Quote:
Originally Posted by Lynn Eades
Mike, Thoughts loaded with scepticism flow freely in my head  |
Hi Lynn your right, there is apparently some archival material in Canberra on the refugee cargo that Australian authorities initially impounded then disposed of, via a committee set up to deal with wartime shipping. It would seem that in the days and weeks following the fall of Singapore, ships were turning up all over Australia, but mainly Fremantle not only with human cargo, but their holds still full of war materials, which needed to be offloaded, and I assume replaced with food stuffs, before being sent back to, mainly the UK. So given the situation the authorities found themselves in and the desperate need for war materials in Australia, they requisitioned them and then passed them out to the various services such as the RAN and RAAF. It is known that the MV Empire Star arrived at Singapore with RAF ground units but was unable to unload fully, and by this stage Singapore was the only Allied position with reports that it's streets were awash with vehicles used in the retreat from Malaya, so possibly the priority would have been other cargo, food and ammo unloaded first. There is a photo on the net of the MV Empire Star sailing to Batavia or Australia still with trucks as deck cargo. Yes I agree that there is a degree of threading the story together, but it is pretty certain this Bedford OY is a mid 1941 production as it lacks certain features of the later OY's such as roof hatch etc, but has other features which indicate it is not early production either such as hubs for split rims on the front and the handbrake mechanism is not the early one. It all interesting stuff this.