Again, our orders on the morning of 15 February were to withdraw, the rendezvous being now changed from Lahat to Oosthaven at the southern tip of Sumatra. Officers were placed in charge of parties of airmen, RAF and RAAF, with instructions to get them to Oosthaven. Doug Forder and I had a group of 45 airmen; among them we had three capable RAF NCOs (Sergeant Peak and Corporals Guttee and Rodderham). Motor transport was very scarce at PII, so we were given a lorry and driver acquired from the Royal Artillery, and set off at 4.45pm, past where the road to Lahat branched off at Peraboemoelih, and on towards Batoerajah. At this point our driver became increasingly anxious about rejoining his unit (the British A/A artillery which had been engaged against the Japanese paratroopers at PI), so I decided I had better let him get back; and we got out onto the road. We then had a relatively short march into Batoerajah. I went into the police station there but the Dutch police could not help us with transport (I didn't blame them—they had plenty of their own concerns). We then set off for the local railway station, where I asked the Sumatran station master about a rail passage for us. The upshot was that we got onto one of the last trains down the line to Oosthaven. (It may have been the last). We got to Oosthaven about 2.30am the next morning. After another roll-call, our party tried to get some sleep outside one of the 'go-downs' near the docks. Other parties from PII were there also. I cannot remember whether George Mackey was there when we arrived, or whether he and his party appeared subsequently; but I do not think Andy Murfett rejoined us until we got to Java.

Bureau of Meteorology