Chronicle
0400hrs - after some
difficulty in the darkness, the Communist Terrorists deploys to complete
the encirclement of Bukit Kepong. The group is accompanied by some of
the wives and children and these are to act as medical staff and to
carry away the Communist Terrorists casualties (mainly in gunny sacks
provided). Half the force is deployed to the front and main parts of the
compound (Group 1), with the other half in Pl group lots (Groups 2
& 3), deployed to the other three sides.
At this point,
there is only L/Cpl Jidin bin Omar and SC Abdul Kadir Jusoh within the
Charge Room, and two APs in Samad Yatin & Osman Yahya on guard in
the compound backed by SC Jaffar Hassan with a Stengun. There is also
every indication, that the latter had become aware of the CT’s
movements,
0430hrs - SC
Jaffar challenges and fires on a CT who is seen to fall and the attack
on the wire begins and builds up to the accompaniment of screaming and
bugle blasts and although all forward sides are attacked simultaneously,
the CTs mainly concentrate on the penetration of the front of the
installation and where the post’s main strong-points are housed. They
had expected to totally surprise the station - but are in turn! Caught
completely by surprise by the volume and intensity of the return fire.
This, particularly, from the two Bren Guns embedded underneath the
Charge Room - it being a raised structure on posts - but also as from
within the C/R itself as well as from the back and sides of the
compound. Around this juncture, AP Osman is KIA and SC Jaffar is
wounded, with the wives and children of the policemen fully noted
assisting their menfolk with the defence of the base,
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]0450hrs - the initial CT assault is beaten back after a protracted exchange but
at the loss of Sgt Jamil who had been manning one of the Brens under
the C/R, and who is now seen slumped lifeless over one of the weapons.
There were trapdoors in use for access down to the Bren guns. Command is
now assumed by the junior NCOs like the youthful and diminutive Cpl
Mohd Yassin and the much larger L/Cpl Jidin bin Omar (later fatally
WIA)and combined casualties for both sides at this time, are placed at a
dozen plus. The police wives and children left sheltering in the flimsy
walled and also elevated married quarter building behind, make up a
good portion of this. Also as such, at around this period. Four of the
wives and five children manage to make their escape out of the compound,
0500hrs - Auxiliary
Police and small groups of citizen volunteers are mobilised around
Kampong Java under the headman Penghulu Ali bin Mustaffa, and these
react to the attack by going to Bukit Kepong's aid. They’re expected by
the CT rearguard, however, and in turn ambushed and held engaged in
skirmishes and suffering casualties. About this time the defenders main
firepower in the two Bren guns back at the station, are knocked out,
0530hrs - the CTs continue a number of assaults on the wire and lighting and
which provides them with a small breach at the front side and with which
they attempts an envelopment of the C/R but are still held and beaten
back from within and from the interlocking fire from the married
quarters. Some of the weapons are at this point wielded by the wives
remaining.
Mat Indra is reported frantic at the lack of progress
after an hour and wary of the approaching daylight, calls for an all
out bayonet charge at 0600. Both the compound and CT casualties had
mounted and are being treated in situ by the wives and children as
before. The CT casualties had been retrieved under fire, and it was
noted how the police would not fire at the women and children so
involved.
0600hrs -
visibility is now better and the CTs hit the wire again in a frantic
mass as ordered, but are again surprisingly beaten back with the
exception of some further gains at the SW rear and left hand side by the
married quarters. Mat Indra now calls for a pause to reconsider his
options. During this period and as it had been throughout the
engagement, loud hailers and personal voice addresses had been used on
the defenders in an attempt to get them to surrender. But to no avail -
in spite of the fact that they had suffered badly - and just as the many
alternate offers of ‘safe conduct’ out of the area had been treated
with defiance and derision,
0700hrs - the frontal targets are now isolated by the CTs and all efforts
concentrated in the vicinity of the previous gains around the rear and
SW side and this providing them with an instant result. One of the
police wives captured in this thrust, Mariam Ibrahim the wife of
Constable Mohamad Jaafar, told her captors that only an other woman and
her young child were left alive in the married quarters. The CTs force
Mariam to appeal to the men to surrender but this is duly ignored. About
this time, Fatimah Yaaba and her son Hassan are also taken, also asked
to appeal to the men, and on refusal Fatimah is executed. Her husband
Constable Abu Bakar Daud the base’s MP launch driver down at his duty
station on the Muar river - perhaps aware of the personal tragedy which
had just taken place - elects to fight to the death in a skirmish with
the CT sent to capture and sink his launch. In the final outcome he is
shot through the chest & arm.
There are indicators that some
others were either sent or also went to assist him with getting away
for help. But this group is also assumed engaged by the CTs. And
although its also believed that the MP Constable could have saved
himself if he chose by starting his motors and casting off, he never
ever did.
At this point, the CTs consolidate their hold on the
rear of the complex through the torching of both the launch (which sank)
and the married quarters - with the reported wife Saadiah and daughter
Simah still alive inside and refusing to come out - and throwing the
executed woman’s body into the flames as well. Also about this time, the
villagers of Durian Chondong a riverine kampong to the west, dispatched
a boat down to Lenga to inform the police of the attack,
0800hrs - full daylight and with the rear of the compound ablaze, the CTs
execute a determined grenade ‘pincer’ attack against the C/R and are
finally successful. Setting it ablaze as well. Then picking off both
male and female survivors attempting to get out with rifle shots - some
seen with their clothing fully on fire at this point - and capturing
Hassan bin Abu Bakar the young son of badly wounded MP Constable Abu
Bakar in the process.
Hassan was caught in the vicinity of the
silenced Bren guns, with some believing that he was the last person seen
standing or perhaps even attempting to fire, one of the weapon at this
duty station. Perhaps he was just too shocked to leave his comatose
father nearby or his dead mother Fatimah’s burnt body. But either way!
The brave lad was thrown live into the raging flames of the C/R along
with all the dead and wounded police defenders including Sgt Jamil. Also
about this time, news of the attack is relayed to Police District HQ at
Pagoh, and a relief force of Jungle Squad and Seaforth Highlanders is
prepared for a forced march to Bukit Kepong,
0930hrs - Mat Indra finally declares the objective taken - five hours after the
commencement of what had been considered a simple action - and stating
that they the MRLA ‘had dealt a glorious blow against the Imperialists
and for the Liberation of the Oppressed People’ (some say that Mat Indra
would was later be killed in an ambush)-- but it was reported that he
was captured and later hanged in Taiping Prison in Perak. Also around
this time, a boatful of villagers from Durian Chondong and coming to
investigate and to assist, are also engaged by the CT force as they pull
out,
0940hrs - a spotter
aircraft also sent out to investigate, calls back to base that there is
nothing but a charred ruin - ‘with no signs of life in evidence’
1030hrs - the exhausted relief force from Pagoh led by OC JJ Raj Jr, finally
arives to take charge and is greeted by scenes of massive devastation.
But the refurbishment of the BK station area, at times a slow
refurbishment, does now begin,
12 Regular Police, two Special
Constables, all of the four Auxiliary Police and four dependants, a
total of 22, fought to the death at the Battle of Bukit Kepong. AP
Constable Ali Akop bin Ahmad, who had earlier been cited for a Colonial
Police Medal for Gallantry for a previous action, and once out of
rounds,
was last seen charging the barbed wire with his parang as example. A further four constables were found severely wounded within the
compound. Of these survivors, as apart from the women and children who
had managed to slip out much earlier, only PC Yusof Rono and well in his
seventies now, is still alive today. A further two APs were also killed
in action and a number of locals WIA during the relief actions as
mentioned.
The CTs would only ever admit to around 10
casualties, but a quadruple of this would be very much closer to the
mark. From the outset, the garrison had been outnumbered ten to one yet
it never slackened in its resolve to do its duty. Even after the death
of Sgt Jamil, and who is credited with the setting of the tone of the
resistance, no one nor at anytime, appeared to consider the numerous
offers of surrender or ‘safe conduct’ held out to them by the CT.
Bukit
Kepong was also the first real indicator for the MRLA, that the affable
laidback Malay, might just not be the easy mark that had been
estimated. And that they would clearly constitute an additional factor
in their the MCP’s, over simplistic overview of Red independence and
rule in Malaya.
It was also noted how quickly the humble kampong
Malays, reverted to the fatalistic strength of their Muslim faith when
cornered. In the final analysis, the words of an SEP who was one of the
attacking force expresses it all -
‘I admired them at the time, and admire them to this very day’.by A L (Paddy) Bacskai (National Malaya & Borneo Veterans Association)
Hitskin.com
