IN FEBRUARY 1942, the crews of two ships carrying Australian and British soldiers, civilians and a group of Australian nurses washed up on the Radji Beach on Bangka Island, east of Indonesia.

The Imperial Japanese forces on the island forced the survivors of the shipwrecks to walk out to sea before machine-gunning them down.

Of the 60 soldiers and crew members and 22 nurses who washed up on the beach, just three survived, including Ernest Lloyd, a member of the Royal Navy born in Manchester, but who lived most of his life in Cwmbran.

Mr Lloyd’s granddaughter, Sarah McCarthy has spoken to the Argus about her grandfather’s horrific experience on the island.

“There is not much known about it in the UK,” she said. “A lot of the focus on it comes from Australia, and on the nurses who were massacred.

“Granddad joined the Royal Navy in 1935. In 1941 he was on the HMS Prince of Wales which was going out with the HMS Repulse to Singapore.

“It got sunk by the Japanese on December 10, 1941. Granddad survived and ended up in Singapore, where he drove naval personnel around.

“When Singapore fell, he got on the SS Vyner Brooke with civilians and the Australian nurses. They went through what became known as ‘bomber alley’ - as so many ships had been sunk there.

“The ship he was on was sunk by a Japanese bomber just off Bangka Island on February 14. There were only two lifeboats, so they tried to get as many life-rafts as possible and tie them to the boats. He and a couple of others rowed the survivors to Radji Beach.

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“On February 16, it was decided that they could not survive any longer with only the help of the local villagers.

“A group went to find some Japanese troops to surrender to. The group had been gone for quite a long time, so a small party of women and children walked into the town of Muntok. On their way, they passed the first party, who just let them pass.

“When the Japanese soldiers arrived at the beach, they divided the men and women. The men were split in to two groups. Granddad was in the first group taken behind the rocks on the headland and was at the end of the line.

“As they were setting up the machine gun, they knew what was going to happen. Granddad said that one of the other soldiers, ‘Jock’, said: 'This is where we get it Ernie, right in the back.' Granddad’s response was 'Not for me.'

“He ran in to the sea with a couple of others. Luckily, he was a strong swimmer. They shot the escapees first then gunned down the other men lined up on the beach.

“Granddad was shot three times, but he was just grazed. He lost consciousness and some time later he was washed back up on Radji Beach. Luckily there are strong currents in that area, so he was washed up further along the beach.

South Wales Argus:

(Ernest Lloyd. Picture: Sarah McCarthy.)

“He was helped by locals for about 10 days. He was a very strong and stubborn man – I think that’s why he was able to survive this. A few days later he walked to that part of the beach and saw that the nurses had shot.

“Grandad gave himself up but luckily, because of the traffic of people on the island, he managed to mingle with other prisoners and was sent to a prisoner of war camp. He went straight to the camp hospital because of his injuries.

“He saw Vivian Bullwinkel – the only nurse who survived the massacre. She recognised him and put her finger to her lips. They both knew, as they had been witness to a war crime, they had to keep that a secret or they would be killed.

“He was in various camps for three-and-a-half years. When the camp was liberated, he went to someone in charge and said that there were some Australian nurses that needed looking for on he island – the ones in the shipwreck that hadn’t washed up in the same area as them.

“He gave his testimony to the war crimes commission after the war.”

South Wales Argus:

(Members of the Australian Army during the 75th anniversary memorial service for the Bangka Island massacre. Picture: Sarah McCarthy.)

Ms McCarthy and her sister Helen travelled out to Indonesia for a memorial service commemorating the 75th anniversary of the massacre.

She said: “Helen had done a bit of research to find out which camps he had been in.

“She was in touch with an Australian woman and she let Helen know about the memorial. They said we were most welcome to attend.

“At the memorial, we met some of the relatives of the nurses. We met a lady called Dinah who knew Vivian and another one of the nurses. She asked who we were there for, and we explained we were there for Ernest Lloyd and then she hugged us.

“It was the most amazing moment to know that someone on the other side of the world knew who he was.

“It was an amazing day. It was very emotional.”

Ms McCarthy said that her granddad was very open about his experiences during the war.

“It was something we all grew up with,” she said. “Aside from the massacre we were all very aware of it.

“If you didn’t finish all your food he would finish it, as he hated to see food going to waste after starving in the prisoner of war camps. He would have dreadful nightmares and would shout out in the night.

“As children, we were aware of it but we didn't really realise the enormity of it.

“He was very open about it with us. From talking to other people it seems to be fairly uncommon for him to have been that open about it.”

Mr Lloyd had got married while he was posted in Cape Town in 1941 – just months before he was shipwrecked on Bangka Island.

They returned to South Africa in 1948 after Ms McCarthy’s mum was born, but moved to Gwent in 1960 to work in Llanwern Steelworks. He worked there until he retired. He died in March 1991, aged 74.