This group of fine Australian Soldiers, the 2/19th Battalion overall, first engaged the Japanese at the Bakri crossroads leading to the Muar River Ferry and were lead by Colonel Charles Anderson, who won his Victoria Cross during the next 4 days of encounters with the Japanese Army, where he showed exceptional bravery and disregard for his own safety. He disabled one enemy gun with a grenade and, with his revolver, shot dead two Japanese soldiers, who were manning another machine gun in one particular skirmish, amongst many other similar acts of outstanding courage.
Less than 1000 Australians made contact with 15,000 crack Japanese troops at the 99 Mile Post with "B" Company making a charge and securing the north side of the cutting at that position. Colonel Anderson secured the south side with just seven men, in an action as described above.
The Battalion then fought a withdrawing action to rejoin other Australian Units at the bridge at Parit Sulong which, unknown to them at that time, had been abandoned by the other units allegedly stationed there . Australian casualties were high in the extreme. It was also here that the Japanese Army murdered the defenceless wounded Australian Soldiers, who had to be left behind the main group, a very reluctant move by the men involved. Words could not describe the feelings of men leaving their mates in these circumstances

In 1950, at the War Crimes Court at Los Negros, Manus Island, the Japanese officer who committed this atrocity, Lieutenant-General Takuma Nishimura, was later tried and hanged ( a much more merciful end than those upon which the crimes were perpetrated ), on the evidence of the sole survivor of this massacre, Lieutenant Ben Charles Hackney, of the 2/29th Battalion, who was only 26 years old at the time of the massacre. His was an horrific testimony as to the savagery of the Japanese in this era. He testified that he had survived machine gunning, rifle fire, bayoneting, mass cremation, feigning death, escape and then subsequent re-capture and imprisonment in Changi and elsewhere.
" The Parit Sulong prisoners, many of them badly wounded, were made to sit, some in the nude, in a circle ringed by Jap guards ( Hackney's evidence ran ). About sunset, the prisoners, their hands tied behind their backs with rope or wire, were herded together and shot. The Officers were tied together first, then other ranks in the same manner. Later Japanese soldiers poured petrol from tins, over other prisoners, many of whom were still conscious, and set them alight " - as detailed in Gilbert Mant's book, " The Grim Glory".

The above photograph is from the collection held at the Australian War Memorial .This and other photos relating to this particular Unit, are available for viewing on the Internet by clicking on the above link, and also for sale from the AWM.
The Unit history was published as " THE GRIM GLORY OF THE 2/19TH BATTALION " by R.W. Newton in the 70's, and the first of 2 volumes of the re-print, which deals with the formation of the unit to the surrender, is being re-published and will be available during 2003, by "Australian Military History Publications", 13 Veronica Place, Loftus NSW 2232, Australia. Phone / Fax +61 2 9521 6515.