Vic. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment of VX38210 Lance Corporal Robert Alfred Dennett, ...

Accession Number P02784.004
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white, Portrait
Physical description Black & white, Portrait
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Vic. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment of VX38210 Lance Corporal Robert Alfred Dennett, 2/29 Battalion. He was one of 145 men who were massacred by the Japanese at Parit Sulong on 22 January 1942 during the Malaya Campaign when wounded Australian and Indian soldiers were left behind by withdrawing troops after the Battle of Muar. They were rounded up by the Japanese and forced to surrender all of their belongings including their clothes, which were later returned. The men, now Prisoners of War (POWs) were beaten, tormented and denied food, water and medical attention. At sunset on the night of 22 January 1942, the men were roped or wired together in groups and led into the jungle where they were shot with machine guns, doused with petrol and set alight. Only Lieutenant Ben Charles Hackney and VX52333 Reginald Arthur Wharton survived, feigning death despite repeated brutalities by the Japanese. Lance Corporal Dennett, aged 36, was the husband of May Dennett of Black Rock, Vic. (Photograph copied from original attestation form lent by the Central Army Records Office)

Related information