The Soldier's Details

 

Please read about several others from 9 Platoon

Hindle aged 40 years, was killed by a fall of rock at Sumitomo Besshi copper mine at Yamane on Shikoku Island Japan on 30.9.1944. His body was cremated and his ashes were carried as far as Labuan Island.
Records show ‘Died after leg severed by fall of stone. (Japanese records state ‘Contusion of the head’).

 

Known to his family as Dick he was one of seven children born to parents Lawrence William Hindle and Bridget Emily Danks who married at Mount Margaret 1895.   When their youngest child was 12 months old,  Lawrence William Hindle enlisted in WW1 with 11th Battalion.  He was tragically killed in action at Pozieres, France 23 July 1916.

Dick was 12 years old.

Please read about the 2/4th boys with fathers & uncles in 11th Btn WW1

 

 

Below:  Dick’s brother William H Hindle married 1926.

 

 

‘Dick’ Hindle married to Phyllis May Hindle (nee Harris)  of Palmyra  in 1927 and had four children, one daughter and three sons. Their 4 year old son Denis Richard Hindle died in 1937.

 

Phyllis Harris is sister to WX4987 Norman Joseph Harris who enlisted AIF 23 Jul 1940 and later joined ‘B’ Coy, 9 Platoon becoming Platoon Sergeant 24 Jan 1942.

 

Above:  Dick Hindle’s name is included on the list of Australian deaths.

 

 

 

 

 

Prior to enlisting Dick was store foreman at Foggit Jones P/L in High Street Fremantle, they were meat and dairy (hams and cheeses) manufacturers and wholesalers.

 

 

Roy Hindle enlisted 26 Oct 1940.  He later joined 2/4th MGB as Lance Corporal, Driver/Mechanic with ‘B’ Company 9 Platoon – same as his brother-in-law Norman Joseph Harris.  (Harris sailed to Japan with ‘Wales’ Maru and was recovered at the end of the war from Toyama – neither men would have known the other was a POW in Japan.)

As POW in Singapore he was selected to work on Burma-Thai Railway with ‘D’ Force S Battalion which travelled by train to Thailand 1943.  S Battalion included the largest number of 2/4th men as did ‘A’ Force, Green Force.  Their first real work camp was Konyu II – it was tough working on the Hellfire Pass cutting.  Work conditions were terrible as were camp conditions.  Then tropical illnesses arrived.  Combined with the shocking ulcers from injuries from flying shards of rock caused many to be evacuated and many died.

Please read further about ‘D’ Force S Battalion

When the rail link was completed by end of 1943 the POWs were sent to one of the larger camps – depending if you were ill – it would have been initially Tarsau, Tamarkan, Chungkai.  For those who managed to remain fit they were sent to Tamuarang.  Mid 1944 the Japanese began selecting the fit to send to work in Japan.  Firstly they would be checked to see if they carried disease and inoculated.  Finally they were taken by train back to Singapore, accommodated at River Valley Road Camp to await a ship.  Of course they worked whilst here.

They sailed on ‘Rashin’ Maru better known as ‘Byoki’ Maru – the sick ship.  This became a 70  day horror journey – but  they survived marauding American Submarines, a typhoon hunger and thirst.  Most men were sent to YAMANE, then Niihama where they worked in the mines.  It was at Yamane that tragically Dick Hindle was killed during a rock fall on 30 Sep 1944.  Dick was 40 years old.

 

 

 

 

The Hindle family tragedies continued – Phyllis May Hindle (nee Harris) died in 1948.

 

 

Dick’s son Roy announces his engagement in 1950.