We were met by our transport coming back to collect us after about ten miles of footing it, and arrived in Changi at about two o’clock. By this time the Japanese Victory March into Singapore would be just beginning; a march in which they would be wearing all the original costumes they wore during the battle, disguised as Malays and Chinese, a thing that had made it so doubly difficult to deal with them.

Arrived on the huge asphalt Gun Park in Changi, facing a great green playing-field, or ‘padang’, a few of us clambered immediately onto another truck and drove off back to Tek Hok village, the last place we had lain in before going into action. There we had left all our heavy kit and tin trunks.

What a naÏve hope in the East! Before, it had been a good tented camp, with wooden stores and cookhouses, neatly and well laid out. Now we found nothing. The grass under the rubber trees was kneedeep in useless old papers and odd boots and clothing, but as regards anything of the slightest value, there was nothing, absolutely nothing! Every plank of the buildings and every square inch of tenting had disappeared – even the concrete floors had been crudely broken up and carried away. We enquired round the few shops and houses in the village, cursing the East and all Eastern peoples, but the total bag remained as before – nil. Locusts were beginners compared with the inhabitants of Tek Hok!

On the site of the old orderly room tent, the C.O. was trying to burn ‘valuable documents’ with his old cigarette lighter!

So, back to Changi, our quarters for the first stage of our P.O.W.-ship. The area allocated to our Division included about half a dozen barrack-blocks of stone, a few odd houses and sheds, the Gun Park, and a few coconut plantations. By squeezing in 200 men where formerly there had been room for 20, we found that we could fit in. Washing and latrine accommodation was scanty in the extreme. Just below our own blocks stood four or five others, which had been taken over for the hospital. All our wounded were to be cleared out of Singapore within a week of the capitulation.

Living in these very overcrowded conditions we thought we were badly off, and presumed that we would soon move elsewhere, but at that time we were naturally still very innocent. Most people were blindly confident that we would be free within a few months. Ridiculous rumours were circulated and avidly swallowed. My Company Commander actually bet me a bottle of champagne that we would be free by March 26th, 1942! This early attempt at adjustment was very difficult.