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NX38462
Gunner
Reginald McConnell
1918/05/22 - Born
1940/06/17 - Enlisted
Royal Australian Artillery
2/1st Heavy Battery
Japanese PoW
Captured Timor
PoW No. 2211
1944/05/19 - Transported from Java to Singapore in Kiska Maru with Java Party 20
Total party of 800 PoWs
1944/05/21 - Arrived Singapore
Japan Party 1 was formed in convoy HO-02 consisting of twelve ships including four escorts. It was also known as the Bauxite Convoy.
Four of the cargo ships carried PoWs:-
Miyo Maru (800 Pows from Java Party 20)
Hozan Maru (451 PoWs also carried bauxite)
Hiyoki Maru (450 PoWs also carried bauxite)
Kokusei Maru (456 PoWs holds contained bauxite)
1944/06/03 - HO-02 sailed from Singapore to Japan via Philippines
Japan Party 20 were in the Miyo Maru
1944/06/06 - 160 miles E.S.E of Cape St. Jacques, Indo-China, USS Raton (SS-270) attacked the convoy. At 2225 hours an escort was sunk and USS Raton received damage.
1944/ 06/11 - Arrived Manila, the Tamahoko Maru loaded 7,500 tons of copper ore into her holds and joined the convoy
1944/06/14 - Sailed from Manila in a convoy of six ships
1944/06/15 - The convoy ran into a typhoon which caused damage to the Miyo Maru
1944/06/18 - Reached Takao, Taiwan.
PoW’s from the Miyo Maru were transferred from the Miyo Maru into two holds in the Tamahoko Maru
1944/06/20 - HO-02 convoy sailed out of Takao, Taiwan, accompanied by escorts.
1944/06/21 - Stopped over at Keeling, the convoy then headed for Japan.
1944/06/24 - Three US submarines, Tang, Tinosa, and Shark II attacked the convoy off the Japanese coast, 40 miles S.W. of Nagasaki. The Tamahoko Maru was hit and sank with the loss of 560 POWs out of the 772 PoWs on board.
1944/06/25 - The survivors were taken to Fukuoka 14B - Nagasaki
Camp No. XIV 6424
Worked for Iron Foundry, Mitsubishi Steel Works
7 PoWs died in the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb explosion and 1 more in an Allied bombing raid
1945/09/22 - Liberated Fukuoka 14B
Repatriated
HMS Formidable
1945/10/02 - Departed Manila
1945/10/13 - Arrived Sydney, Australia
Former Fukuoka 14B - Nagasaki returning to Australia aboard HMS Formidable.
Those denoted with (X) were survivors of the atomic bomb at Camp 14, Nagasaki.
Back row, left to right: QX14889 Lance Bombardier (L Bdr) Frederick Stuart Murray, 2/10 Field Regiment; QX17410 Gunner (Gnr) Charles Frederick Hancock, 2/10 Field Regiment; QX13595 L Bdr Garnet Johnson, 2/10 Field Regiment; not identified.
Middle row, left to right: QX9907 Gnr Allan Richard Sidney Beitz, 2/10 Field Regiment; VX45894 Pte William Cecil Reed (X), 2/3 Machine Gun Battalion; TX3914 Pte Colin James Gleeson (X), 2/40 Infantry Battalion; NX47101 (246705) Lance Sergeant Ernest Roy Snowden (X), 2/12 Field Ambulance; VX53494 Pte Bernard Daniel O'Keefe (X), 2/40 Infantry Battalion; NX38456 L Bdr Francis William Fitzmaurice (X), 2/1 Heavy Battery; VX23630 Pte Eric Ernest Hooper (X), 2/2 Pioneer Battalion; TX4878 Gunner (Gnr) Charles Edward Howard (X), 2/1 Heavy Battery.
Front row, left to right: QX17307 Bombardier Hugh Vincent Clarke, 2/10 Field Regiment; unidentified; NX36950 Pte Terry Basil Lanser, 2/19 Battalion; unidentified; NX38462 Gnr Reginald McConnell (X), 2/1 Heavy Battery; VX25508 Pte Eric Murray Jobling (X), 18 Australian Anti Tank Battery; unidentified; VX41147 Pte Leslie Prendergast (X), 2/40 Infantry Battalion; VX25701 Pte Philip Joseph Smythe (X), 2/3 Machine Gun Battalion.
Post War
1946/11/23 - Discharged from Australian Army
Information
Scott McConnell
Japanese Transports
Roger Mansell - Fukuoka 14B
Australian War Memorial
HMS Formidable
‘The Forgotten Highlander’ Book by Alistair Urquhart
KEW Files:- WO 361/2009, WO 361/1254,
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