Lowestoft, patrolling the dry docks where Allied submarines were serviced. A few days were then spent at Loddon before returning to the Waverly hotel, in St Olaves, returning to guard duty at Haddiscoe railway station. Further training took place at Langley Park, Loddon, where marching, and camp life were the order of the day. A farm at Cawston in Norfolk was the next venue, with the luxury of sleeping in a farmers barn but the training was increased. The next stage was from late July to the end of September doing guard duty near the harbour mouth at Great Yarmouth. The guard duty consisted of twenty-four hour stints, two hours on, four hours off, one day a week was a rest day.
A move to Hatley St George, Bedfordshire occurred in September 1940 living in disused cottages on the Hatley Hall Estate. Training was increased with long route marches. Just before the new year the battalion was moved to Stobbs Camp, Harwick in Scotland, and housed in Nissan huts, the weather was bitter. The training lasted till April.
The battalion was then bussed to Pilsmouth Bleach Mills, Bury in Lancashire where training continued. In August the battalion was moved again to wooden huts near Hereford , where training and farm work was carried out.
King George VI inspected the battalion in Hereford at the cathedral whilst the Suffolk Regimental band from Bury St Edmunds played.
Once more they were on the move - ‘It was dark when we left Hereford. We knew we were going abroad, but not where’.
Tropical kit was issued to the men of the 4th Battalion, and orders were to proceed to Liverpool.
Andes
1941/10/30 - The 4th Battalion was then made ready to embark on the Andes in Convoy CT.5, destination unknown.
USS Wakefield
Arriving at Halifax 8th November the men were then moved across to the transport ship tied along side, the 27,000 ton Wakefield.
Convoy William Sail 12X continued with six American troopships, two cruisers, eight destroyers and the aircraft carrier Ranger, the Convoy William Sail 12X was under way, destination still unknown.
Convoy William Sail 12X
Above Photo supplied by the late Maurice Rooney
Detailed Account by Thomas M. Allison
A reproduction of an account by Thomas M. Allison who is understood to be serving as an American Naval officer in the convoy.
Aircraft
Vought SB 2U Vindicator Scout Bomber - USS Ranger which was flying an Anti Submarine patrol over the convoy.
Ships Front Line, Top to Bottom:-
USS West Point - USS Mount Vernon - USS Wakefield - USS Quincy (Heavy Cruiser)
Ships Back Line Top to Bottom:-
USS Leonard Wood - USS Vincennes (Heavy Cruiser) - USS Joseph T Dickman
The convoy passed through the Mona Passage between Puerto Rico and St Domingo, arriving at Trinidad on 17th November in glorious sunshine so our tropical kit came out, but unfortunately no shore-leave, we left after two days of taking on supplies. On 24th we crossed the equator, there was a crossing the line ceremony.
After a month the convoy arrived at Cape Town, South Africa. By this time the Americans were in the war as the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbour and attacked Malaya and the rumours were that they were heading for the Far East and not the Middle East as first thought.
On December 13th the convoy left Cape Town and sailed along the coast of East Africa past Madagascar and into the Indian Ocean heading for Bombay. After 17,011 miles at sea Bombay was reached December 27th 1941.
Embarked on 17th January back onto the Wakefield. The convoy sailed the next day with a British escort, the H.M.S. Exeter and H.M.S. Glasgow with British and Australian destroyers. Japan had entered the war by attacking Malaya on 8th December 1941, destination was the far East. The Prince of Wales and the Repulse had both been sunk by the Japanese off Malaya. Passing Colombo, (Ceylon), crossing the equator for the third time, the convoy passed through the Sundra Straits between Java and Sumatra and then the Banka Straits. The convoy was then bombed by Jap Planes, there was no damage, the Wakefield was the first of our convoy to reach the safety of Keppel Harbour, Singapore on the 29th January 1942. Ships were ablaze in the harbour, clouds of smoke drifted across the sky and the smell of fumes was overpowering, this was not the best of greetings. The Japanese had taken most of Malaya in the last three weeks and were only thirty miles away from Singapore.
1942/02/15 - Singapore Surrendered
Japanese PoW
1942/02/15 - Captured Singapore
Changi Camp
Work Party 4/4864, Light Duties
Japanese Index Card - Side One
Japanese Index Card - Side Two
1943/05/09 - Transported overland to Thailand with ‘H’ Force, train 4.
Commander Lt-Col. R.R. Humphries, 77 HAA Regiment, RA
1943/06/21 - Listed at Kanu Camp, Thailand
Work Camps Thailand:-
Working first at Tampii South
Malay Hamlet (Hellfire Pass)
If still fit he could have gone to Hin Tok River before returning to Singapore late 43 or early 44
1944/03/08 - Back to Changi
New PoW No. 3396
Worked in X6 Funk Holes. These were Japanese defences of Singapore. These Funk Holes also had a more sinister role, the extermination of the PoWs if Allied forces landed in Singapore.
(See Funk Holes of Singapore)
1945/09/05 - Listed Changi Camp
1945/11/02 - Liberated Singapore
General Seishiro Itagaki, Japanese Commander of Singapore, would not accept the surrender. Plus it gave him time to cover up all Japanese Atrocities in Singapore. The allied naval landing force 'Operation Tiderace' were delayed as it was still understood the Japanese would dispose of all the PoWs in Singapore if they landed. Mountbatten ordered British paratroopers into Singapore to protect the camps. To many of the PoWs in Singapore, those red berets of the paratroopers were the first signs that the war had ended. All this delayed organising the PoWs. It wasn't till the 12th September that Lord Mountbatten accepted the Japanese surrender at the Municipal Building. Hospital cases were the first to leave Singapore 1945/09/10 on the HMHS Koroa. They were soon followed by Repatriation ships which started reaching the UK about the 15th of October 1945. Why many of the liberated PoWs on these ships had November on their Japanese Index cards, I don't know as in other areas of the Far East, PoWs were marked as Liberated at their PoW camps with the correct date. Unless General Seishiro Itagaki did not make the cards available when the camps were liberated.
Liberation Questionnaire
Information
Andrew Snow - Thailand Burms Railway Centre
Liberation Questionnaire
4th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
KEW Files:- WO 361/2176, WO 367/2, WO 361/1504, WO 361/2058, WO 361/2233, WO 361/2229, WO 361/1504, WO 392/23, WO 361/1946, WO 345/13,
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