page_title: 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion (Australia)
section_title: Fall of Singapore
hierarchical_section_title: 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion (Australia) / History / Fall of Singapore
caption_attribution_description: Lieutenant-General Percival and his party carry the Union flag on their way to surrender Singapore to the Japanese. Left to Right: Major Cyril Wild (carrying white flag) interpreter; Brigadier T. K. Newbigging (carrying the Union flag) Chief Administrative Officer, Malaya Command; Lieutenant-Colonel Ichiji Sugita; Brigadier K. S. Torrance, Brigadier General Staff Malaya Command; Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, General Officer Commanding, Malaya Command. [1]
context_page_description: The 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion was an Australian Army unit raised for service with the all volunteer Second Australian Imperial Force during the Second World War. Formed in late 1940 as part of the 8th Division, the battalion was established to provide direct fire support to the division's infantry brigades. It was the fourth, and last, such unit raised within the 2nd AIF. The unit's personnel were largely drawn from the state of Western Australia and after formation, the battalion concentrated near Perth for basic individual training before moving to the Adelaide Hills to complete more advance manouevres.
  In late 1941, amidst concerns of war in the Pacific, the unit was deployed north to Darwin in the Northern Territory, where they undertook garrison duties in the weeks following Japan's entry into the war. Following Japanese landings in Malaya, the 2/4th embarked from Darwin and were transferred to Malaya, arriving in Singapore in the final days of the fighting on the peninsula.
context_section_description: The Japanese attack came in the night of 8/9 February, after a heavy artillery and aerial bombardment that had lasted throughout the day. 'D' Company, positioned in various locations in support of the Australian 22nd Brigade in the north-western area, found themselves in the thick of the fighting as the Japanese concentrated their landing on the Australian 8th Division front. Understrength and stretched out across a large frontage over ground that was unsuited to defence, the Australians were almost immediately under pressure. Shortly after 8:00 pm, 13 Platoon, supporting the 2/20th Infantry Battalion around the head of the Lim Chu Kang Road, was confronted by a large number of landing barges filled with Japanese assault troops. For almost six hours, the platoon, under Lieutenant Eric Wankey, fought a desperate action to repel the invaders. With four machine guns, as well as personal small arms and grenades, the platoon inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese and sank several barges. Despite heavy casualties from Japanese mortar and machine gun fire, they kept fighting until early in the morning on 9 February when, threatened with being outflanked and low on ammunition—each gun had fired over 10,000 rounds—and having had one gun knocked out, the platoon was forced to withdraw. Destroying their equipment as they went to prevent it from being captured, the platoon was forced to withdraw in contact, taking their wounded with them; the action was later rewarded with a Military Cross for the platoon commander, who was badly wounded after taking over one of the machine guns after its crew had been wounded.
  Near the Sungei Murai (Murai River), 15 Platoon—under Lieutenant John Meiklejohn—had been stationed in support of a company from the 2/18th Infantry Battalion, in a thickly wooded area with low hills and many inlets. 15 Platoon established an enfilade formation near the shore, with its machine guns distributed in two sections on a north–south axis, facing a narrow peninsula, between the mouth of the Murai and a small inlet. According to the official history by Lionel Wigmore, after a Japanese landing party approached, the southern section under Meiklejohn "opened fire against six approaching barges, and kept on firing for two hours, despite retaliation by hand grenades, as the Japanese landed and crossed the neck of the peninsula". As was the case elsewhere in the extremely wide sector assigned to the 22nd Brigade, many Japanese landing parties were able to outflank the thinly-spread Australian positions. At risk of being cut off and with ammunition running low, Meiklejohn ordered the southern section to retreat. According to Wigmore: "Meiklejohn led his section along a jungle path where they came upon a party of Japanese resting. He shot some with his revolver, and another was knocked out with a swing from a [machine gun] tripod, but Meiklejohn lost his life in attempting to cover his section's withdrawal." The northern section of 15 Platoon held its ground "until it was informed that a near-by infantry platoon was almost surrounded, and about to withdraw". Forced to retreat without its machine guns, the northern section also found Japanese troops blocking its path. When Private Cliff Spackman was attacked by a Japanese officer wielding a sword, Spackman "bayoneted him", took the sword and used it against another Japanese soldier. 
  As the situation worsened, early on 9 February 'A' Company, which had been in reserve, and HQ Company were sent forward to provide further assistance to the 22nd Infantry Brigade, which was slowly being pushed back towards the tactically important Tengah airfield, via the village of Ama Keng. They took up positions at Bulim, east of the airfield; shortly afterwards they were joined by 7 Platoon, from 'B' Company, which had been detached from the Causeway sector. The remnants of the 22nd, numbering around only 500 men from its original 2,500, with a further 500 or so isolated and attempting to fight their way through, was pushed further back throughout the day. Orders were passed for a counter-
caption: Lieutenant-General Percival and his party carry the Union flag on their way to surrender Singapore to the Japanese, 15 February 1941
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