Ipoh World

This extract from the Book, "Captain Jack" is provided by kind permission of the author, John Mackie of the Perak Battalion, Federated Malay States Volunteer Force (FMSVF) and gives an eyewitness account of the Japanese attacks on Ipoh and its surrounds in December 1941. The photograph left above is of John Mackie in his FMSVF uniform on 13 July 1941, taken from his military identity card. On the right he is seen in his full ceremonial uniform as Private J B Mackie, Scottish Platoon MSVR in 1936. Today these volunteers are remembered by the Malayan Volunteers Group.

"In Ipoh the mobilised Perak Battalion of the FMSVF had been given the responsibility for guiding various airfields in the surrounding region from possible attack by paratroops. Not attacks ever happened, but the successful use of these troops by the Germans was in the minds of our leaders. Doubtless, the fear among the civilian population of the enemy dropping out of the clouds was encouraged by the 5th Column.

The Perak Battalion had moved out of Canning Camp to the Ipoh racecourse where we set up a rather puny anti-aircraft defence by mounting our Lewis guns on extended tripods in pits surrounded by sandbags. My first real experience of warfare came in the late morning of 15 December 1941, when Japanese bombers flying at high altitude raided Ipoh. However, the bombs dropped on the city and on the aerodrome at its outskirts. A thick column of black smoke arose from the latter. I realised that my logbook of training hours flown was probably going up in the flames of the aero club building. This turned out to be the case as the petrol dump was set on fire. The air aids continued, scaring the civilian population so that many left their shops and homes to flee into the countryside.

I spent most of my time helping the Adjutant in Battalion HQ. Before the air raids on 9 December I had taken a convoy of three trucks containing personnel and supplies to Lt Dale and his platoon who were guarding the airfield at Sitiawan near the west coast 64 km south-west of Ipoh. We arrived there after dark in the blackout with the defenders on the qui vive, all armed to the teeth with safety catches off, hoping we would not be mistaken for the enemy. All went well and after a hasty meal I returned with the empty trucks on a somewhat hair-raising journey in the blackout, the drivers unused to the conditions and not familiar with the route.

When the bombing began in earnest, Ipoh got pasted nearly every day and became a dangerous place for moving about in transport. I was sent with a detachment to occupy a deserted maternity hospital fairly close to the aerodrome. I have forgotten why we were sent there, but it may have been part of a dispersal plan to break up. the battalion for greater safety against air raids. Our new quarters were on the edge of rubber plantation, so we dug slit trenches under its cover, but this location also on the approach path of fighter bombers attacking the airfield. We must have been on the edge of the staffing zone because we suffered from prematurely released bombs and lining-up cannon fire. This might have been one of the reasons for the earlier abandonment of the hospital because we noticed that sandbag walls protected part of it.

This strafing was my first experience of close attention by enemy aircraft. One of my men, a nuggetty White Russian named Sokolov who used a Lewis gun from the shoulder like a rifle, reckoned he hit on low-flying Japanese plane with a burst and claimed it crashed and burned shortly afterwards. This was never verified. I guess we were not supposed to be shooting at the planes but I am afraid I turned a blind eye and let the troops have a go when the opportunity came. Such belligerence may have attracted some enemy attention to us, but we had no casualties except when one Malay soldier bit the calf of my leg in his tense state while we were lying in a slit trench. We also had a near miss from a bomb while cannon fire was coming through the canopy of the rubber trees above us but there was more noise than damage.

The aerodrome was getting frequent attention from the Japanese air force because a few Brewster Buffalo fighters had been stationed there to counter them. However, these machines were no match for the Japanese Zeroes. It was galling to see them being chased into clouds as they tried to escape the faster and more manoeuvrable enemy planes during dog fights. I felt sorry for our pilots. There were also some anti-craft guns there for a while but they, along with any RAF planes still surviving in north Malaya, were all soon ordered to the defence of Singapore. We had no protection whatever from enemy air attacks from then on, which greatly added to a general low morale among the troops.
,br> Some of our Malay troops whose homes were being over-run by the advancing Japanese then started to desert. A decision was made to allow honourable discharges for those who wished to and a large proportion took this option. We lost a great many of our personnel and were left a much reduced force consisting largely of the European Volunteers, and probably less than a couple of under strength companies. A fair number of those remaining were Vickers machine gunners.

With these we moved off to the Kampar area and I recall sleeping in the former Mines Department bungalow which had become Battalion HQ. It had been occupied not so long before by Geoff Gripper. The troops who remained at this stage had been billeted in the northern part off Kampar town on the outskirts, near a new line of defence which was being prepared there. Along with locally recruited native labour, they were put to digging trenches, carrying out demolitions and clearing lines of fire as the British took advantage of the lull in fighting to regroup their depleted forces. No doubt the Japanese were also mustering their strength for a further drive south.

Our stay in Kampar, although short, was punctuated by frequent dive bombing and machine gunning from the air. Some of the strafing came very close to our HQ near the junction with the Telok Anson road to the west coast. This was a prime target, like all rear road junctions. The town itself was also strafed several times and a large section of the population evacuated the place voluntarily. The absence of an effective police force encouraged some looting which was stopped by the use of military patrols.

Christmas day was not marked by the usual celebrations. We had a good dinner in the blackout and a dram or two of highland dew to wash it down and help keep spirits up. On 26 December our HQ moved out to Kampar to set up at Tapah further south under the Adjutant. An advanced HQ was established on the Kampar Rubber estate to supervise the rest of the work on the defensive positions and distribute surplus stocks of rice from godowns, or stores, to what was left of the civilian population."

What followed was the famous Battle of Kampar.

To read about the Battle of Kampar, click here.

To read about the the book "Captain Jack", click here.

To read about a short memoir of John Mackie, click here.

To read about the Malayan Volunteers Group, click here.