How three Indian soldiers escaped from Singapore during WWII and made the 4,800-km trip home

When Britain surrendered to the Japanese in Singapore during World War II on February 15, 1942, approximately 50,000 soldiers of the Indian Army who had defended the island became prisoners. Most accepted this fate, but Captains Balbir Singh, Pritam Singh and Gangaram Parab did not. They thought of escape from the very beginning.

All of them had served at various points of time in the same unit, 4/19 Hyderabad Regiment. They decided to team up.

Leaving the relatively unguarded Indian prisoner of war camps in Singapore was possible, but reaching India 4,800-km away through Japanese-occupied territory was much tougher. Their colleagues urged them to stay put but they began to make preparations to escape.

Civilian clothes were improvised from a tent and identity cards with fake names obtained. Money and information to help them on their way came from colleagues. They were set.

Before dusk on May 4, after a hearty meal with food smuggled in for the occasion and emotional farewells, their adventure began. They split up, with Balbir and Pritam Singh taking a taxi and then a tram to the train station, where Parab joined them.

They headed for Malaya. They sat apart from each other, pretending to be businessmen. Though there were Japanese guards on board only local ticket collectors came by to inspect the passengers.

Two days later, they reached Alor Star in North Malaya. By this time, Balbir Singh had developed a high fever. When he was in hospital, his colleagues stayed in the local gurdwara. On the train, they had befriended a fellow passenger, Dogar Singh, who warned them that they would need passports to cross into Thailand.

When Balbir Singh was better, they went to the issuing office in Penang.. Another helpful Sikh there got them the documents the next day, but in names different from their Singapore identity cards, so they had to be careful to remember what they were currently called.

Back in Alor Star, they found that an official border crossing required them to provide an individual to stand surety for them. They had no money for this but decided to press on regardless. On May 21, Dogar Singh gave them a farewell dinner and introductions to contacts across the border.

Bullock cart ride

They entered Thailand the next day. But lacking endorsements on their passports, they could be stopped at any time. They stowed aboard a freight train to Konge, a days journey away. One of the men who Dogar Singh has introduced them to put them in touch with Ujagar Singh, who agreed to take them onwards hidden in his bullock cart.

He dropped them off at Prachub Ghirikan, 160 km from the Burma border. They stayed with the only Indian there, a 70-year-old Pathan named Khan Zada. Having spent 12 years in a Calcutta jail for attempted murder, he had drifted to Thailand, married a Thai woman and became a butcher and smuggler of cattle from Burma.

Khan urged the two Singhs and Parab to make their lives in his village because the thick jungle ahead to Burma, he said, was impassable. When they insisted to moving on, he provided important information about the terrain ahead.

They set off on June 1, with food from Khan’s wife, guided towards the jungle by one of his men.

At the end of the first day, they met a kind family who told them that they had been walking in circles. The family let them spend the night in their hut and guided them towards Burma the next morning. Fortunately, there was no border post. For two more days, they wandered.

“No words can describe the mental misery of a man lost in the jungle, and it was a great relief when after three days we arrived at a Burmese settlement on June 4,” Pritam Singh said in a report after he finally reached India.

It took them a month to get to Rangoon, Burma’s capital. As always, they headed straight for the local gurdwara. But the toughest part of their journey lay ahead. Rangoon was full of people spying for the Japanese.

Then they got their biggest break. They heard that Jemadar Ram Sarup of their battalion from the 4/19 Hyderabad Regiment was in the city. He had become a key person for the Japanese running a network of spies into India, so they went to meet him. Would he give them up or could they rely on his esprit de corps to help fellow battalion mates, no matter what?

Sarup lived up to the bond of comradeship. He helped them with money and more importantly the use of his team. He had already been running infiltrations into India so was well-placed to help them get home. That he was willing to assist three soldiers of Britain’s Indian Army, under the very eyes of the Japanese, using the infrastructure they had provided, spoke volumes for his allegiance to his battalion.

From Rangoon till they reached India, Sarup’s men helped them at every stage.

After a month in Rangoon, they were fitter, had collected Rs 200 and were ready to go. The vital travel permit was arranged by Sarup. They set off on August 9, 1942, and reached Monywa four days later. Once again, they stayed at the gurdwara. Without permits to travel further or the possibility of help from boatmen to avoid check posts, they decided to risk taking the Japanese-run ferry.

An unexpected setback

On August 30, as they were aboard, about to depart, their nemesis suddenly arrived. Thakur Singh was a Sikh from Malaya, as fiery a nationalist as Ram Sarup, but unlike him unwilling to help fellow Indians who did not work with the Japanese. He had become suspicious and forced them off the ferry, despite them begging him to let them go.

Miraculously they were not detained. They spent the next two weeks in the gurdwara while the Japanese investigated them.

They were rescued by Sarup’s man Havildar Udhe Singh, who vouched for them. He offered to take them through the northern Mytikyina route – Balbir Singh and Parab agreed, but Pritam Singh thought it was too risky and that the three of them had already attracted too much attention, so decided to try something else.

The next day, September 16, Balbir Singh and Parab set off. A week later, they were 160 km from the Indian border. Now alone, they trudged through sludge and mud, day and night. After five harrowing days they stumbled across a British patrol on September 29. After almost five months, they had made it to India, alive and free.

In stages they reached Delhi in mid-October. At the end of the month, they were joined by Pritam Singh. He had managed to escape with the help of Major Mahabir Singh Dhillon, whom he had met at the Monywa gurdwara. Under the guise of running infiltration into India, Dhillon himself escaped with Pritam Singh during a reconnaissance trip.

On March 1, 1943, Balbir Singh, Pritam Singh and Gangaram Parab were awarded the Military Cross, Britain’s third highest award for gallantry in the field.

Gautam Hazarika is a Singapore-based researcher and the author of The Forgotten Indian Prisoners of World War II (Penguin Random House India & Pen & Sword UK). His email address is ghazarika70@yahoo.com.sg.