Seventy five years ago on the 28th August 1945 British Liberator bombers swooped low over the Changi Gaol Prison of War Camp in war torn Singapore. Leaflets fluttered down from the aircraft bringing the first official external news of the Japanese surrender and confirmation that allied help was on the way. The Japanese surrender was formally signed on 2nd September. This anniversary was to be the subject of a public open day at the museum which has had to be postponed until next year because of the constraints imposed by the pandemic.
On the 75th Anniversary of VJ Day on the 15th August the museum staged a modest, invited guests only, commemoration ceremony to allied far eastern prisoners of war (1941-45), including the four nations involved, and remembering in particular the 16,500 British prisoners of war who did not survive their years of captivity under the Japanese occupation .
Photo : Trevor Kirk
Operation Tiderace was the codename of the British plan to retake Singapore following the Japanese surrender in 1945. It was planned soon after the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug 6 and 9 and it commenced when Mountbatten ordered Allied troops to set sail from Trincomalee and Rangoon on 31 August for Singapore. The convoy consisted of about 90 ships, which included seven escort carriers, two battleships, with the cruiser HMS Sussex serving as the flagship. The fleet arrived in Singapore on 4 September 1945, meeting no opposition.
HMS Sussex tied up at the dockside and its crew provided support and open hospitality to the emaciated Prisoners of War released from the allied Prisoner of War camps in Singapore. In gratitude the ex-prisoners re-christened the ship the “Sussex Hotel”.
Whilst the former allied prisoners began to be repatriated in mid-September 1945 it was not until late 1953 that a fellow prisoner of war, the dockside steam locomotive SINGAPORE returned to the UK, having been landed initially at Portsmouth Naval Base. The loco was then taken to the Royal Navy base at Chatham Dockyard to continue its military service until sold for preservation in 1972.