O'Hare-Martin

This Page Is Dedicated To

7587630

Squadron Quartermaster Sergeant

(Acting Warrant Officer 2nd Class)

Martin O’Hare

1913/11/29 - Born Liverpool

1913/12/09 - Baptism

Son of Martin and Catherinae (nee Ryan) O’Hare

Brother to John, Catherine and Margaret

Occupation Storeman

1935/09/20 - Enlisted as Army Storeman, 9th Company, RAOC

Next of kin - Mother, Mrs C O’Hare , 22 Ascot Street, Liverpool

Royal Army Ordanance Corps

14 Section

Service

1941/12/08 - Japanese Land on the Thailand and Malay Border.

1942/02/15 - Singapore surrenders to the Japanese.

1942 - WO 417/41, Casualty Lists - Other Ranks 785 - 800. Reported ‘Missing’.

1943/06/08 - WO 417/62, Casualty List No.1155. Previously shown on Casualty List No.788 as Missing, 15/02/1942. Now reported a ‘Prisoner of War’.

Japanese PoW

1942/02/15 - Captured Singapore

Changi Camp

Pow No. 4818

Japanese Index Card - Side One

Japanese Index Card - Side Two

New PoW No. 8196

1945/06 - Kranji Camp

Working on X8 (N2) Funk Holes

By 1944 the Japanese authorities once again looked to improve the defences of Singapore in anticipation of the Allied invasion.

Plans were also drawn up for the construction of a series of fortifications in the hinterland of the island. The Japanese plan was in line with the defence of the home islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, where the enemy forces would be given relatively easy access to the beaches but would have to fight tooth and nail for the heart of the island through a string of pillboxes, gun emplacements and fieldworks.

The POWs in Changi were assigned to work parties starting in the spring of 1945 and, in the coming months, groups designated as the ‘X Parties’ made their way to various camps around the island to work on the Funk Holes.

The Funk Holes had a more sinister use, the disposal of the PoWs if Allied forces landed on Singapore soil.

1945/11/02 - Liberated

General Seishiro Itagaki, Japanese Commander of Singapore, would not accept the surrender. Plus it gave him time to cover up all Japanese Atrocities in Singapore. The allied naval landing force 'Operation Tiderace' were delayed as it was still understood the Japanese would dispose of all the PoWs in Singapore if they landed. Mountbatten ordered British paratroopers into Singapore to protect the camps. To many of the PoWs in Singapore, those red berets of the paratroopers were the first signs that the war had ended. All this delayed organising the PoWs. It wasn't till the 12th September that Lord Mountbatten accepted the Japanese surrender at the Municipal Building. Hospital cases were the first to leave Singapore 1945/09/10 on the HMHS Koroa. They were soon followed by Repatriation ships which started reaching the UK about the 15th of October 1945. Why many of the liberated PoWs on these ships had November on their Japanese Index cards, I don't know as in other areas of the Far East, PoWs were marked as Liberated at their PoW camps with the correct date. Unless General Seishiro Itagaki did not make the cards available when the camps were liberated.

Liberation Questionnaire