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Those known to have fought in Java during the Second World War 1939-1945. The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please
Add a Name to this List
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The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.
Announcements
- 1st of September 2024 marks 25 years since the launch of the Wartime Memories Project. Thanks to everyone who has supported us over this time.
- The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 25 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web.
- 18th Dec 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than
265120 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible.
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Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our
Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. |
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Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home. If you have any unwanted
photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them.
The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted.
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Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a
Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.
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Want to know more about Java? There are:20 items tagged Java available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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Crfmn. Arthur Copley 21st LAA Regiment Workshop Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (d.1st Oct 1944) Arthur Copley was captured on 8th of March 1942 at Garot, Java
He departed Java on the ship Nagara Maru, on 22nd of September 1942 to Singapore, he was on Java party no 2.
He departed Singapore on the ship Hiteru Maru on 9th of October 1942 to Borneo from there he was at Sandakan camp.
He died on or shortly after 1st of October 1944 in Borneo
Arthur Copley was my great uncle.
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Able Sea. Edward James Smith HMS Dragon My Father, Edward Smith trained on H.M.S Arthur before joining his first ship as a Signalman. We know his last ship was the H.M.S. Dragon.
We know he was in the battle of Java where he was taken prisoner of war by the Japanese.
We are just at the beginning of this journey and hope to fill in a lot of gaps as we go so his grandchildren and great grandchildren will get to know about this wonderful man.
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Sgt. Howard Jeffrey Fraser MID. 6th Btn. Gordon Highlanders   My grandfather, Howard Jeffrey Fraser (1924-1961) of the 6th Gordon Highlanders, likely served alongside the Seaforth Highlanders. He served in Java and at Monte Cassino.
He was born in Dehra Dun, India in 1924 the younger of two brothers. His mother, a nursing sister met her husband to be, George Fraser, a dentist working in the same area and they became engaged and subsequently married in India. They decided to send their sons home to the United Kingdom for schooling at Panel Ash College and as parents saw very little of their children between the ages of 8 to 17.
On leaving school Jeff Fraser returned to India briefly to visit his parents following which, he returned to the United Kingdom and joined the Gordon Highlanders, 6th Battalion as a private soldier to fight in the Second World War.
He was a jocular individual not much taken with authority to all accounts but nevertheless acquitted himself with some distinction being Mentioned in Dispatches and receiving some extensive wounds from shrapnel in an action that was fought at Monte Cassino in Italy.
Following a period of convalesance, he was posted to the Far East where he saw further action against the Japanese. During this period he was attached to the 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders and had reached the rank of Sergeant in charge of a mortar platoon.
In Java he contracted pneumonia. When he resumed service the pneumonia returned and left him in a weakened state. Nevertheless, he completed his service in 1946 returning to the United Kingdom on conclusion of hostilities.
Post war, he secured employment as a trainee manager on a tea plantation and returned to India living and working in the Darjeeling district. On a brief home leave, he met his future wife and they married in 1951 returning to India together where they had three children and he was promoted to Tea Plantation Manager on the Teesta Valley Tea estate.
Sadly, his war wounds and the damage caused to his lungs by pneumonia impacted on his health and he died in December 1961 at the age of 37 while still in India.
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Sgt. Eric "Ollie" Oliver 84 Squadron Eric Oliver served in Egypt, Iraq & the Far East.
He was a Radio Operator/Gunner on a Blenheim which ditched in Sunday Stait 24th Feb 1942.
Pilot Brian Fihelly, Navigator Tommy Gomm and Eric Oliver were picked up by the Yacht White Swan but then taken prisoner by Japanese. He was in POW camps in Java & Borneo.
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Gnr. Thomas John Jones 241st Battery 77th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment Thomas Jones served with 241th Battery, 77th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery.
Audio files copyright IWM 4890.
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William Taylor 151 Maintenance Unit My grandfather William Taylor, spent time in a Java POW Camp. He was serving with RAF Maintenance Unit 151 or 153. I would like to know which camps they were held in. There are stories that he and other POWs were involved in airfield building.
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J. Talens During the Second World War I lived in the Dutch East Indies with my parents. My father was segeant engineer on board the cruiser SS Java. He died during the Battle of the Java Sea. My mother, elder brother, younger sister and myself with interned for three and a half years in Japanese internment camps.
After the war the so-called `Bersiap' period started and we were again put in the internment camps for our own protection. We were protected against attacks by the Indonesians, first by the Japanese and later by the British, Sikhs and Gurkhas. On 10th February 1946 were left the last internment camp to return to the Netherlands.
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LAC. Jack Stuart Wilkinson B Flight 84 Squadron      Jack Wilkinson enlisted in the RAFVR on 25th Jan 1940 and was assigned to 84th Squadron (Blenheim IV’s). His Service Record as recorded by war office) shows:
22nd Jul 1940 to the Middle East stationed in Southern Greece and Crete at the RAF Base at Herecklion; then to Iraq at Mosul; to Egypt at Giza and then in Tel Aviv, Then stationed in Southern Greece at Heliopolis.
The aircraft left for Palembang on 13th January 1942. The main route the aircraft took was by way of Habbaniya, Bahrein Island, Sharjah, Karachi, Allahabad, Calcutta (Dum-Dum), Toungoo, Rangoon, Lhoknga, Pakan Baros to Palembang. The Sea Party left Heliopolis at 21.00 hours on the 16th of January and reached Port Tewfik at about 04.00 hours on the 17th, and then embarked on "HT Yoma" during the forenoon and left about 14.00 hours same day. They sailed via Aden and Colombo to Oosthaven, Sumatra, where they arrived on the 14th February (the day that the Japanese parachute troops invaded Palembang (P1) aerodrome.
On the 23rd Jan 1942 the Squadron retreated to Oosthaven, then by boat to the northern tip of Java on the SS ”Silverlarch”
On the 15th Feb 1942 by train to Batavia (Jakarta) where they were billeted in Dutch Barracks at Meesters Cornelis.
They were at Kalidjati aerodrome for only 48 hours and then were attacked by the Japanese. They left by convoy to Bandoeng.
On 6th March 1942 they abandoned Bandoeng and made for Tlilajap on south coast to search for escape ship.
On the 7th April 1942 in Sumatra at Pelembang.
On the 3rd July 1942 he was captured by Japanese forces, transferred to Boei Glodok Jail (Batavia). He was subsequently moved to PoW camp on Java – transferred via a port on the Rio Janeiro Maru, then to Ambon, to the Molucas Islands, to Singapore and finally to Pakan Baroe (the other 'death railway').
He was freed on the 2nd Sept 1945 and returned home via Singapore to Liverpool on SS Monowai, stopping at Adabiya and Suez. He arrived home and was granted 117 days leave from No.104 PDC Dispersal Centre. On the 8th January 1946 he was released from RAF service.
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