|
3322876
Private
Norman Baird Robson
1915/02/21 - Born Newcastle-on-Tyne
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
2nd Battalion
Japanese PoW
1942/02/15 - Captured Singapore
PoW No. 1469
Japanese Index Card - Side One
Japanese Index Card -Side Two
Transported to Thailand with 2 Group
New PoW No. 44228
Transported in the Ho¨foku Maru (also named Toyofuku Maru), which was sailing from Singapore to Miri, Borneo as part of convoy SHIMI-05. The convoy consisted of 10 ships, 5 of which carried, in total, 5,000 POWs, all in appalling conditions.
At Borneo, the Ho¨foku Maru left the convoy with engine problems, and sailed on to the Philippines, arriving on 19th July. She remained in Manila until mid-September while the engines were repaired. The POWs remained on board, suffering terribly from disease, hunger, and thirst.
On September 20, 1944, the Ho¨foku Maru and 10 other ships formed Convoy MATA-27, and sailed from Manila to Japan. The following morning, the convoy was attacked 80 miles north of Corregidor by more than 100 American carrier planes. All eleven ships in the convoy were sunk. Of those on the Ho¨foku Maru, 1,047 of the 1,289 British and Dutch POWs on board died.
Died
Age 29
1944/09/21
Died at sea when Hofoku Maru was sunk by Allied planes
Loved Ones
Husband of A. Robson, of Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Memorial
Column 83.
Singapore Memorial
Information
Hell Ships
Hell in Five
KEW:- WO 361/758, WO 361/1742, WO 361/2057, WO 361/2005, WO 345/44, WO 392/26, WO 361/2167, WO 361/758
|
