page_title: 2/29th Battalion (Australia)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: 2/29th Battalion (Australia) / History
caption_attribution_description: c. 1946. Studio portrait of Lieutenant (Lt) B.C.(Ben) Hackney, 2/29th Battalion, one of only two men to survive the Japanese massacre of wounded at Parit Sulong during the fighting on the Malay Peninsula in 1942. The force commanded by Lieutenant Colonel C.G.W. Anderson attempting to withdraw along the Bakri to Parit Sulong road was stopped at the bridge over the river at Parit Sulong. Unable to withdraw on the road, Anderson's men were forced to disperse through the jungle and swamps. They left behind 163 wounded who could not travel, including Lt Hackney. After they were captured by the Japanese the wounded prisoners were brutally herded together; many of the prisoners were forced into a shed from where on the evening of the 22 January 1942 they were tied together in small groups and taken away to be killed. Lt Hackney feigning death, was left behind. He crawled away and eventually found another member of his battalion, Sergeant Ron Croft, who had also escaped and they were also joined by an English soldier. The three eventually reached a Malay house where they were given assistance. Hackney who could not stand, convinced the others to leave him. The Malays, fearing reprisals by the Japanese, carried him off some distance from the house and left him. He managed to crawl from place to place, but was generally refused assistance by Malays, who appreared to fear reprisals, but was given assistance by Chinese. On the 27 February 1942, thirty-six days after he escaped the massacre, he was caught by a party of Malays, one dressed as a policeman, taken back to Parit Sulong and handed over to the Japanese. He was again subjected to brutal treatment by the Japanese, but after a series of moves on 20 March 1942 he arrived at the Pudu gaol at Kuala Lumpur. He was later taken with other POWs to Changi gaol. He survived the war and returned to Australia.
context_page_description: The 2/29th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army, which served during the Second World War. Formed in October 1940, the battalion served in Malaya as part of the 27th Brigade, which was assigned to the 8th Division. Recruited mainly from volunteers drawn from the state of Victoria, after completing its training around Bonegilla and then Bathurst, the 2/29th Battalion was sent to Malaya in August 1941 along with the rest of the 27th Brigade to bolster the Australian force there and subsequently fought in the Malayan Campaign following the Japanese attack in December 1941. The battalion fought several delaying actions along the west coast, including fighting around Bakri and Muar, and in Johore, before Allied forces withdrew across the Causeway to Singapore. The battalion later took part in the defence of Singapore in February 1942, but was captured after the garrison capitulated on 15 February. They spent the remainder of the war as prisoners of war, with many dying in captivity.
context_section_description: Raised on 17 October 1940 amidst an expansion of the Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) following an escalation of hostilities in Europe, the 2/29th Battalion was established with volunteers drawn mainly from Victoria. Together with the 2/26th and 2/30th Battalions, it formed part of the 27th Brigade, the third and final brigade raised as part of the 8th Division, and the final brigade raised as part of the 2nd AIF. The colours chosen for the battalion's Unit Colour Patch (UCP) were the same as those of the 29th Battalion, a unit which had served during World War I before being raised as a Militia formation in 1921. These colours were black and yellow, in an upright rectangle, although a border of gray in an oval shape was added to the UCP to distinguish the battalion from its Militia counterpart; the oval border denoted that the battalion was an 8th Division unit.
  With an authorised strength of around 900 personnel, like other Australian infantry battalions of the time, the battalion was formed around a nucleus of four rifle companies – designated 'A' through to 'D' – each consisting of three platoons. Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Robertson, the battalion's initial personnel drafts concentrated at Bonegilla where they conducted rudimentary training, prior to the battalion moving to Bathurst, where it joined the other two battalions of the 27th Brigade, which moved its headquarters from Sydney at this time. Around the same time as the 2/29th moved to Bathurst, the 22nd Brigade was deployed to Malaya to form part of the British garrison forces there, and in mid-1941, as concerns grew about a Japanese attack in the Pacific, it was decided that the 27th Brigade would be despatched to join the 22nd. They subsequently embarked in July, having completed five months of further training at Bathurst during the Australian winter, and arrived in Singapore the following month.
  In early September, the battalion moved into Malaya, establishing itself in dispersed locations around Kahang and Kluang, before moving to Segamat later in the month, where further training took place to prepare them for the rigours of jungle warfare. When the Japanese launched their invasion of Malaya in early December 1941, the force of the attack initially fell on the British and Indian forces stationed on the north-east coast and around the Thai–Malayan border, and as a result the 2/29th Battalion did not see action until the middle of January when the Japanese began to advance into Johore. As the situation on the western side of the peninsula worsened, the 2/29th, along with the 2/19th Battalion, were sent to reinforce the 45th Indian Infantry Brigade who were fighting around Muar.
  Arriving at Bakri on 17 January, the Australians established strong defensive positions and the following day, with assistance from an anti-tank regiment, repulsed a heavy Japanese attack that had been supported by armour. As the Japanese felt for the 2/29th Battalion's flanks, their position grew increasing tenuous and they were in danger of being surrounded. The arrival of the 2/19th allowed the 2/29th to withdraw, but further flanking moves by the Japanese cut off the withdrawal route. Fighting their way through several Japanese road blocks and almost constant air attack, they found the river crossing at Parit Sulong in Japanese hands and despite several efforts to wrest control of it, the combined Australian and Indian force had to break track and head into the jungle in an effort to reach Yong Peng, which was still in British hands. In the process, they had to leave their wounded behind with a handful of medical personnel, trusting that they would be cared for by the Japanese. In the end, all but two of the 135 men were executed by their captors. Of the two survivors, one was Lieutenant Ben Hackney of the 2/29th Battalion, who was later captured by the Japanese, but who survived the war as a prisoner.
  Heavily depleted by the withdrawal, the 2/29th was withdrawn back to Singapore; the 130 men that successfully completed the trek back to Yong Peng wer
caption: Lieutenant Ben Hackney of the 2/29th Battalion, one of only two men to survive the massacre at Parit Sulong.
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