5th Battalion Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment 1941 – 1945
By Martin Styles

Background

The 5th Battalion Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, in common with all other units of the Territorial Army, was embodied on 25 August 1939.

The Commander of the 18th Division was Major-General M. B. Beckwith-Smith.

The Battalion was in the 55th Infantry Brigade of the 18th Division.

The 55th Brigade was commanded by Brigadier T. H. Massey-Beresford.

The key officers in the Battalion at the time of embarkation were:-

Lt-Col. A.D. Gaye Commanding Officer
Lt-Col. D.Rhys Thomas, O.R.E. M.C. Second in Command
Major M.A. H. Ditton Adjutant Captain
H.E.I. Phillips Quartermaster Lt (QM)

A. Sale Company Commanders Major

The 5th Battalion spend between January and April in Galashiels, Scotland before being moved to Uttoxeter, Staffordshire for a few weeks in April and then onto Atherstone in Warwickshire. In September they move again to Litchfield, Staffordshire before leaving home shores from Liverpool on 29 October.

The 5th Battalion Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment along with the 1/5th Foresters and the 1st Battalion the Cambridgeshires, formed one of the three Brigades of the British 18th Division, 55 Brigade.

18th Division sailed from Liverpool aboard a converted P&O liner, the troopship Orcades, initially intended for the Middle East. The Orcades was diverted to S.E,Asia, destination Singapore.

29 Oct 1941

left Liverpool

9 Oct 1941

Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada

No date given

Port of Spain, Trinidad

10-13 Dec 1941

Capetown, South Africa

28 Dec 1941

Bombay, India

30 Dec 1941

disembarked

31 Dec 1941

Ahmednagar, India

17 Jan 1942

left above

19 Jan 1942

re-embarked

29 Jan 1942

land at Keppel Harbour, Singapore, via Sunda Straits

The 5th Battalion land at Singapore Harbour 29th January, only to be rushed east to Changi. Two days later the remnants of the Allied forces that had been fighting the Japanese were concentrated on Singapore Island, ready for a last stand.

Within two weeks Singapore has fallen and the battalion spent the rest of the war in the notoriously brutal Japanese POW camps.

The Japanese prisoners of war from the 5th Battalion return home in several detachments.

Although exact numbers are unknown, around a third of those captured at Singapore died in captivity.