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The Lisbon Maru
Taken From
The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru
By Tony Banham
After the fall of Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1941 the men of the three British Battalions found themselves Japanese PoWs. With no air and very little artillery support they stood no chance and were overrun by three Divisions of crack Japanese troops who already had battle experience in China.
One of those British Battalions was the 2nd Battalion, Royal Scots, this is the story of a friendship which grew strength after being transported in the Lisbon Maru.
The Japanese were finding ways to make use of the captured prisoners and in September 1942 a first draft of 620 PoWs was sent in an unknown ship from Hong Kong to Japan to work, these were mostly the men who wouldn’t sign the ‘No Escape’ document. They were sent to Tokyo 3B, Tokyo Main Camp and Tokyo 1B.
A Second draft of 1,816 men was loaded into the three holds of the Lisbon Maru and on the 27th of September it set sail for Japan. Among the prisoners was Private William ‘Bill’ Spooner (3054167) and Private Francis (Mickey) Myles (3054053) both Royal Scots who had been herded with over 1000 other prisoners into the biggest space in the middle ship, hold two, under the command of Colonel Stewart. The Royal Navy men were in the forward, hold one, under command of Lieutenant J.T. Pollock. The artillery men were placed in the stern of the ship, hold three, under the command of Major ‘Zazz’ Pit but as there was not enough room for the 380 PoWs, some forced their way into hold two.
The ship set sail following the China coastline in a North Eastward direction towards Japan and the prisoners in hold two fell into a routine. In the morning after their rice and tea, a trip to the toilet was essential. Hold two was tiered into two levels, the Royal Scots were in the bottom tier and as there was no toilet below deck the Scots had two lots of ladders to climb to get to the toilet. The Benjo was a wooden bench situated over the side of the ship, the sea catching everything that fell from the bench and many of the prisoners had the fear it could be them if they lost balanced and slipped.
Mickie Myles had smuggled his accordian on board and entertained the men in hold two with ‘Roll Me Over In the Clover’ and ‘Men of Harlech’ with vocal support from Sapper Jones. Bill Spooner had experienced the degradation of the prisoners at the Sham Shui Po hospital and saw the same sickness and despair in the eyes of the prisoners in the hold but Mickie was lifting their spirits. Mickie was also sponsoring other entertainment on board using packets of cigarettes as payment for their services, it all helped to lift the men’s spirits.
On the early morning of 1st October, Bill Spooner and Charlie Heather were carrying a wooden bucket of the morning meal of rice along the deck when a dull thud was heard from the side of the ship, in a frenzy the Japanese cleared the deck of all the prisoners and pushed them into the holds. The Lisbon Maru had come to a halt. Below deck the prisoners heard the whirr of torpedoes from near misses and the explosions from those on target, water was heard gushing in through holes in the hull.
After two hours of pursuing the Lisbon Maru and the torpedoes finding their targets the USS Grouper moved away to a safe distance from the threatening depth charges which were now being dropped by a Japanese destroyer and several auxiliary ships which had arrived at the scene.
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The prisoners were kept in the holds with dysentery rampant and no toilet facilities, the air was foul and the ship was listing to the stern with the holds remaining closed. The prisoners went hungry all day and it became apparent that the Japanese were leaving the prisoners to die in the holds. The USS Grouper unknowing that PoWs were on board left the scene at 7pm, 12 hours after their successful attack. At 8pm the Japanese secured the three hatches and set up machine guns covering them, the prisoners had no escape. Morse code messages were tapped on the metal pipes and it was made clear that the water level in hold three was rising fast, the tapping became fainter and in the early hours of 2nd October, all tapping stopped and an eery silence followed.
It was becoming too difficult for the PoWs to hold themselves and the men in the bottom tier of hold two were getting wet in urine and filth from those in the above tier but this was not what the PoWs feared the most, the ship was sinking, stern first. It was known that the Japanese had already abandoned ship and left the PoWs to die in the holds.
At 9am Colonel Stewart saw there was no other way the ship was lurching dangerously he ordered a break out of hold two. Howell took up the challenge and with a knife cut open the hatch for the PoWs to escape. Some luck was on the prisoners side as the Toyokuni Maru, after taking off the Japanese, had towed the Lisbon Maru close to some islands which were at the mouth of the Yangtze River where the river silt was just below the Lisbon Maru hull, this would save many of the prisoners lives.
Colonel Stewart made sure the PoWs from Hold one and two could escape their holds After he oped up the hatch to hold three, dead faces greeted him, the death toll was very high, not many artillery men had survived as the water rose and flooded their hold. Colonel Stewart then came under fire from the bridge where some Japanese had been left on board to make sure the prisoners did not escape. Some gunners, who had already escaped through the hatch of hold three, crept up onto the bridge from behind and disposed of the Japanese.
Colonel Stewart seeing the ship was sinking ordered all to abandon ship.
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Mickey and Bill found themselves sharing a makeshift raft with two others. During the day the raft floated nearer then further from the shore on the tide and they were in a poor state, hunger and exposure got to them and then the rain came, turning stormy, with huge waves engulfing their raft, ships passed but not one stopped for them. Thirst got the better of one of the PoWs and after drinking sea water he jumped off the raft, Mickey physically stopped Bill from drinking the sea water, but then Mickey noticed the other PoW on the raft had died, Mickey gently pushed him into the water. After two days the storm had passed and both Bill and Mickey were alive with their cloths in shreds. A Chinese fisherman found them and landed them on an island where he hada hut. After they had slept he supplied them with clothing and food. Bill tried to bribe the fisherman to help them escape but could not get the fisherman to understand him and they were taken to Woosung, Nr. Shanghai, where they found the PoWs who survived the sinking had already left in the Shinsei Maru for Moji, Japan.
As they were both sick and had missed the ship to Japan they were transported and interned at Shanghai PoW Camp under the command of Sergeant Overy.
Taken from Tony Banham’s Book ‘ We Shall Suffer There’
1945, May 5th - Wednesday May 9th - Kiangwan Camp near Shanghai was closed down. With the exception of some twenty-five men (who were sent to Municipal Police Hospital in Shanghai, their number including Heather of the Middlesex) too sick or injured to make the trip, the entire POW population was sent on their way to Japan.
They stayed at a makeshift camp at Fengtai near Beijing, arriving on May 14th at noon, for about a month, then went on to Pusan, Korea for a few days. Almost 1000 strong (though with only 30 or so from Hong Kong) they arrived in Japan in late June 1945, and were sent to the Hakodate camps on the northern island of Hokkaido."
1945/06 - To Hakodate 2B PoW camp, Akahira, Japan in Hospital
1945/09/16 - Liberated Hakodate 2B
After liberation Spooner arrived home and later married with four children. He could never forget Mickey and tried in vain to find him, but unknown to Spooner, Mickey stayed in the army for a further 17 years and he also tried to find his friend Bill Spooner to no avail.
Next
Mickey Myles Had Many Faces
by Spooz (Bill Spooner)
Now and again, all, or most all of us, meet some one in life, apart from wives, husbands, lovers etc, who remains in ones memory for many years.
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