Bart Richardson - Finding his brother

Transcript

My brother was with the 2/18th Battalion and when we were back in Singapore Island he was with his battalion, was put on an island just offshore. And of course, the Japanese weren't interested in islands. They bypassed everything.

They suddenly realised what had happened. And they knocked up a Chinese boat and set sail from Singapore. Now, currents up there do funny things. And they had a few brushes with Japs here and there. But finished up in Sumatra. And he was there for, I think, a good long time.

Then the Japanese were about to move, and he thinks to Japan. They're on a boat going from where they were in Sumatra heading for Singapore and in the straits of Malacca they were torpedoed by American ships. They wouldn't know what was on board. And the ship went down of course. So did some of our people. And so did as many Japs as our fellas can push their heads under the water.

He finished up in Changi, a great whack about that long on top of his head, and so we got together again there and then he finished the rest of the war in the same hut as I was. Came home with the same ship and everything. So there you are.