herakles
18-09-2008, 20:50
SUEZ MARU (November 29, 1943)
On the islands of Ambon and Hasuku in the Moluccas, Allied prisoners were dying daily through starvation, disease and beatings by their guards. In the past six months almost 400 had died and around 700 were too sick to work. The Japanese then decided to send the sick back to Java. A total of 640 men, including a number of Japanese sick patients, were taken on board the 4,645-ton passenger-cargo ship Suez Maru. In two holds, 422 sick British (including 221 RAF servicemen) and 127 sick Dutch prisoners, including up to twenty stretcher cases, were accommodated. The Japanese patients filled the other two holds.
Escorted by a minesweeper W-12, the Suez Maru set sail from Port Amboina but while entering the Java Sea and about 327 kilometres east of Surabaya, Java, Netherlands East Indies, the vessel was torpedoed by the American submarine USS Bonefish commanded by Cdr. Tom Hogan. The ship started to list as water poured into the holds drowning hundreds. Hundreds more, Allied and Japanese, managed to escape the holds and were struggling in the water. The Japanese mine sweeper W-12 started to pick up survivors, but only their own nationals, leaving the British captives behind. Between 200 and 250 men were floating in the sea.
The minesweeper then made several slow circles around the survivors and minutes later machine-gun and rifle fire were directed towards the defenceless swimmers. Empty rafts and lifeboats were then rammed and sunk by the W-12. The minesweeper then picked up speed and sped off towards Batavia (Jakarta). They had rescued 93 Japanese soldiers and crewmen and 205 Japanese sick patients. Sixty-nine Japanese had died during the attack.
Back at the site of the sinking only floating wreckage and an oil spill was all that was left of the Suez Maru. Of the 547 British and Dutch prisoners, there was only one survivor, a British soldier, Kenneth Thomas, who was picked up twenty-four hours later by the Australian minesweeper HMAS Ballarat. Over 90 percent of POW deaths at sea was the result of 'friendly fire'.
The USS Bonefish was sunk off Honshu on June 18, 1945, when on her 8th war patrol. All 86 crew were lost. The Bonefish was the last submarine to be sunk in World War 11.
The story of the fighting on Ambon and its fall is well known to many Aussie veterans and is recalled with great sadness.
The Japanese Government was signatory to the "Third Geneva Convention of 1929"- with respect to the treatment of POWs- but in the end failed ratify it.
BBC Radio 4 recently did this story and you can listen to it here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dhlf9
There are many links to this ghastly story at Google. I can't a photo of the Suez Maru. Perhaps a member has one.
On the islands of Ambon and Hasuku in the Moluccas, Allied prisoners were dying daily through starvation, disease and beatings by their guards. In the past six months almost 400 had died and around 700 were too sick to work. The Japanese then decided to send the sick back to Java. A total of 640 men, including a number of Japanese sick patients, were taken on board the 4,645-ton passenger-cargo ship Suez Maru. In two holds, 422 sick British (including 221 RAF servicemen) and 127 sick Dutch prisoners, including up to twenty stretcher cases, were accommodated. The Japanese patients filled the other two holds.
Escorted by a minesweeper W-12, the Suez Maru set sail from Port Amboina but while entering the Java Sea and about 327 kilometres east of Surabaya, Java, Netherlands East Indies, the vessel was torpedoed by the American submarine USS Bonefish commanded by Cdr. Tom Hogan. The ship started to list as water poured into the holds drowning hundreds. Hundreds more, Allied and Japanese, managed to escape the holds and were struggling in the water. The Japanese mine sweeper W-12 started to pick up survivors, but only their own nationals, leaving the British captives behind. Between 200 and 250 men were floating in the sea.
The minesweeper then made several slow circles around the survivors and minutes later machine-gun and rifle fire were directed towards the defenceless swimmers. Empty rafts and lifeboats were then rammed and sunk by the W-12. The minesweeper then picked up speed and sped off towards Batavia (Jakarta). They had rescued 93 Japanese soldiers and crewmen and 205 Japanese sick patients. Sixty-nine Japanese had died during the attack.
Back at the site of the sinking only floating wreckage and an oil spill was all that was left of the Suez Maru. Of the 547 British and Dutch prisoners, there was only one survivor, a British soldier, Kenneth Thomas, who was picked up twenty-four hours later by the Australian minesweeper HMAS Ballarat. Over 90 percent of POW deaths at sea was the result of 'friendly fire'.
The USS Bonefish was sunk off Honshu on June 18, 1945, when on her 8th war patrol. All 86 crew were lost. The Bonefish was the last submarine to be sunk in World War 11.
The story of the fighting on Ambon and its fall is well known to many Aussie veterans and is recalled with great sadness.
The Japanese Government was signatory to the "Third Geneva Convention of 1929"- with respect to the treatment of POWs- but in the end failed ratify it.
BBC Radio 4 recently did this story and you can listen to it here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dhlf9
There are many links to this ghastly story at Google. I can't a photo of the Suez Maru. Perhaps a member has one.