Page 93 - History of War - Issue 01-14

FREDDY SPENCER CHAPMAN

Getty

While their campaigns in the Pacific
enjoyed initial success, Japan
– along with the other Axis nations
– were eventually defeated by the
Allies. Here, General Yamashita
(right) surrenders to US officers

a road mender’s hut by the road, so they went the rest-house, and cooked them in the kitchen. suffered a huge defeat at the hands of the
inside and slept for a little. Some Chinese were living close by and they Japanese, which culminated in the fall of
The fi nal stage up to the pass is gruelling, bought chickens from them. The Chinese said Singapore and, effectively, an end to the British
the S-bends following each other tightly. They the Japanese had broadcast that Singapore had Empire’s presence in Asia. Military historian
reached the Gap and they thought there might fallen. “We refused to believe it,” Freddy said. Arthur Swinson called it “one of the most
be sentries about, but they could smell no disastrous campaigns in British military history”,
tobacco, the surest sign of Japanese soldiers. Huge defeat with 9,000 Commonwealth troops killed or
They went cautiously through the bungalows on As night fell, they left for the 20-mile journey wounded, and another 130,000 captured.
the slope above the road. Shebbeare’s bungalow to Sungei Sempan. It was all downhill, and the Having been taken prisoner by both Japanese
had been looted and was a mess, but Freddy road was more precipitous on this side of the troops and Chinese bandits, been unconscious
rescued some copies of the Himalayan Journal Main Range than coming up from the west. in the jungle for 17 days, and been struck
and one of Shebbeare’s Everest diaries. They They bought three bicycles at some Tamil coolie down by everything from tick-typhus and
had meant to sleep in the jungle, but it dawned lines along the road, and raced down, getting to backwater fever to malaria, it was by his own
with a cold mist that turned to rain. The Gap had Sungei Sempan before dawn. They were shocked hand that Chapman fi nally lost his life. Following
– still has – a rest-house, without the chintz and to fi nd that the power station was “ablaze with his suicide in 1971 (he’d been suffering from
cocktail chic of the hotels along the watershed light” and that a large Rising Sun fl ag was nailed ill health for some time), biographer Claire
at Fraser’s Hill, but a solid and dependable to the wall of Alves’ bungalow. They hid their Freeman paid tribute to his endeavours.
place, painted black and white to give it a bicycles and climbed directly up the pipeline to "[Chapman’s suicide] was a last sacrifi ce of a
half-timbered air, with verandas and big, stone their camp. Sartin remembered the booby traps courageous and utterly English hero,” she said,
fi replaces, and a games room and a bar with they had left behind them just in time to prevent “a man who gave every ounce of his mental
sporting prints, like an inn or a shooting lodge them being blown up. They called on Alves later and physical strength to the cause he believed
in the Scottish Highlands. It is built high above in the morning, after watching the bungalow in, whose extraordinary bravery and tenacity
the road on a bank faced with granite blocks. carefully to make sure no Japanese were about. were an inspiration to all who observed him.” w
It was the last place – so Freddy hoped – He was a changed man. The Japanese had
that the Japanese would think to look for them. visited him, left him the fl ag and terrifi ed him.
Only the small furniture had been looted. He feared they might reappear at any minute,
He noted that the best bedroom had ‘some and said that the valley was full of Chinese
excellent spring bedspreads’ and its windows and Malay informers. All his Malay coolies
looked directly down over the road. So they had fl ed. His wireless was working, and
set themselves up in this comforting place, they listened to a Japanese broadcast This feature is an edited
barricaded the door and manhandled a wardrobe from Singapore in English. It confi rmed the extract from Jungle Soldier
so that they could clamber through a trap-door catastrophe: Singapore was lost. They were by Brian Moynahan,
to the roof, and fell deeply asleep. Japanese utterly alone. They went back to their camp published in the UK by
cars and lorries passed immediately below their and ate their fi ll of porridge. Then they slept. Quercus, and available
window. In the afternoon, they found kidney Despite the heroics of Freddy Spencer from both high-street
beans and English potatoes in the garden above Chapman and his team, the Allies ultimately and online book stores.
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