1941, Sunday 17 August;
The train had got them into Malacca, disembarking under the early afternoon burning sun, Lt Ben Hackney was soaked in sweat, along with everyone else. His sergeant quickly had the platoon fall in on the platform, and taking the queue from the one in front they marched out of the station onto Bona Vista Road, where the 2/29th battalion was assembling. Lt Col Robertson walked by calling all his company commanders together. Chaos, that’s the only thing Hackney could call it, chaos, and in this heat too. Transport hadn’t arrived, the battalion’s train had arrived an hour early, apparently, and they should wait, was what a staff officer was trying to explain to Robertson, but he wasn’t having any of that and the barking of orders soon told them all, they were marching to camp.
The men were moaning and bitching, but it was good natured stuff, and as they marched, he had time to take in the sights, sounds and smells of Malacca. He looked, on, almost in disbelief, the changes to his life, the big adventure, so much he had seen, and yet there was more to experience. Just a few weeks ago, late July, the component parts of the 27th Brigade had embarked on a number of Dutch liners, out of Sydney and Melbourne, along with remaining 8th Divisional units, and had sailed to Singapore. The sight of the big ships, in line astern, shepherded by Australian and Dutch warships, was exhilarating, such a force, and he was part of it all.
But in truth, it wasn’t the powerful force he imagined, but merely the last deployable one Australia had. The last brigade of the AIF to go overseas, it lacked the first-class weapons and equipment needed to fight a modern war. It shipped out of Australia with the Lewis machine gun as its squad weapon, with no Boys anti-tank rifles, and very few mortars. The artillery regiment, 2/15 Field, was equipped with 48 3-inch mortars, and limited bombs for them. The other half of the 2/4 AT Regiment was coming with no anti-tank guns, she would draw some from Malaya Command stocks, and the recently raised 8th Light Horse, the reconnaissance regiment, had only ever worked with light trucks, the Marmon Herrington armoured cars to equip her, waiting at Singapore. However, on the flip side, they were all volunteers, some of Australia’s finest, motivated, committed, and eager to learn.
The convoy had arrived in Singapore two days ago, docking at the Naval Base, preference given to the liner with the RAAF boys on board. Both air and ground crew to create a new Article XV squadron, RAAF 454, equipping with Blenheim Mk IV, along with some pilots backfilling other squadrons. They were followed by the Light Horse, who were marched off to a waiting train, before leaving for Seremban, and training with their new armoured cars. For the rest of them it was a march to a tented transit camp just outside the Naval Base, where they had rested, waiting for their designated trains to move them to Malacca.
What waited the Australians in Malacca was a number of camps around the outskirts of the town, still very much unfinished, and the beginnings of an airfield at Batu Berendam, where the undergrowth had been cleared and the land now being levelled. Here they would train, as they got used to the climate, all the while gradually re-equipping with newer weapons. Malacca was where the Second AIF was based, with her headquarters, support units, training camps and hospital, and here is where the last brigade came, completing the Division, much to Major General Gordon Bennett’s satisfaction.
