It cut our Aerial, Then Machine-gunned the Decks
Heroes Remember
It cut our Aerial, Then Machine-gunned the Decks
In ten days out of (inaudible) on Good Friday, a seaplane come
over. We didn’t see it. I mean, it just came out of the sun.
It was at noon and it cut our aerial, radio aerial. Then it
machine gunned the decks. I heard, “Action stations,” and
everybody started running around and this seaplane was machine
gunning the decks. Then a few minutes later I heard, “Abandon
ship!” And we stopped because a raider was shelling us, off in
the distance. Now a raider is disguised as a merchant ship, but
it’s really a battle ship. It had six inch guns, torpedo tubes,
seaplane and all that, so we didn’t have a chance. We were
travelling all alone. And the first thing when the “abandon
ship” came up we all ran to our lifeboats. I got in the lifeboat
and another fella got on the other end of the lifeboat and
they lowered us down into the water. It was a metal lifeboat.
And when we hit the water, she started to leak. They asked me
if I had the plug in. The plugs were already in, but there
were bullet holes in the lifeboat from the seaplane. So
what we did, the two of us just stayed in the boat, because it
has flotations. It won’t completely sink and the crew that
was on top got into another lifeboat, you know, the ones that
lowered us down got into another lifeboat and the two of
us were sitting there waiting for another lifeboat to come up to
us and take us off. And about 15 minutes later, the other boat
came around from the other side of the ship and picked us up. I
managed to, Ozzy was very nervous, and I managed to get him
from the half sunken lifeboat into the other lifeboat. And I
was very familiar with boats because I was from Nova Scotia.
That’s when I was, all my spare time I was in a boat rowing
around doing something as a kid so I was very familiar with
boats. So we got into the good lifeboat and we started rowing
and about an hour later this big ship came up to us, this big
raider came up to us and we went over to it and climbed up the
rope netting to the deck and they washed us down, we stripped off
and they washed us down with a hose and we went below. They
took us below in this compartment. She had already had
three ships’ crews onboard of her but they were in different
compartments.
Related Videos
I Think we Were Among the First POWs to be Taken
Mr. Yeadon describes the sea voyage to Yokohama and being sent to Kawasaki #1 POW camp.
They Kicked me, and Booted me With Rifle Butts
Mr. Yeadon briefly describes his early work on the docks, being severely beaten for stealing a pair of work gloves and being redeployed to the kitchen staff after a serious illness.
They Used our Fuel for the Japanese to Have a hot Bath
Mr. Yeadon discusses the inadequate food, heat and clothing in the camp.
- Date modified: