At dawn on the 18th five Japanese tanks leading infantry advanced down the road to the positions now occupied by McCure and fellow Australians from the 2/29th Battalion at Muar. McCure had sited one section of C Troop guns with one gun on the road opposite Headquarters 2/29th Battalion and the other about 600 yards towards Muar. The forward Australian anti tank crews under Sergeants Freddie Peake and Clarrie Thornton engaged the enemy tanks with armour piercing shells which again appeared to have little effect. The tanks continued to advance, firing with all guns as they came. Veterans recall the rapidity of the ensuing action. Fear did not seem to be a factor, rather they were too busy getting on with the job of fighting armoured vehicles. This was exactly what they had trained for and they knew their work well.
The leading tank was level with the foremost anti tank gun when the gun sergeant, Clarrie Thornton from Berrigan, NSW calmly changed to high explosive as the tanks passed by; the troop thus knocked them out one by one. Although he was wounded in the thigh by shrapnel during the engagement, Thornton prepared his gun for further action and three more tanks that followed were also destroyed. Lieutenant McCure and his batman Tich Morley repeatedly carried ammunition forward by hand to Thornton's gun under heavy fire. Any tanks that started to pass through the defensive position were finished off by the two guns sited further to the rear and manned by Sergeants Harrison and Parsons.
An observer from the 2/29th Battalion wrote that: 'a couple (of tanks) attempted to turn and get away, but still those boys with the anti tank guns were sending a stream of shells into them. At last they could not move forward any further and became as pill-boxes, surrounded, sending fire in all directions, until one by one they were smashed, set on fire and rendered useless and uninhabitable.'
Some hours of fierce close quarter fighting followed, in the course of which the Australians checked the mounting pressure with several vicious counter attacks. The Japanese with superior forces proceeded to out flank the Australians. As was now common the Australians not only faced attack from the land but unobstructed Japanese air superiority meant that air attack became increasingly frequent with scant attention being given to the nature of the target. Several of the 4th Anti Tank Regiment lads fell victim to these attacks, such as Gunner Clulow.
McCure and the Australians pulling back to Bakri became surrounded and had to fight their way out as they moved south east and became scattered in the swamp lands. Some groups of Australians pushed along the cluttered road or stumbled through the adjacent light undergrowth, while others waded through mangroves and swamps. Small arms fire was continually exchanged with Japanese snipers and infantry parties while enemy mortars and artillery would frequently range onto the Australians. The dead were left where they fell, with mates pausing to quickly remove identification discs and maps. Wounded were carried when possible or given emergency first aid and left as comfortable as could be arranged under the conditions, others slumped and slid quietly under the swamp waters.
Orders had required the Australians to move back along the road to Bakri, as to move too far onto the flanks meant they would be in the impact area of friendly artillery covering their withdrawal. But this plan soon ran into difficulties due to the speed of the Japanese pursuit and envelopment. The Australian advance guard heading south east ran into a strong Japanese road block while the rear guard came under heavy pressure. The situation was critical and some degree of order was restored after the Brigade Commander Brigadier Duncan personally led a counter attack in which he was killed. A further attack was undertaken by the Australians, one of whom documented the situation as follows:
"Every man was fighting mad. Mortar fire was directed by inert only a few yards from the target; gunners were fighting with rifles, bayonets and axes. A gun crew pushed its 25 pounder round a cutting and blew out the first road block at 75 yards range. Carriers pushed to within five yards of Japanese machine guns and blew them out. Men went forward under heavy machine gun fire and chopped road blocks to pieces.'
The Australians continued their struggle east along the Parit Sulong road but were thwarted in their efforts to recapture the vital bridge leading to Yong Peng. The Australian commanding the force Lieutenant Colonel Anderson, who was to win a Victoria Cross for his actions at Bakri and on the Parit Sulong road, realised that, without the bridge, the force could not be retained. 1-le therefore ordered all heavy equipment to be destroyed, the wounded to be left with some volunteers and everyone capable of making the attempt to endeavour to escape through the jungle and swamps to Yong Peng.
About 500 hundred Australians eventually reached Yong Peng and most if not all the wounded party and stragglers who remained behind were massacred by the Japanese. As for McCures' men only one non commissioned officer and four other ranks reported back to the regiment. Other anti tankers were captured in the following weeks as they attempted to head south to their lines. Most of course died. So ended a glorious chapter in the annals of the 4th Anti Tank Regiment and one of the epics of the Malayan campaign - The Battle of Muar.
Source: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~antitank/Publications/Tid-Apa/Chapters/Battle_of_Muar/battle_of_muar.htm
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