The Rose of Singapore (60 page)

Gaining altitude all the while, the aircraft circled the city once, as if deliberately giving the passengers a final look at Singapore. Then, with her course set west northwest, she left the island behind. Johore, the most southerly state of Malaya, now lay below, steaming jungle bordered by a brown muddy coastline.

“This is Flying Officer Carpenter, your captain on this flight,” began an up-beat voice on an intercom. “Welcome aboard. I'd like to gen you up on what's ahead. We are now flying at approximately four thousand feet. In a few minutes we'll be banking sharply to port, heading for the western tip of Singapore. From there we'll be climbing to ten thousand feet and a northwesterly course will be set, which should take us over northern Sumatra and across the Indian Ocean to the island of Ceylon. There, in approximately ten hours from now, we'll put down to refuel at RAF Negombo Airstrip. The weather ahead looks good but don't unfasten your safety belts until the red light goes off. Your quartermaster, Sergeant Price, will attend to your needs. Enjoy the flight.”

Whilst walking down the narrow aisle of the plane, the quartermaster, an oldish, heavy-set, beery-faced sergeant, noticed SAC Peter Saunders peering anxiously out of the porthole.

“Are you feeling all right, son?” asked the sergeant.

“Yes, thanks, Sarge. I'm all right.”

“You don't look all right to me. Are you on medical repat'?”

“I am all right, Sarge. And I'm not on medical repat'. I'm tour ex.”

“Oh! My mistake! You just don't look well.”

“I suppose it's because I'm sad at leaving Singapore.”

“You've left someone behind?”

“Yes, Sarge, I have.”

“A Chinese girl?”

“Yes.”

“They're always Chinese.”

“Mine's a very nice girl.”

“A prostitute?”

“No! She's a real lady!”

“I've a Chinese girlfriend in Hong Kong. She's from Shanghai. She escaped the Communist takeover a couple of years ago, couldn't get a job in Hong Kong, had no money, so she became a prostitute.”

“Just like the thousands of other Chinese girls who've flooded into Hong Kong,” said Peter.

“Yes. My girlfriend's a prostitute, but she's also a lady,” said the sergeant. In a friendly gesture he placed a hand upon Peter's shoulder. “Well, lad, I guess you'll just have to keep the memory of her.”

“Yes, the memory. But I'll return to her as soon as I'm out of this mob,” said Peter.

“They all say that. You'll soon forget her,” said the sergeant. “During your leave at home you'll find yourself another girlfriend. You'll forget the past.”

Peter forced a laugh. “Wise words, Sergeant,” he said, looking up into the kindly face of the aging quartermaster. “But I'll not forget my girlfriend, not ever. Two years from now, when I'm demobbed, I'm returning to her.”

“I hope you do. I'll get you a lemonade. Perhaps it'll make you feel better.”

“Thanks, Sarge.”

The other airmen seated inside the long passenger cabin sat in silence, each dwelling on his own thoughts, many staring out the portholes at fast receding Singapore. Soon, its long beaches and strips of mangrove fell astern, to be quickly lost in a misty embrace, leaving only memories for those returning home in that plane.

Now, below, on a broad expanse of twinkling blue water, the shadow of the lone aircraft flashed across a surface of rippling, tiny waves. Twenty minutes later the green and brown hills of Sumatra came into sight, and farther ahead, more water, and a greyish shadowy heat mist blurring the horizon.

The four piston engines droned in concert as the Hastings aircraft headed towards RAF Negombo, Ceylon. There it would be refueled, and refueled again at Karachi, Pakistan, then at an RAF base near Baghdad, Iraq, and finally at an airstrip in Libya, North Africa. Eventually, after four days, or almost fifty hours of actual flying time the plane would arrive at RAF Lyneham, England, and home.

Epilogue

The Rose of Singapore
was first written in 1955, while I was based at RAF Fassberg in Germany. Although the story is a fictionalised account of my life in the RAF in Singapore and Malaya, it is based on true experiences.

Readers may be interested to know that the fruit seller who peddled her wares around RAF Changi, and who appears in this book, was later awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire). Having lost her husband to the Japanese during World War Two, the real Mary Tan smuggled food, drink and cigarettes to the desperate prisoners of war in Changi prison and other POW camps, defying death by the Japanese guards daily. She was an Angel of Mercy to the prisoners, many of them starving and owing their lives to her great courage.

Also, of great significance to the ending of this story, the BOAC Comet 1 G-ALYP, the jet aircraft which Peter was supposed to leave Changi on, exploded in midair ten miles south of Elba after departing Rome. There were no survivors.

Acknowledgements

I owe thanks to the staff of the British War Museum, for their assistance during my research of this book. Also to Grace Forbess whose great encouragement, also proof-reading of my work, helped me immensely with the writing of this, my first novel. Thanks are due also to Becky Ning Wang, for sharing with me her knowledge of Chinese customs.

Finally, I wish to thank my British Army and Royal Air Force friends who served in Malaya and Singapore during the early 1950s, for the many interesting stories they shared with me, some of which I have included in this book.

About The Author

Peter Neville was born in Devon, England, in 1933. He came of age in the RAF, while serving in Singapore and Malaya during the Emergency Period in the early 1950s. When not tracking down Communist terrorists in the jungles of Malaya or avoiding capture by his own military police in the red-light districts of Singapore, Neville took the time to fully appreciate his new surroundings and fell in love with the East. And when his five-year tour of duty in the RAF ended, he returned to Singapore and went on to enjoy other lively adventures there and around the world.

Peter now enjoys a more relaxed lifestyle in Florida with June, his wife of forty years. This is his first novel.

Copyright

First published in print in 1999 by Neville International, Ilfracombe as “The Awakening of the Lion: Singapore”

First published in print by Monsoon Books in 2006

This electronic edition first published in 2012 by Monsoon Books

ISBN (ebook): 978-981-4358-66-8

ISBN (paperback): 978-981-05-1727-4

Copyright©Peter Neville, 1999

Cover design by James Nunn

Cover image courtesy of Jazmin Asian Arts, Singapore

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Some of the names of people mentioned in this book have been changed to protect their identity.

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