Robertson, Jill/Slimming, Jan Captured at Singapore

A Diary of a Far East Prisoner of War

What must it be like to leave your loved ones behind, knowing that you might never see them again? Then, in the dead of night, to set sail on a ship bound for an unknown destinationonly to suddenly find yourself in the midst of a battle? A battle that ends under hostile conditions so brutal that even survival in captivity remains constantly at stake? Born from a small, yellowed address book secretly kept by a young soldier of the Royal Army Service Corps, *Captured at Singapore* tells the story of a prisoner of wara tale filled with adventure, courage, resilience, and sheer luck. In 1940, Londoner Stanley Moore became Driver T/170638 and, alongside many other members of the British Armys 18th Division, underwent training for desert warfare. Their mission, they believed, was to fight against Hitler and fascism in the Middle East. Yet, due to a change of plansand a new destinationhe and his comrades became casualties on a continent situated far further from home. After rigorous, rudimentary combat training in England, Stans division set off on a secret overseas deployment. Following months at sea and several unexpected stopovers, their convoy was diverted to the other side of the worldarriving just as the Imperial Japanese Army was carving a swathe of destruction through Manchuria, Hong Kong, and other parts of Asia. At the time, Singapore remained under sole British sovereignty; following the First World War, a major naval base had been established there to defend the island situated at the tip of the Malay Peninsula. The British government was firmly convinced that Japan would never attack its prized territory and, consequently, left Singapore largely to fend for itselfmanned by only a handful of troops and equipped with obsolete gear. However, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the 18th Divisionpoorly trained and inadequately suppliedwas unceremoniously diverted to join the fight against the Japanese. Drawing on extensive research and personal documentsspecifically their fathers small, yellowed diary and an audio recording he made in 1990the authors chronicle Stans journey and his arrival at Keppel Harbour amidst enemy artillery fire. They recount the brutal, seventeen-day battle for the defense of the island, the "Japanese Admonition," and the horrific conditions of forced labor following the surrender. Only a small fraction of the 85,000 British soldiers involved ultimately returned home after the war ended. Their captivity and years of trauma ultimately robbed these young soldiers of precious years of their livesyears that, at the behest of the British government, they were later simply expected to forget. The aim of this work is to provide future generations with the information they need to understand how ordinary men perished amidst the ghastly conditions of war, and how the fortunate few survived.