Hunting Records - Far East WW2

[daisy1942]

Hi,
s
During my many years researching my father in law I have found numerous comments about lists of survivors/evacuees being taken at the port of Emmerhave Sumatran (Padang) If lists taken where would they be now? Were other lists have been taken on board or when these ships arrived at their destinations and where would they be?

Also, I have read hat passes and/or special orders were issued to those servicemen in Singapore who were deemed essential to the war effort because of particular skills. Were these lists kept and again where might I find such lists?

Finally, how easy would it have been to "acquire" a new identity during those manic weeks?

 

[janner]

I would think that any records would be either at Kew or the Maritime Museum at Portsmouth. I wouldn't have thought that many would still be around bearing in mind the circumstances and the climate.
As for a new ID simple, if you weren't with your own unit take papers for any dead body that you find.

 

[ratsroden]

Hi,
s
During my many years researching my father in law I have found numerous comments about lists of survivors/evacuees being taken at the port of Emmerhave Sumatran (Padang) If lists taken where would they be now? Were other lists have been taken on board or when these ships arrived at their destinations and where would they be?

Also, I have read hat passes and/or special orders were issued to those servicemen in Singapore who were deemed essential to the war effort because of particular skills. Were these lists kept and again where might I find such lists?

Finally, how easy would it have been to "acquire" a new identity during those manic weeks?

The India Office records are held by The British Library. I would look there. http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/india/indiaofficerecords/indiaofficescope/indiaofficehistoryscope.html

 

[daisy1942]

As for a new ID simple, if you weren't with your own unit take papers for any dead body that you find.

Interesting Janner,
Dad escaped Singapore and we do not know what he was doing there. According to records there is no listing of him under the name by which we know him. He said he was torpedoed three times during the war. I was thinking that if he had lost everything during one of these sinkings would his word be taken about a change of name?

 

[daisy1942]

A further thought. If he had been torpedoed surely a list of names of survivors being picked up would be taken? I believe after one such sinking he was landed tat Port of Spain, Trinidad. Would records have remained there or would they have been transferred to UK when Trinidad gained independence?

 

[ratsroden]

A further thought. If he had been torpedoed surely a list of names of survivors being picked up would be taken? I believe after one such sinking he was landed tat Port of Spain, Trinidad. Would records have remained there or would they have been transferred to UK when Trinidad gained independence?

Try Trinidad and Tobago National Archives and their comprehensive Newspaper Archive.
email http://www.natt.gov.tt