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Far East
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
2nd Battalion
&
Plymouth Argylls
History
Compiled by Ron Taylor
With help from:- ‘Moon Over Malaya’
by Jonathan Moffatt and Audrey Holmes McCormick
Andrew Snow, Thailand Burma Railway Centre
Hell Ships
After invading many countries in the Far East, Japan found themselves with a large amount of prisoners, but what to do with them. Japan decided to use them as slave labour to help their war effort. The majority being transported by ship to new destinations. These ships were not built for transporting the large numbers involved and were without correct markings leaving them open to attack by the Allies as legitimate targets, the Allies not knowing what the ships contained.
A big loss to the Argylls was the Hofuku Maru, sailing from Singapore to Miri, Borneo as part of convoy SHIMI-05. The convoy consisted of 10 ships, 5 of which carried, in total, 5,000 POWs, all in appalling conditions.
At Borneo, the Hofuku Maru left the convoy with engine problems, and sailed on to the Philippines, arriving on 19th July. She remained in Manila until mid-September while the engines were repaired. The POWs remained on board, suffering terribly from disease, hunger, and thirst.
On September 20, 1944, the Hofuku Maru and 10 other ships formed Convoy MATA-27, and sailed from Manila to Japan. The following morning, the convoy was attacked 80 miles north of Corregidor by more than 100 American carrier planes. All eleven ships in the convoy were sunk. Of those on the Hofuku Maru, 1047 of the 1289 British and Dutch POWs on board perished.
Captain Captain James Gibson’s Affidavit
Captain James Gibson with permanent address at 12 Nab Wood Crescent, Shipley, Yorkshire, formerly of 122 Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, make oath and say as follows:-
On board the HOFUKU MARU the British prisoners were divided into Sections, each section commanded by a British officer, numbered about 150.
The HOFUKU MARU was a very old tramp steamer of about 4,000 tons and in extremely bad condition. It was built at Clydeside in 1902. It was very filthy in every way and was in my opinion unsuitable for transporting 1500 personnel.
We were accommodated in two holds, one forward and one aft, 650 prisoners being accommodated in each hold. Although the holds had bunks like shelves erected the accommodation was far from adequate.
On 4 July, 1944, our ship sailed in a convoy of 10 or 12 ships. The hatches of the hold were open night and day. At first only our officers and our cooks were allowed on deck but after a few days I think that 100 from each hold were allowed to come up and sleep on the deck.
While we were confined to two holds, the 30 Korean guards were allowed a hold to themselves. These two holds were not big enough for all the occupants to lie down at the same time and it was only with the utmost difficulty that the men could be got into the holds at all. They were herded together like cattle, and took it in turns to lie down.
Most of the prisoners had khaki drill tunics and shorts and rubber Japanese boots issued in Siam before setting off to the port of embarkation, but by the time we were embarked, these articles of clothing, being of inferior quality, had mostly worn out. Owing to the heat in the holds, most of the prisoners just wore 'G' Strings.
There was no provision made for washing, apart from the fact that we were allowed at certain times to haul up buckets of sea water, which we splashed over ourselves.
There were no latrines, apart from six box-like arrangements slung over the side of the ship. Many of the prisoners became too weak to climb over the side of the ship and the result was that many had to excrete in the holds. After a time, we were given two wooden latrine buckets per hold, but we were only allowed to empty these twice daily. Eventually we had to resort to using mess tins as bed pans.
I should think that at one time during the voyage almost 99 per cent of the prisoners were suffering from Beri-Beri, dysentery and malaria. The conditions of 650 men eating, living and sleeping in such a stifling hold had to be seen to be believed.
Each man received a pint of rice twice per day, together with a minute portion of dried vegetable. Occasionally we were given one bucket of fresh fish which had to be divided between 1300 men. At the beginning of the voyage drinking water was issued on the scale of three-quarters of a pint per man per day, and as the condensers on the ship were not working properly, the water was invariably salty and caused much suffering and occasional rioting amongst the men.
After numerous complaints made by me to Sjt. JOTANI, the standard of the water was improved, but we never had enough.
On 23 July, 1944 we anchored in Manila Bay about half a mile off-shore. By that time the condition of the men had steadily deteriorated and we had our first death a few days after entering Manila Bay. Conditions on the ship owing to sickness and the lack of latrine accommodation were also bad. The death rate rose, and though we had been allowed to take the first man who died ashore for burial, we had to give other prisoners who died a sea burial. Though we were allowed to give our men Christian burials, we were often interrupted by JOTANI and NORO. Their conduct throughout the voyage had consisted mainly of extreme brutality. It was their practice to go round beating prisoners for no apparent reason with iron bars and sticks. I made complaints during the voyage concerning medical supplies, conditions and food but nothing was done and all I received for my pains was blows from JOTANI and NORO who often punched me with their fists, even though during this voyage I weighed only 8 1/2 stones and at one stage lost the use of my legs.
We stayed in Manila Bay almost two months during which time no one was allowed on shore. As a result of my repeated complaints 50 of the most serious cases were taken on shore to Manila Hospital. To give some idea of the conditions of the worst cases, I can say that while we were putting these 50 into barges to be taken ashore, our doctors decided that two of the men would be dead before their arrival at hospital and we therefore kept these in the ship and sent two other men to hospital instead. During the evacuation of these 50 hospital cases the behaviour of JOTANI, NORO and the other Japanese was brutal and callous in the extreme. They were always hurrying us on and helping us with blows.
During the time we were in Manila Bay, over 100 of the British prisoners died. We received from one of the American camps in Manila, supplies of vitamin 'B' and 'C' injections and muti-vitamin tablets to counteract Beri-Beri. The bulk of these medical supplies were however kept by JOTANI for the use of the Japanese guards. A very small quantity was given to our doctors who were compelled by JOTANI to inject the Japanese guards and members of the ship's crew with these vitamin injections.
By the end of our stay in Manila Bay it was the monsoon period and with the holds being open they were running in water and the conditions in the hold had by this time become indescribably filthy. By the middle of September, I should say that 90 per cent of the men were unable to walk without assistance.
On September, 20th, 1944 the ship left Manila Bay but on the following day it was sunk by aerial attack from American planes. Our ship had no distinguishing marks to indicate it was any other than an ordinary cargo boat. Besides being torpedoed, one bomb fell into each hold of the prisoners holds. Apart from this, the majority of the prisoners were, in view of their physical condition, quite unable to make any attempt to save themselves. I should think at least a thousand prisoners went down with the ship which sank in less than five minutes. JOTANI, NORO and the majority of the Japanese crew were picked up by lifeboats from escorting Japanese destroyers. There were no lifeboats available as these had been riddled by Machine-gun fire from the American fighters. In any event, there were only two lifeboats on the ship.
As JOTANI had previously warned me that if there was any attack on the ship, he would shoot any prisoner who attempted to leave the holds, I went up on deck to try and stop any panic. I was therefore lucky enough to get overboard and swim three miles to the shore, where I joined some Filipino guerillas. After spending five months with the latter, I was picked up by an American torpedo boat which was patrolling offshore.
As regards the indescribable conditions on board, the HOFUKU MARU, I would say that JOTANI and NORO were entirely responsible, even though at the time they always blamed their superiors. Lieut. ENO could not be blamed for what happened to us in Manila Bay as he had already left in a ship for Japan.
SWORN by the said James Gibson
At Bradford in the County of York
On this 16th day of February, 1946.
Death Roll
Hell Ships
Please click on the  next to each date below for further information
The Plymouth Argylls Service/No. begins ‘PLY’
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Date
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Name
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Service/No
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1944/06/24
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Bellett, George Singleton
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13029025
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1944/09/12
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McNiven, John Alexander
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2982058
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1944/09/12
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Fluck, Reginald Walter John
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PLY/X 962
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1944/09/12
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Alston, James Brown
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2984051
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1944/09/12
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Lyon, John
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2987551
|
|
1944/09/12
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MacDonald, Roderick
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2977740
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1944/09/12
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Burrow, Geoffrey
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PLY/X 3103
|
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1944/09/12
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Robinson, James
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PLY/X 3175
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1944/09/12
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Scantlebury, Edward Ernest
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PLY/X 1056
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1944/09/21
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Brown, Ronald Nightingale
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2977260
|
|
1944/09/21
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Calderwood, James
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2979504
|
|
1944/09/21
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Haggart, James
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2979668
|
|
1944/09/21
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Doran, John
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2979587
|
|
1944/09/21
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Cochrane, George Gordon
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2979739
|
|
1944/09/21
|
Booth, Alfred Bowman
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2979909
|
|
1944/09/21
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Connell, Arthur William
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3322766
|
|
1944/09/21
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Cunningham, Alexander
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2979993
|
|
1944/09/21
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Davenport, Jack
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PLY/X 100127
|
|
1944/09/21
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Dickie, John
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2979294
|
|
1944/09/21
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Bletherwick, Stanley
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4981095
|
|
1944/09/21
|
Calland, Jack
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3322743
|
|
1944/09/21
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Duffy, Joseph
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2986095
|
|
1944/09/21
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Gibson, Richard
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2979074
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|
1944/09/21
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Smith, William Allan
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2982034
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1944/09/21
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Hislop, William
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2980882
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1944/09/21
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Landsborough, Samuel Cord
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3131219
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|
1944/09/21
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MacDonald, Robert
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2978391
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|
1944/09/21
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McDougall, Hugh
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2979872
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|
1944/09/21
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Murray, Patrick
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3130745
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|
1944/09/21
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O'Brien, Francis
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3324793
|
|
1944/09/21
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Parry, Charles
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3322856
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|
1944/09/21
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Robson, Norman Baird
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3322876
|
|
1944/09/21
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Russell, David
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801743
|
|
1944/09/21
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Smith, Robert
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2979182
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|
1944/09/21
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Fraser, William
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2982090
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