WW2 Ships Vanish....
Brought some memories back for me.
When I was a young teen in the 60's, most of my reading was books from public libraries. As with my parents. There wasn't really enough money around for regular book purchases.
Some books for the living room bookshelf did, though, appear. Mostly, as I recall, book club books passed through from an Aunt and Uncle. They lived in the London suburb of South Woodford. Very long back garden. Doorway through to Epping Forest.
One book that absolutely absorbed me was titled, I'm almost certain, 'The Coral Sea'. Can't remember anything about the author. And even searching the internet, I can find no trace.
The book was fiction based around the Battle of the Java Sea, and aftermath. In the story, the narrator describes, how the makeshift Allied Force Z fought against overwhelming odds to stem the Japanese invasion forces.
His ship was the destroyer Electra. The Electra attempted an attack, through a smokescreen, and was never seen again.
As a crewman, the narrator describes the sinking, drifting, and eventually fetching up on the coast of Borneo, and capture by the Japanese. Prisoner of war, and ultimately a forced march that appeared to be based on what I much later read as the Sandakan Death March.
Lots of years later, I earned my living as a freelance computer programmer. Semi detached house, live in girlfriend, dog. Commuting from Hampshire up to Reading everyday. A large computer manufacturer.
One day, almost Christmas, a call came through from the company person who dealt with the freelancers and contracts. Brief pleasantries exchanged. Then......
"Andrew..., would you be interested in working in Borneo..?"
Absolutely instantaneous... "Yes, I would".
And 7 weeks later, I arrived in Brunei.
During my years there, one of the places I visited was the island of Labuan, a few miles off the Borneo coast. It had been fought over. In the cemetery, the Allied graves were virtually all of Australian soldiers. First were the graves of those who had died when the Japanese forces had invaded. These soldiers were almost all aged in their mid twenties, and plus. Regular Army. Subsequent graves were those who died near the end of the war, as the Allies retook Borneo. Most of them were in their late teens.
