The forgotton heros of Singapore:
Dalforce, or the Singapore Overseas Chinese
Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army (星华义勇军; Xinghua
Yi Yong Jun) was an irregular
forces/guerrillaunit within
the British Straits
Settlements Volunteer Force duringWorld War II. Its
members were recruited among the ethnic
Chinesepeople of Singapore. It was
created on 25 December 1941 by Lieutenant
Colonel John Dalley of the Federated
Malay States Police Force. The unit was known to the British
colonial administration as Dalforce, after its chief instructor and
commanding officer, John Dalley, whereas the Chinese in Singapore
only knew it as the Singapore Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese
Volunteer Army. This formation took part in theBattle of
Singapore and some members conducted a guerrilla campaign
against Japanese forces
during the Japanese
occupation.
The
British noted how ferociously the Chinese volunteers in Dalforce
fought, earning them the nickname Dalley's
Desperadoes.
Dalley had suggested creating a guerrilla network in 1940, but it
was not until about a year later, when the Japanese invasion was
imminent, did it become apparent that the official recruitment of
the local Chinese against the Japanese was essential. The British
Government relented and on 25 December 1941, Dalforce was
officially established, ignoring the fact that the existing
Singapore Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army had been in
existence under Chinese leadership since at least 1939. John
Dalley, together with his fellow British officers, began training
in Johorein mid-January 1942
with a force of 200 men. By the time the Japanese invaded, Dalforce
numbered 4,000 resistance fighters.
Due
to the divided leadership between the Communist Chinese
and the Kuomintang, the army
was divided into two sections. One is the Singapore Overseas
Chinese Volunteer Army, which was mainly Communist and under direct
command of Lieutenant-Colonel Dalley, and the smallerGuomindang
Overseas Chinese Guard Force under the command of Chinese
Nationalist Major Hu Tie Jun. Both sections comprised a total
strength not exceeding 1,500 men, and the Overseas Chinese Guard
Force was also trained by British officers. Ian Morrison, the
Malayan correspondent for The Times in
1942, also noted that they were “trained, and placed in formations
according to their political sympathies. There was one school where
the Kuomintang adherents were trained, another where the Communists
were trained.”[1]
Dalforce was not issued uniforms worn by Commonwealth troops.
Instead, they had to wear tailoredclothing
and bandanas to
preventfriendly fire. A
few men tied a piece of red cloth to their right arms and a yellow
one around their heads to reflect the unity of the Overseas
Chinese with the Republic of
Chinaand Chinese
traditions.[1]
Most
were issued Lee Enfield No.I
Mk.III rifles, bayonets and about
7-20 bullets each for those in the Communist wing and 24 bullets
for those in the Chinese Nationalist wing. Only a small number
wielded grenades and Bren light
machine guns. Others had to carry weapons used for hunting
animals, such as sporting rifles and parangs. Military
training lasted up until the Japanese invaded Singapore.
Female members were given the responsibility of simple tasks
like first
aid, cooking, relaying
messages and other menial tasks.
The
British actually intended to fully equip the troops in preparation
for the invasion. This became impossible when the
liner SS Empress
of Asia, which carried the vital supplies for the men, was
sunk by Japanese aircraft while on its way to Singapore from Bombay. According to
officer Frank
Brewer, the standard issue for each soldier would have been
a combat shotgun,
seven rounds of ammunition and two grenades.
“ There weren’t enough ordinary rifles to be handed out to
them. I know one company had as many as three different types of
sporting guns, this made it very difficult to try and teach [the
men] how these things operate in a very short time. —
Frank Brewer[1]
”
Training was also conducted at the SOE 101 Special
Training School in Singapore, to prepare another unit of local
Chinese for jungle
warfare in Malaya in December 1941. But because it was no
longer possible to deploy them to Malaya, many were incorporated
into Dalforce.[1]
Dalforce had a total of five companies in Singapore, each
containing about a hundred troops:
Dalforce volunteers were deployed to the frontline on 5 February.
They fought at Sarimbun
Beach,Bukit Timah, as well
as the Woodlands and Kranji areas.
They were mostly used to patrolmangrove
swamps where enemy landings might be made. A Dalforce unit
was also attached to the 1st
Malaya Infantry Brigade which took part in
the Battle of
Pasir Panjang.
Company No. 1, stationed at the end of Jurong Road was involved in
action even before the invasion, repulsing two waves of Japanese
patrol boats. In the first incident, the patrol boats retreated
after taking fire. On the next day, the night of 6 February 1942,
the company exchanged fire with about thirty Japanese soldiers, but
was also involved in friendly fire with the 44th
Indian Brigade while both were retreating along the lower
areas of the Jurong river.
Company No. 2's first military engagement also occurred on the
night of 6 February 1942. The company’s first and second platoons
were able to repulse an approaching group of Japanese rubber boats
(each carrying one soldier), sinking three out of five of
the rafts. They later returned
with motorized rubber rafts, but were discovered and attacked by
both the Australians and Dalforce, and were forced to retreat. Over
sixty men (out of about 150) from the company managed to survive
the initial Japanese landings on the night of 8 February by
retreating down Lim Chu Kang Road and then swimming across the
tributaries of the Kranji river to make it toChoa Chu Kang
Road.
Madam Cheng
Seang Ho, nicknamed the legendary Passionaria of
Malaya (after the passionariaof
the Spanish Civil
War), fought the Japanese at Bukit Timah together with her
husband. Both were over 60 years of age when they volunteered,
making their last stand at Bukit Timah heights exchanging fire with
the Japanese from behind trees. Madam Cheng and her husband’s
heroics at Bukit Timah earned them a certificate of recognition in
1948, signed by Lieutenant-Colonel Dalley himself.[1] Madam
Cheng's husband was later captured and subsequently executed by the
Kempeitai.[2]
The
unit suffered severe casualties due to lack of training, equipment
and armament. The Japanese despised Dalforce bitterly, deciding to
use them as an excuse for their treatment of the Chinese
population, although this behaviour was instigated by
the Kempeitai rather
than by Lieutenant-General Tomoyuki
Yamashita.
On
13 February 1942, two days before General Arthur
Percival's surrender of Singapore, Dalley assembled Dalforce
troops at Kim Yam Road Headquarters and ordered them to disband.
The surviving members were each paid ten Straits
dollars for their services.[3]
Dalforce is estimated to have suffered 300 casualties, of which 134
known killed were compiled by the Commonwealth
War Graves Commission in 1956. Many men and women would be
captured, tortured and executed in the Sook Ching
massacre for their involvement in Dalforce. Quite a number
of veterans were able to escape to India after Singapore
fell. Others fled into the jungles and joined up with
the Malayan
Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army during the occupation.
After the war, Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival,
who was General
Officer Commanding Malaya, originally disparaged the
Chinese community in his dispatches for
not assisting the British enough during the invasion. He later
changed his opinion in his book, The War in Malaya,
after his dispatches circulated in Singapore, causing an outcry
among the local Chinese. He praised Dalforce, but still maintained
that it had little impact in the battle.[1]
John
Dalley was one of several key personnel who was ordered to be
evacuated from Singapore before its capitulation.[4] He
boarded a forty-foot Royal
Navy motor
launch known as the Mary
Rose at Keppel Harbour,
where it would sail to Palembang, Sumatra.[4] The
Mary Rose, commanded by veteran naval officer Captain George Mulock
DSO, RN left Singapore a little before midnight on 14th
February. However, they were caught by two Japanese patrol vessels
and were forced to surrender.[4] Dalley
survived the war, and submitted a positive report on the unit in
1945-46.[1]
Dalforce has appeared in the SBC 1984
television series The
Awakening and the MediaCorp2001
drama, A War Diary.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalforce
