The Soldier's Details

Review WX9943 Horace Tickle‘s military records held at NAA.

 

Below:  death notices for Tickle in 1945 – mistakenly written as member of 2/4th – but was 2/3rd captured by Japanese Java about 8 March 1942.  Tickle was selected to work in Japan.

23 June 1944 the Japanese transport ship ‘Tamahoko’ Maru, with 772 allied POWs aboard, was sunk by American submarine USS Tang off the coast of Nagasaki. Of the 267 Australians on board only 72 survived.

 

Tickle survived the sinking of POW Transport ship 24 June 1944

Below:  List obtained from Mansell website – list of Australians who died Fukuoka POW Camp, Japan.

Tickle died of ‘croup pneumonia’ in Dec 1944 as did most of the Australian deaths recorded below.

We wish to acknowledge  the following has been taken from Mansell website.  With our Thanks.

 

Revised in 2012-06 Fukuoka

No.14 Branch Camp (Mitsubishi Dock, Nagasaki) Established as Fukuoka No.14 Branch Camp at Saiwai-cho, Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture on April 22, 1943.

Closed in September 1945.

The POWs were used by Mitsubishi Heavy Industry Company.

195 POWs (152 Dutch, 24 Australian and 19 British) were imprisoned at the end of the war. 113 POWs died while imprisonment, 8 of whom were killed by Atomic Bomb.

On 19 May 1944 800 POWs, including Tickle departed Java on Kiska Maru to Singapore arriving 21 May 1944.  POW group consisted of 194 British, 258 Australian, 42 American, 306 Dutch.

POWs were glass rod tested at Havelock Road Camp.  One Australian and four Dutchmen were removed from Party.  795 POWs embarked on Miyu Maru.

Japan 1 formed a convoy of 12 ships and four escorts known as H0-02 as well as Bauxite Convoy. 4 cargo ships carried POWs:

Miyo Maru (795 POWs from Java Party 20)

Hozan Maru (451 POWs as well as carrying bauxite)

Hiyoki Maru (450  POWs and bauxite)

Kokusei Maru (456 POWs and Bauxite)

3 June 1944 H0-02 convoy sailed from Singapore to Japan via Philippines.

6 June 1944 160 miles E.S.E. Cape St Jacques, French Indo-China, USS Raton (SS 250) attacked the convoy. At 2225 hours an escort was sunk and USS Raton received damage.

11 June 1944 Arrived Manila where Tamahoko Maru loaded 7,500 tons copper ore into her holds and joined the convoy.

14 June 1944 sailed from Manila in a convoy of six ships.

15 June 1944  the convoy ran into a typhoon, causing damage to Miyo Maru.

18 June 1944 Convoy reaches Takao, Taiwan.

POWs on Miyo Maru were transferred into two holds on the Tamahoko Maru.

20 June 1944 Convoy H0-02 sailed out of Takao, Taiwan accompanied by escorts.

21 June 1944 Stopped over at Keeling, the convoy then headed for Japan.

24 June 1944 three US submarines Tang, Tinosa and Shark II attacked the convoy off the Japanese coast, 40 miles S.W. Nagasaki.  The Tamahoko was hit and sank with the loss of 560 POWs out of 772 POWs on board.

25 June 1944 200 survivors of the sinking were taken to Fukuoka 14B Camp.

Tamahoko Maru Survivors from Western Australia included:

WX5300 JOHNSTON, Gervase Clifford

WX5300 LECKIE, John Henshaw

WX9911 McDONALD, Gordon Stanley John

WX18552 MONTEFIORO, Arthur Eric

WX2844 PARKIN, Charles Owen

WX11771 ROSS, Gordon

WX9943 TICKLE, Horace James  (later died illness)

Western Australians who Perished:

WX10551 DORAN, Edward John

WX12070 GLEADALL, John Alfred

WX3336 HAMILTON, Richard

WX6228 NORMAN, William George

WX14456 McCURDY, David Vincent

WX9863 LECKIE, John Henshaw (bro to Stuart James Leckie who survived)