NX52468 Private Roy Cotton and NX36763 Private Arthur Cotton, 2/19th Australian Infantry Battalion - Part 2

The Japanese had already outflanked the battalion’s position, however, and on the morning of 20 January a torturous withdrawal towards Parit Sulong began.

The Allied force managed to fight its way through a succession of Japanese roadblocks, while constantly harried from its rear and from the air, but was halted by strong positions around the bridge across the Simpang Kiri River at Parit Sulong. With its ammunition exhausted, casualties mounting, and no chance of relief, the force struck out through the jungle for Yong Peng on the morning of 23 January.

By this stage, Arthur Cotton had been declared missing, and was presumed dead.

The battalion had been forced to leave its wounded behind; they were subsequently massacred by Japanese soldiers.

The remnants of the 2/19th were mustered at Yong Peng and withdrawn to Johore Bahru to receive reinforcements and reorganise.

On 31 January the battalion crossed onto Singapore Island and took up defensive positions on the west coast. The wide frontage the battalion was required to cover, however, meant its platoons and sections were widely dispersed.

When the Japanese launched their invasion on the night of February the 8th, the 2/19th’s position was readily infiltrated and the battle degenerated into vicious scattered engagements in the dark. Like most Australian units involved, the 2/19th fell into a desperate retreat that ended with surrender on the outskirts of Singapore city on the night of 15 February.

By then, Roy Cotton had also been declared missing, presumed dead.

Arthur and Roy Cotton were spared the experiences endured by those who survived the invasion of Singapore: imprisonment in Changi prisoner of war camp, the backbreaking labour of working on the Burma–Thailand railway, and the horrors of prisoner of war camps in Borneo, Japan, French Indochina, Java, Sumatra, and Malaya. But this would have been cold comfort to their friends and family.

Roy was 23 years old, Arthur just 22.

Today they are commemorated on the Singapore Memorial, which bears the names of more than 24,000 men who died during the campaigns in Malaya and Indonesia, or in captivity, and have no known grave.

Duncan Beard, Editor, Military History Section

Sydney, NSW. Members of the 2/19th infantry battalion detrain and prepare to board a ferry to take them to their assigned ship which is waiting to transport them to Malaya.