2/4th Australian Casualty Clearing Station

Sydney. Members of the 2/4th Casualty Clearing Station detrain in order to catch a ferry to take them tothe ship transporting them to Malaya. - AWM photo 005499

Brief History

The 2/4th Australian Casualty Clearing Station was formed in Hobart, Tasmania in December 1940 and then moved to Brighton for training. In January 1941 they moved to Melbourne to board a ship for Malaya and on arrival there established facilities at Kajang. In September they moved to Jahre Bahru where they established a small hospital before being relieved in November and then moving to the civil hospital at Kluang. When the Japanese attack began in December they moved back to Kulai in January 1942 before retreating to Singapore where they were first set up at Bukit Panjang. After the Japanese landing on the island they moved to the Swiss Club and then to St Patrick's College where they worked with the 2/13th Australian General Hospital until the surrender when they moved to Changi. While the male members continued to work during captivity it was not as an organised unit.

Sixty five Australian nurses and over 250 civilian men, women and children evacuated on the Vyner Brook from Singapore, three days before the fall of Malaya. The Vyner Brooke was bombed by Japanese aircraft and sunk in Banka Strait on 14 February 1942. Of the sixty five nurses on board, twelve were lost at sea, twenty two survived the sinking and were washed ashore on Radji Beach, Banka Island where they surrendered to the Japanese, along with twenty five British soldiers. On 16 February 1942 the group was massacred, the soldiers were bayoneted and the nurses were ordered to march into the sea where they were shot. Only Sister Vivian Bullwinkel and a British soldier survived the massacre. The remaining thirty two nurses who also survived the sinking were captured as POWs, eight of which later died in captivity.

One hundred and fifteen members of his unit were captured with 5 of the nursing staff being executed on Banka Island, and three men drowning when the SS Rakuyo Maru was sunk by an American submarine as they were being transported to Japan. Eight died in Burma of illness or by accident.

Unit Personnel

• Bessie Christina Ellen Taylor 14 - 23 Nov 1941

Individual Honours

• 6 x Mentioned in Despatches

Notes

Content has come from The Unit Guide - Volume 4 - The Australian Army 1939-1945, page 4.102 - Graham R McKenzie-Smith - Big Sky Publishing - 2018