The Ron Penhall Collection

The Second World War M.M. group of five awarded to Signalman F. A. Wagstaff, Royal Signals, who spent over three years hard at work with Chinese Guerillas behind enemy lines in the Malayan jungle - much to the detriment of the Japanese but at great cost to his personal health: other than rice, his diet on occasion included dog, wild cat, monkey, python, frog and even rat

Military Medal, G.VI.R. (2330891 Sglmn. F. A. Wagstaff, R. Sigs.); 1939-45 Star; Pacific Star; Defence and War Medals, good very fine and better (5) £3000-3500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Ron Penhall Collection.

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M.M. London Gazette 25 September 1947. The joint recommendation states:

‘In December 1941, Cross with two other signalmen, Wagstaff and Morter, volunteered, with full knowledge of the dangers involved, to accompany Major Cauvin into the Malayan jungle on a three months’ trip to act as a left-behind radio/intelligence party. It was actually three and a half years before they returned.

Trained in their new duties, with two months European rations, full radio equipment, and a signal plan agreed by Kranji radio station, they entered the jungle on 29 January 1942, accompanied by 25 armed Chinese Guerillas.

The party commenced listening immediately and calling their stations in accordance with the signal plan, but got no replies. In view of the bad news of Java and Rangoon, the expiry of the three months allowed for, and the lack of petrol for charging batteries, they reduced their daily radio watches.

For the great majority of their time, the batteries were charged by improvised water wheels involving a great deal of maintenance and a poor yield.

Failing to hear from, or contact their stations, they decided to listen in to all broadcasts, and with the help of an English-speaking Chinese began to print by duplicating machine an English edition of the Emancipation News in May 1943, with all editorial matter under Chinese control.

While listening to these broadcasts they received an indication that the officer with whom they had made their signal plan had fallen into the hands of the Japanese.

They also picked up hundreds of broadcast messages for Europeans and tried to get these into prison camps by Chinese agents of the Malay Communist Party.

Major Cauvin’s health began to deteriorate seriously in August 1943, and on 17 April 1944, he decided to leave the party and to try and contact the Tonku Makhota of Johore, or make for the Allied lines in Burma. On 17 July, they heard that Major Cauvin had committed suicide.

In the face of every difficulty and danger the party continued in its work, and early in September 1944, decided that the English edition of their news sheet should be replaced by a non-political anti-Japanese newspaper which they called The Victory Herald. They specialised on items of international news.

During their three and half years in the jungle, under the most trying conditions, the party managed, by their high courage and general behaviour, to earn the respect, loyalty and protection of the Chinese Guerillas. Had it not been for this, they would never have survived, nor would they have been able to carry out their anti-Japanese propaganda as well as explaining our view point of the international scene to a very great number of Chinese and to the Malayan Communist Party in particular.

They suffered constantly from a lack of any sort of European food with the consequent deterioration of their health and were in continual danger of attack from the Japanese who were very active against the underground element in the district and they were obliged to move camp on more than 30 different occasions, until on 17 April 1945, they joined forces with Allied troops and were evacuated by them.

The party brought out valuable intelligence and a very complete knowledge of the Guerillas political feelings.

Cross’s qualities of leadership, particularly after Major Cauvin’s departure left him in sole charge of the party, were of the highest order, and it is thanks to him in no small measure that the party was eventually found alive and in a condition to pass on the important information gathered over the past three years.

It is recommended that Signalman Cross be awarded the D.C.M. and that Signalmen Wagstaff and Morter should each receive a Military Medal.’

Frederick Albert “Waggy” Wagstaff, a native of Papplewick, near Nottingham, trained as a G.P.O. telephone engineer prior to enlisting in the Royal Corps of Signals. Unbeknown to him at the time, he went out to Singapore in July 1941 aboard the same troopship as John Cross and Douglas Morter, with whom he was to spend those three harrowing years in the Malayan jungle.

Attached to 3rd Indian Corps (Signals) on arrival, he volunteered for hazardous service with ‘Special Party A’ in December 1941, a unit that was under the overall direction of a Malayan Government Officer and counter-espionage expert, James Barry - the latter went mad and slashed his wrists after two years in the jungle on a separate mission.

Of subsequent events in the jungle in ‘Special Party A’, after it had infiltrated Japanese lines in January 1942, accompanied by 25 Chinese Guerillas (all members of the Malayan Communist Party), no better account exists than John Cross’ Red Jungle, in which he pays frequent tribute to Wagstaff’s stamina and ingenuity - it was he who constructed the water-wheel device that charged their radio batteries. Cross also attributed Wagstaff’s survival to his relatively tender age - 21 years - and the fact that he was ‘the only countryman among us’.

But for the purposes of this footnote, Cross’ account of those momentous years is far too extensive for proper dissemination, and it is best, therefore, by way of an informative summary, to turn to the words of Commander Alastair Mars, D.S.O., D.S.C., aboard whose submarine, H.M.S. Thule, the intrepid trio finally reached safety in May 1945 - he, incidentally, classed their experiences as most surely ‘some of the most amazing on record’:

‘They gave the Chinese Guerillas radio instruction and weapon training. They themselves learned to speak Malay and Chinese. Their original store of food, augmented with rice and sweet potatoes became exhausted in six months and after that they had to depend on the Guerillas. Sometimes a rice boat was captured on the way down the east coast from Siam to Singapore or a buffalo was winkled out of a Japanese herd. Then there was feasting, but for the most part they had to lie on a bowl of sweet potatoes and rice daily with perhaps some salt fish, beans or tropical vegetable. Sometimes they ate dog, wild cat, monkey, iguana, python, tortoise, squirrel, frog, bear and even rat.

In April 1944, the Japanese, long irritated by the freedom with which the Guerillas used the former tin mining village of Pengkil, which was approachable only by river and jungle paths, mounted a very large operation against them. Guided by collaborators, the Japanese secretly cut entirely new paths into the village and attacked in force, supported by low-flying aircraft which machine-gunned and dropped anti-personnel bombs.

Cross’ party managed to escape into the pathless jungle but were bottled up for a fortnight without contacts and without food. Fortunately, they had a few tins of tapioca flour which they boiled into a sticky pudding and ate with two tiny salt fish each. At this time they all developed alarming symptoms: blurred vision with inability to hold their heads erect. Muscle control was lost, heads lolled to one side, chins dropped on their chests and they developed a kicking motion when walking - a symptom of beri-beri. After a fortnight one of the Chinese scouts was able to make contact with a friendly Sakai community, five hours’ march away. The little party moved in and were given food and shelter and were allowed to set up camp nearby. Later they were even able to recover their equipment from the jungle dump where they had hidden it. About this time, Cross and Wagstaff went down with fever, which recurred on and off until they were rescued. Early in 1945, the news that a British submarine had made a landing in South-East Johore came through. They also heard that the party had been ambushed in the jungle and the leader killed, although most of the others escaped. On 17 April 1945, Cross and his comrades joined this British party and six weeks later moved out of the thirtieth camp they had occupied in Malaya on their last march to the rendezvous with the Thule on 30 May.

I think the story of these three men is particularly heroic, remarkable for their tenacity and even more so for the way in which they kept their sense of proportion. A lost band without an object, hunted by a relentless enemy in appalling jungle conditions can easily become demoralised and get into a hopeless position. These three made their own object, found new friends, invented means of overcoming every disadvantage and never once lost hope.’

See Lot 33 for the Honours and awards to Commander Alastair Mars, D.S.O., D.S.C.

Provenance: Spink, July 2000, Medal Circular (Item No. 40).