PK: Although Adriaan Kik speaks of Capetown, I cant find any evidence Abbekerk was there at that time. The whole convoy went to Durban and I guess he was confused with a previous voyage when Abbekerk was in Capetown.
click on the map for more details of this voyage
In the meantime the situation in Malaysia had changed quickly. The Japs had started to march down from the north and you did not have to be an experienced general to understand that it was Singapore they were after. In fact the Japs were already halfway there when we arrived in Cape Town. Great reinforcements of materials and troops were feverishly dispatched to Singapore. Considering that the English Airforce, including the Dutch, was nowhere near as strong as the Japanese it was clear that the Japanese would have absolute power in the skies in a very short time.Those locomotives destined for Singapore had now very few rails to run on and it would be better to put them ashore in South Africa to be used there. But there was a problem. Those five colossus stood right on the very bottom of the ship. The same day they solved this problem. All the cargo that was above the locomotives had to be put ashore, the loco’s came out, the rest of the cargo had to go back in and as quickly as possible to Singapore where they were waiting for all the weapons.
Just imagine (if that is at all possible) five holds and a locomotive in each hold. First ten spitfires ashore, then open the top hatch and everything that sat on top remove and put ashore. Than the middle hatch and the bottom hatch, removing everything that had been loaded and stored in them until finally one could see the locos. Ashore and in all the packing sheds there was complete chaos. Everything was lying about in complete disorder. Speed was the order of the day, money played no part in this. To make a long story short when the locomotives were out, the rest of the cargo that was ashore went back in. It went in, in almost the same disorder as it was taken out but it was stowed in a proper and safe manner, because the safety of the ship could not be compromised in any way because we had so many high explosives on board.
News about the Japanese advance to Singapore gave us no joy. The knowledge of the combination of our volatile cargo and Japanese aircraft in the sky in the future did not make us jump for joy. We did not talk about it and we prepared the ship to sail at full speed to Durban to take on further much needed supplies. Then to the Strait of Soenda between the two islands of Java and Sumatra in the former Dutch East Indies.
One day after departure our Captain asked the Commodore if we could put on deck one of the Bofor anti aircraft guns we had in the hold. These guns would be manned by members of the crew and trained by English gunners. This was greeted with a great deal of enthusiasm and so it was that we acquired the third anti-aircraft gun on deck. The ammunition was quickly found and permission was given to have a few trial firings and soon we had a number of grenades exploding high in the sky. We were now the best defended ship in the convoy.
I cannot remember the dates we sailed in convoy but I read later in a history book that on 10th of January 1942 a convoy of five big ships including the ‘Abbekerk’ had passed the Strait and was escorted by the Dutch destroyer Hr.Ms. ‘Tromp’. This ship was guarding the Straits.
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Peter
