On Radji Beach The Story Australian Nurses POW Bullwinkel Banka Island Massacre For Sale

On Radji Beach The Story Australian Nurses POW Bullwinkel Banka Island Massacre
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On Radji Beach The Story Australian Nurses POW Bullwinkel Banka Island Massacre:
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On Radji Beach The Story of the Australian Nurses POW

On Radji Beach The Story of the Australian Nurses after the Fall of Singapore
by I W Shaw


This is the story of 65 Australian Army nurses who boarded a coastal freighter the Vyner Brooke in Singapore on 12 February 1942. The SS Vyner Brooke was a British-registered cargo vessel of 1,670 tons. She was named after the Third Rajah of Sarawak - Sir Charles Vyner Brooke. Up until the outbreak of war with the Japanese, Vyner Brooke plied the waters between Singapore and Kuching, under the flag of the Sarawak Steamship Company. She was then requisitioned by Britain\'s Royal Navy as an armed trader. On the evening of 12 February 1942, Vyner Brooke was one the last ships carrying evacuees to leave Singapore during WW2. Although she usually only carried 12 passengers, in addition to her 47 crew, Vyner Brooke sailed south with 181 passengers embarked, most of them women and children. Among the passengers were the last 65 Australian nurses in Singapore. Throughout the daylight hours of 13 February Vyner Brooke laid up in the lee of a small jungle-covered island, but she was attacked late in the afternoon by a Japanese aircraft, fortunately with no serious casualties. At sunset she made a run for the Banka Strait, heading for Palembang in Sumatra. Prowling Japanese warships, however, impeded her progress and daylight on February 14th found her dangerously exposed on a flat sea just inside the strait.Not long after 2 pm Vyner Brooke was attacked by several Japanese aircraft. Despite evasive action, she was crippled by several bombs and within half an hour rolled over and sunk bow first. Approximately 150 survivors eventually made it ashore at Radji Beach on Banka Island, after periods of between eight and 65 hours in the water. They remained near the beach for about two days until Japanese Forces arrived....

It is one of the most famous Australian stories to come out of World War II and several books/documentaries have been made about the doomed voyage and subsequent massacre of the survivors/nurses on Radji Beach by Japanese Army.

Most of what happened next, is only known from the only nurse survivor of the massacre that being Vivian Bullwinkel.

The story continues about the courageous women triumphing over adversity in Japanese internment camps, starvation and disease as POWs over the next three and half years.

Several of the POW nurses published books about their wartime experiences, Betty Jeffrey, Jessie Simons, and Pat Darling.

Books were titled, White Coolies, While History Passed, Portrait of a Nurse.

Biographies have also been written about Vivian Bullwinkel and Wilma Oram. Several of these women contributed their experiences to the acclaimed film Paradise Road - although a partly fictionalised account provides the viewer with excellent information of life as a Japanese POW.


Book Condition:: PERFECT - NEW BOOK
Total Pages:: 360
Dimensions in mm :: 130 x 200
Outer Cover on Book: : Soft CoverBooks On War Australia will combine postage to Australian Destination for Max $15.90 (Items to be ordered same day).
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