The Sinking of the Vyner Brook
The Vyner Brooke - a make-do evacuation ship shelled and sunk by the Japanese saw many acts of valour and dedication. For a vivid description of the allied retreat down the Malay Peninsula, and then from Singapore, read Thelma Bell's account in The Wah Sui Incident. Like the Wah Suiand theEmpire Star, the Vyner Brooke was a hastily requisitioned ship and unsuited for the job it was about to do.
The evacuation from Singapore:
Vivian Bullwinkel's recollection:
Originally built to carry 12 passengers, the Vyner Brooke soon became terribly overcrowded with over 265 frightened men, women and children, plus the 65 AANS nurses. Short of food and water, the ship finally set sail just as darkness set in. It was to be a never-to-be-forgotten scene: huge fires were burning along the whole front of Singapore and a heavy pall of black smoke hung over the island. In the gathering darkness, the captain unwittingly steered the vessel into a minefield and was forced to stop for the night.
The next day (Friday the13th February) was spent hiding behind islands and avoiding detection. The day was hazy and hot, the sea was calm and the captain knew that he would be foolish to attempt to breakout in these conditions. That night, the Vyner Brooke attempted to slip out to freedom, and eventually it reached the Bangka Strait. After dodging bombs from Japanese planes and machine gun fire which had left the starboard lifeboats holed, the ship eventually received three direct hits (it was 2pm on the 14th of February). One bomb went down the funnel, while another exploded on the bridge, the third hit the aft section injuring scores of civilians. The vessel began to pitch and soon the frightened passengers heard the sound of pouring water. The Vyner Brooke was sinking and the captain gave the order to abandon ship. The ship was to sink in approximately 15 minutes.
Some of the nurses helped to move the wounded topside, while others lent a hand getting everyone up on deck. The civilians were ordered to go over the side first, and Vivian Bullwinkel was later to recall that "…those that weren't too keen to leave, we gave a helping hand to!" They were no sooner in the water, than enemy pilots returned and began strafing the human flotsam. There was utter pandemonium, one lifeboat holding the elderly and children turned over and two empty lifeboats, with bullet holes in them , dropped into the sea.
Bullwinkel helped to see to the casualties and eventually evacuated the ship by climbing down a rope ladder. She was able to get ashore by hanging onto the side of one of the life boats. Though the lifeboat was overcrowded, they were able to reach Bangka Island by late afternoon. Earlier survivors, including Matron Drummond (one of the senior nurses), had lit a fire on the beach and it was this fire that acted as a beacon for the others still in the water.
Wilma Oram reports:
"The Japanese planes came over and bombed us. They bombed us at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. We’d already gone down to take shelter below decks. And the side where Mona (Mona Wilton, the best friend with whom she enlisted in the AANS) and I were, we were lying flat on our faces, and the side was blown out of the ship. There was broken glass sprayed all over us. I thought my legs had been cut off, but when I had a look they were only just cut by flying glass. But one of our girls was badly wounded. She had a very bad wound in her buttock. We carried her up this ladder onto the deck and put a field dressing on it. Then we had to abandon ship."It was listing now very badly. So we put the girls with the wounded over the side, down a ladder into a life boat, and they got away. They eventually got to shore but were amongst the group that was shot by the Japanese (the Bangka Island massacre). Then Mona and I climbed over the side and went down a ladder into a life boat. Jean Ashton was in the life boat. But the ship was coming over very fast. The boat was full of women and children. It was sinking. So we just had to jump out of the life boat.We couldn’t get it away from the ship. Not nearly quickly enough. So Mona and I jumped out. It was everybody for themselves at this stage. And Mona said “I can’t swim”. She had a life belt so I said “Just dog paddle.” We were both parallel with the ship and trying to get away from it because it was going to tip over on top of us. So dog paddle is what we did. But it did tip over on top of us, and I said to Mona, “The ship’s coming down. Looks as though we’re sunk this time. We’re not going to get out of this.” I put my hand up and caught the rail of the ship and came through the rails. When I surfaced again there was no sign of Mona. I don’t know what happened to her, I guess the ship came down on top of her and she couldn’t get out from under it. I never saw her again.
"I was still trying to get away from the ship because it was tipping over. And the rafts from the high side of the ship started to fall off. They hadn’t been thrown over, as they should have been, and I saw this raft coming down. I put my head down. I’d taken off my tin hat prior to this and the raft hit me on the head. And as I came up another raft hit me. I think there were six altogether, one after the other, they hit me on the head and kept pushing me under."
J. Elizabeth Simonsreports in her book "While History Passed" that she was lying on the lower deck, her head on a tin helmet for a pillow, wedged between all the other bodies and trying to read the book "Cactus" to take her mind off the discomfort when the Japanese planes struck. "It became obvious to everyone simultaneously that the lower deck of a sinking ship is very like a prison." She was hit in the arm by flying shrapnel but was too busy to notice the wound until much later when someone was binding it. "The chip of steel is still somewhere in my arm as a souvenir of the occasion," she says. "I grasped a rope which hung overboard, kicked off my shoes and slid rapidly down into the water, so rapidly that it turned out that I burned all the skin off my palms, although in the excitement I was completely unaware of the damage until later. I pushed off from the ship and could see that a few of the boats had been successfully launched, but they were so badly holed that the occupants were bailing frantically.... We held an inpromptu mass meeting in the water... At first it was really pleasant, quite a lark, in fact, to be swimming in the cool water. We had not bathed for some time and even a perfunctory wash had been impossible on the ship... Jenny Greer started to sing "We're off to see the Wizard" and the girls joined in as they made towards the piece of wood she was hanging on to." . Shortly Pat Gunther and Winnie May Davis were swept by on the drift and Simons made room on the raft for Gunther by slipping into the water in her place because Gunther could not swim. "Stan (British sailor), Win and I took turns resting on the raft and, between these spells, we clung to the ropes around the sides." The other sailor was so badly burned and almost naked to the blazing sun that Simons took off her uniform dress and covered him with it.Win Davis found an emergency kit in her own uniform pocket and was able to give him a morphine injection. They were joined by a mother and daughter who also clung to the raft. During the night the burned sailor slipped off and was lost. During that same night they found themselves surrounded by the Japanese invasion fleet which ignored their cries for help. "I can remember being hoisted so I could rest the upper part of my body on the raft to take the strain off my hands and arms. In this position, I actually slept!"They saw the beacon fire on Radji beach but luckily the currents did not allow them to land there.When daylight came the found themselves literally in the middle of the invasion of Sumatra and later, with POW camp humour, claimed "We really took Sumatra although, unfortunately, the Japs were in larger numbers." Eventually they managed to stop a Japanese landing craft which took the women on board and dragged the men on the raft at its stern until they reached the shore. Their Japanese "rescuers" turned out to be humane, protecting them from possible execution on the beach at the hands of a less sympathetic officer, and giving them water.
Jessie Blanch ("Blanchie") recalled:"The Captain (of the Vyner Brooke) was good. He zigzagged. They came over and bombed us, and missed. It was a very small ship. They came back and it is said that they dropped 27 bombs. And eventually one hit us. Right down the funnel. The boys down in the engine room were very badly burned. And then we were given orders to abandon ship.There was no trouble, no worry, because Matron (Paschke) had given us lifeboat drill. She was a marvelous woman, and we just knew where to get off. We only had 2 or 3 lifeboats. So those who could swim had to swim and those who were wounded had to go in the lifeboats.
The majority of the Australian Sisters, 65 of us, we could swim. Our main recreation in Singapore was swimming, because it was so hot. Anyway we all knew what we had to do. I had a bag of dressings. Another Sister had the hypodermic needles with morphia. Some of us had different things. We went about the ship attending to the wounded. And there wasn't a sound. We knew where we were going, we didn't have to have orders yelled at us. I was one of the last getting off. We all took our shoes off except one Sister. I remember taking my shoes off and placing them neatly on the deck. I looked up and there were two of my friends down in the sea. By this time the ship was listing the wrong way. I was getting way up in the air and they were calling out "Jump, Blanchie, jump!" Well I jumped and I thought I was never coming up again, it was so long.
Anyway I joined up with those two girls and we saw the ship just roll over a few minutes later.
Quite a lot of debris floated along. And along came a piece of the rail of the ship. Quite a big piece. And we had little cork life belts. And if you didn't swim a bit, these 'd tip you up. It was awful. And those who couldn't swim, of course they drowned. Anyway there were three of us, and then we picked up another two girls, and by putting our hands on that board we could keep together. Swim with one hand and kick. There were 5 of us. Jenny Greer, Beryl Woodbridge, Flo Trotter, Joyce Tweddell and me. Jenny's a bit of a wag. And as we got into a current, it took us quite quickly away and Jenny started to sing "We're Off To See the Wizard." And we all joined in. Surprisingly enough, the Captain got into a different current to us, went to Sumatra and got home. And he said, "There were some Australian Sisters on my ship, but I don't know how many and what happened to them, but they were singing We're Off to See the Wizard." Our people (at home) wouldn't believe it. Anyway, it was true.
That was 25 past 2 according to my watch. Then all the debris, and the people, and a few rafts went. Only one lifeboat floated, and that had the wounded in it. Jenny had a waterproof watch and her watch kept going: 6 o'clock, 7 o'clock. The night went, we got quite cold and one of the girls got cramp and couldn't swim, and one didn't want to hang on and we roused at her to be strong. I was very strong, and Tweedie was the other one who was a very strong swimmer. We were at the front of the plank. We roused at the girl to keep going, have a bit of courage, "You'll be right, we'll be soon on the land, or somebody'll pick us up."
Anyway night came. Early in the morning we thought we saw a big cliff. But it wasn't a cliff, it was a huge warship. We realized it was Japs, and they looked overboard, had a look and just laughed. Anyway we didn't care, we didn't want them to pick us up. During the (early) morning we could see a lighthouse. They lit a fire, and we could see in that firelight some of our girls. In uniform. Quite a few had landed there including a couple of whom had been wounded, they were in the life boat. That was where the lifeboat landed. But we couldn't get in to that lighthouse. We tried to pull this (plank) in but we couldn't make it.
Eventually, about half past 6 in the morning, we got into a current which took us straight to the beach. And we couldn't stand up. And our skin was all wrinkled. We were covered with oil, we looked an awful sight. We just lay on the beach there in the sun until we thawed out. Then a native came and told us that the Japanese had taken the island, and it was no good trying to hide. There was no food, no people to help us, he said. I said, "Show us where the Japanese Headquarters is." He left us then because he didn't want to be seen by the Japanese. So we started off, then as we got near the quarters a young Japanese met us, the five of us. We thought we were going to be shot. He told us to go into a house. There were five or six steps, and we stood on the steps and he yelled at us to stop. We stopped. We had our back to him, and we thought "This is it". Then he grunted, and we turned around and he beckoned us. We followed him and we met a native with some bananas. He took the bananas from the native and gave them to us. I think he had a tender heart and couldn't shoot us. Or maybe he just didn't have enough bullets.
He took us to the HQ. And were they pleased to see us, because our buttons had Australia on them. They said, "Australia sister, Australia nurse!" And they were as pleased as Punch. And of course our army should never have let the nurses be taken prisoner. As soon as the Japs took us prisoner, they grabbed Jenny's watch which was still going. Mine wasn't any good. But they grabbed everything and took them from us. So later on we came to realize that they 'd left us nothing to barter with.
The evacuation from Singapore:
Vivian Bullwinkel's recollection:
Originally built to carry 12 passengers, the Vyner Brooke soon became terribly overcrowded with over 265 frightened men, women and children, plus the 65 AANS nurses. Short of food and water, the ship finally set sail just as darkness set in. It was to be a never-to-be-forgotten scene: huge fires were burning along the whole front of Singapore and a heavy pall of black smoke hung over the island. In the gathering darkness, the captain unwittingly steered the vessel into a minefield and was forced to stop for the night.
The next day (Friday the13th February) was spent hiding behind islands and avoiding detection. The day was hazy and hot, the sea was calm and the captain knew that he would be foolish to attempt to breakout in these conditions. That night, the Vyner Brooke attempted to slip out to freedom, and eventually it reached the Bangka Strait. After dodging bombs from Japanese planes and machine gun fire which had left the starboard lifeboats holed, the ship eventually received three direct hits (it was 2pm on the 14th of February). One bomb went down the funnel, while another exploded on the bridge, the third hit the aft section injuring scores of civilians. The vessel began to pitch and soon the frightened passengers heard the sound of pouring water. The Vyner Brooke was sinking and the captain gave the order to abandon ship. The ship was to sink in approximately 15 minutes.
Some of the nurses helped to move the wounded topside, while others lent a hand getting everyone up on deck. The civilians were ordered to go over the side first, and Vivian Bullwinkel was later to recall that "…those that weren't too keen to leave, we gave a helping hand to!" They were no sooner in the water, than enemy pilots returned and began strafing the human flotsam. There was utter pandemonium, one lifeboat holding the elderly and children turned over and two empty lifeboats, with bullet holes in them , dropped into the sea.
Bullwinkel helped to see to the casualties and eventually evacuated the ship by climbing down a rope ladder. She was able to get ashore by hanging onto the side of one of the life boats. Though the lifeboat was overcrowded, they were able to reach Bangka Island by late afternoon. Earlier survivors, including Matron Drummond (one of the senior nurses), had lit a fire on the beach and it was this fire that acted as a beacon for the others still in the water.
Wilma Oram reports:
"The Japanese planes came over and bombed us. They bombed us at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. We’d already gone down to take shelter below decks. And the side where Mona (Mona Wilton, the best friend with whom she enlisted in the AANS) and I were, we were lying flat on our faces, and the side was blown out of the ship. There was broken glass sprayed all over us. I thought my legs had been cut off, but when I had a look they were only just cut by flying glass. But one of our girls was badly wounded. She had a very bad wound in her buttock. We carried her up this ladder onto the deck and put a field dressing on it. Then we had to abandon ship."It was listing now very badly. So we put the girls with the wounded over the side, down a ladder into a life boat, and they got away. They eventually got to shore but were amongst the group that was shot by the Japanese (the Bangka Island massacre). Then Mona and I climbed over the side and went down a ladder into a life boat. Jean Ashton was in the life boat. But the ship was coming over very fast. The boat was full of women and children. It was sinking. So we just had to jump out of the life boat.We couldn’t get it away from the ship. Not nearly quickly enough. So Mona and I jumped out. It was everybody for themselves at this stage. And Mona said “I can’t swim”. She had a life belt so I said “Just dog paddle.” We were both parallel with the ship and trying to get away from it because it was going to tip over on top of us. So dog paddle is what we did. But it did tip over on top of us, and I said to Mona, “The ship’s coming down. Looks as though we’re sunk this time. We’re not going to get out of this.” I put my hand up and caught the rail of the ship and came through the rails. When I surfaced again there was no sign of Mona. I don’t know what happened to her, I guess the ship came down on top of her and she couldn’t get out from under it. I never saw her again.
"I was still trying to get away from the ship because it was tipping over. And the rafts from the high side of the ship started to fall off. They hadn’t been thrown over, as they should have been, and I saw this raft coming down. I put my head down. I’d taken off my tin hat prior to this and the raft hit me on the head. And as I came up another raft hit me. I think there were six altogether, one after the other, they hit me on the head and kept pushing me under."
J. Elizabeth Simonsreports in her book "While History Passed" that she was lying on the lower deck, her head on a tin helmet for a pillow, wedged between all the other bodies and trying to read the book "Cactus" to take her mind off the discomfort when the Japanese planes struck. "It became obvious to everyone simultaneously that the lower deck of a sinking ship is very like a prison." She was hit in the arm by flying shrapnel but was too busy to notice the wound until much later when someone was binding it. "The chip of steel is still somewhere in my arm as a souvenir of the occasion," she says. "I grasped a rope which hung overboard, kicked off my shoes and slid rapidly down into the water, so rapidly that it turned out that I burned all the skin off my palms, although in the excitement I was completely unaware of the damage until later. I pushed off from the ship and could see that a few of the boats had been successfully launched, but they were so badly holed that the occupants were bailing frantically.... We held an inpromptu mass meeting in the water... At first it was really pleasant, quite a lark, in fact, to be swimming in the cool water. We had not bathed for some time and even a perfunctory wash had been impossible on the ship... Jenny Greer started to sing "We're off to see the Wizard" and the girls joined in as they made towards the piece of wood she was hanging on to." . Shortly Pat Gunther and Winnie May Davis were swept by on the drift and Simons made room on the raft for Gunther by slipping into the water in her place because Gunther could not swim. "Stan (British sailor), Win and I took turns resting on the raft and, between these spells, we clung to the ropes around the sides." The other sailor was so badly burned and almost naked to the blazing sun that Simons took off her uniform dress and covered him with it.Win Davis found an emergency kit in her own uniform pocket and was able to give him a morphine injection. They were joined by a mother and daughter who also clung to the raft. During the night the burned sailor slipped off and was lost. During that same night they found themselves surrounded by the Japanese invasion fleet which ignored their cries for help. "I can remember being hoisted so I could rest the upper part of my body on the raft to take the strain off my hands and arms. In this position, I actually slept!"They saw the beacon fire on Radji beach but luckily the currents did not allow them to land there.When daylight came the found themselves literally in the middle of the invasion of Sumatra and later, with POW camp humour, claimed "We really took Sumatra although, unfortunately, the Japs were in larger numbers." Eventually they managed to stop a Japanese landing craft which took the women on board and dragged the men on the raft at its stern until they reached the shore. Their Japanese "rescuers" turned out to be humane, protecting them from possible execution on the beach at the hands of a less sympathetic officer, and giving them water.
Jessie Blanch ("Blanchie") recalled:"The Captain (of the Vyner Brooke) was good. He zigzagged. They came over and bombed us, and missed. It was a very small ship. They came back and it is said that they dropped 27 bombs. And eventually one hit us. Right down the funnel. The boys down in the engine room were very badly burned. And then we were given orders to abandon ship.There was no trouble, no worry, because Matron (Paschke) had given us lifeboat drill. She was a marvelous woman, and we just knew where to get off. We only had 2 or 3 lifeboats. So those who could swim had to swim and those who were wounded had to go in the lifeboats.
The majority of the Australian Sisters, 65 of us, we could swim. Our main recreation in Singapore was swimming, because it was so hot. Anyway we all knew what we had to do. I had a bag of dressings. Another Sister had the hypodermic needles with morphia. Some of us had different things. We went about the ship attending to the wounded. And there wasn't a sound. We knew where we were going, we didn't have to have orders yelled at us. I was one of the last getting off. We all took our shoes off except one Sister. I remember taking my shoes off and placing them neatly on the deck. I looked up and there were two of my friends down in the sea. By this time the ship was listing the wrong way. I was getting way up in the air and they were calling out "Jump, Blanchie, jump!" Well I jumped and I thought I was never coming up again, it was so long.
Anyway I joined up with those two girls and we saw the ship just roll over a few minutes later.
Quite a lot of debris floated along. And along came a piece of the rail of the ship. Quite a big piece. And we had little cork life belts. And if you didn't swim a bit, these 'd tip you up. It was awful. And those who couldn't swim, of course they drowned. Anyway there were three of us, and then we picked up another two girls, and by putting our hands on that board we could keep together. Swim with one hand and kick. There were 5 of us. Jenny Greer, Beryl Woodbridge, Flo Trotter, Joyce Tweddell and me. Jenny's a bit of a wag. And as we got into a current, it took us quite quickly away and Jenny started to sing "We're Off To See the Wizard." And we all joined in. Surprisingly enough, the Captain got into a different current to us, went to Sumatra and got home. And he said, "There were some Australian Sisters on my ship, but I don't know how many and what happened to them, but they were singing We're Off to See the Wizard." Our people (at home) wouldn't believe it. Anyway, it was true.
That was 25 past 2 according to my watch. Then all the debris, and the people, and a few rafts went. Only one lifeboat floated, and that had the wounded in it. Jenny had a waterproof watch and her watch kept going: 6 o'clock, 7 o'clock. The night went, we got quite cold and one of the girls got cramp and couldn't swim, and one didn't want to hang on and we roused at her to be strong. I was very strong, and Tweedie was the other one who was a very strong swimmer. We were at the front of the plank. We roused at the girl to keep going, have a bit of courage, "You'll be right, we'll be soon on the land, or somebody'll pick us up."
Anyway night came. Early in the morning we thought we saw a big cliff. But it wasn't a cliff, it was a huge warship. We realized it was Japs, and they looked overboard, had a look and just laughed. Anyway we didn't care, we didn't want them to pick us up. During the (early) morning we could see a lighthouse. They lit a fire, and we could see in that firelight some of our girls. In uniform. Quite a few had landed there including a couple of whom had been wounded, they were in the life boat. That was where the lifeboat landed. But we couldn't get in to that lighthouse. We tried to pull this (plank) in but we couldn't make it.
Eventually, about half past 6 in the morning, we got into a current which took us straight to the beach. And we couldn't stand up. And our skin was all wrinkled. We were covered with oil, we looked an awful sight. We just lay on the beach there in the sun until we thawed out. Then a native came and told us that the Japanese had taken the island, and it was no good trying to hide. There was no food, no people to help us, he said. I said, "Show us where the Japanese Headquarters is." He left us then because he didn't want to be seen by the Japanese. So we started off, then as we got near the quarters a young Japanese met us, the five of us. We thought we were going to be shot. He told us to go into a house. There were five or six steps, and we stood on the steps and he yelled at us to stop. We stopped. We had our back to him, and we thought "This is it". Then he grunted, and we turned around and he beckoned us. We followed him and we met a native with some bananas. He took the bananas from the native and gave them to us. I think he had a tender heart and couldn't shoot us. Or maybe he just didn't have enough bullets.
He took us to the HQ. And were they pleased to see us, because our buttons had Australia on them. They said, "Australia sister, Australia nurse!" And they were as pleased as Punch. And of course our army should never have let the nurses be taken prisoner. As soon as the Japs took us prisoner, they grabbed Jenny's watch which was still going. Mine wasn't any good. But they grabbed everything and took them from us. So later on we came to realize that they 'd left us nothing to barter with.