CAPTAIN MOHAN SINGH

In 1941 Mohan Singh was a captain, aged thirty-three, second in command of a battalion of the 15th Brigade, 1/14 Punjab Regiment of the British-Indian Army. Like many Indian officers, Mohan Singh felt a mixture of pride at being a viceroy commissioned officer and annoyance at British discrimination against Indian officers. In March the brigade landed at Penang Island and from there pushed inland to Ipoh in Perak state, Malaya. After two months the brigade moved to Sungei Patani, seventy miles south of the Malayan-Thai border. Then in September the brigade advanced to Jitra, north of the Alor Star defences and just sixteen miles south of the Malayan-Thai border. It was marshy jungle country and the going was painfully slow. The British strategy was defensive; there was little eagerness to fight the Japanese in Malaya.

Captain Mohan Singh got three weeks’ leave in late November, but the situation became tense and he was recalled to his battalion in early December. He celebrated the last night of his leave at a party where libations flowed. Before the party broke up Mohan Singh surprised his friends and himself when, with Punjabi ebullience, he cried, “I don't know what will happen, but one thing is certain: I'm not going to die, and mind you, don't be surprised if you see me as your liberator coming down fighting the very British whom I'm going now to defend.” Everyone was surprised because Mohan Singh was actually a rather apolitical young man; later he could not explain to his friends what had prompted these words.

On 4 December Mohan Singh rejoined his battalion near Alor Star. They were digging in for a Japanese landing at Singora. The 15th Brigade was to spearhead the British advance into Thailand from Malaya. On the night of 7 December orders came for the brigade to occupy Singora; but, according to intelligence reports, the Japanese already had Singora. On 8 December twenty-seven Japanese bombers bombed the Alor Star airport and rail lines to Thailand. This became a pattern of Japanese attack: bomb the rail lines, then take the airport. The British defences became confused. The 15th Brigade was ordered to dash from Jitra to the Thai border. They reached the border just before Japanese troops rushed in from the opposite direction across Thailand.