Blinko Alec Mark 1903 – Blencowe Family in World War Two

Alec Mark Blinko

BIRTH 30 OCT 1903 • Windsor End, Beaconsfield
DEATH 5 MAR 1943 • Solomon Islands

Father Nm: Henry George Blinko 1869-1911, Long Crendon Bucks.

Mother Nm: Amelia Edwards 1868-1955. Chilton Bucks

Marriage Dt: Alice Lettia West 1926 Folkestone

K comments: Brothers George Harry and Albert Stanley served with the Oxford and Bucks LI. and Cheshire Regiments in WW1. Son George served after WW2 in the Middle East with RA. Nephew Theodore George Henry served in WW2 with Parachute Regiment and was a POW in Germany . Blinko TGH Tree

Spouse comments: Alice Letitia West 1910-2001.was born on 19.3.1910 Kent, and died on 27.5.2011 in Somerset.

Family Tree pages

Oldest Known Ancestor: William Blincow d.1702 Bicester.

Children: George Alec 1929, Gordon James 1930.

Birth

30 OCT 1903 • Windsor End, Beaconsfield

Before the War

1911 Census

Burts Lane Long Crendon (Thame District) with widowed mother and family.

BLINKO ALBERT M 1900 11 Scholar
BLINKO ALEC M 1904 7
BLINKO AMELIA F 1869 42
BLINKO CRIS M 1906 5
BLINKO AMELIA F 1909 2
BLINKO EDITH F 1902 9
BLINKO HARRY M 1894 17 Farm Worker

1921 Census

Not found , mother remarried and three siblings with her.

1923-1939

1923. Joined The Royal Hussars.
1927. Based in Edinburgh for trainingFrom son George ” In 1927 he was transferred to the cavalry of the line due to his regiment going to India for 5/6 years and (his) time was due up in 1929. I also have Army education certificate dated 8-9th Sept 1927 in Edinburgh where he had a two-day exam along with a photo dated 11th Sept 1927 also in Edinburgh, at a cavalry barracks”

1939 Census

Chepping Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England
Occupation: Council Labourer Heavy Worker

Alec M Blinko
Alice L Blinko
George Alec
Gordon James

WW2

Blinko Alec Mark, 542937, 13th/18th,,and 8th Royal Hussars, 4th/7th Dragoon Guards, 144th/35th Light Anti Aircraft Regiment, Sergeant.

1940

22 Apr. Re-enlisted as the war begins and is posted to the 35th LAA Regiment, 144th Battery Royal Artillery. Spent the balance next 159 months training and preparing for embarkation.

1941

13 Nov. Embarkation was on the luxury liner the Empress of Japan at Greenock which sailed down the Clyde on 13th November 1941 in convoy.
Empress of Japan
18 Dec. “They arrived in Durban on 18th December where shore leave was allowed on 19th December and a good time was had by all. “
24 Dec. Departed Durban on theNarkunda heading for Singapore via the Maldives, pass Sumatra and Java.

1942

13 Jan. Arrived into Singapore under caution of the Japanese attack.
After a few days, the Japanese bombing intensified and attacks across the Johore Causeway caused the battalion to move out to defend the causeway.
Johor Causeway in January 1941

Map of the fall of Singapore modified to show 144th movements first across the Johore Causeway and then the retreat under attack until captured. The position of Changi Prison approximated on this map. From the website Fall of Singapore at http://www.exploringoffthebeatenpath.com/

“Some days later it appears two troops of the 89th went across the Johore Causeway first into Malaya and were followed by the 144th. It wasn’t possible to hold the hordes of Japanese streaming down who had reconnoitred and planted the ground years before and so those two troops of the 89th came back through 144th who were on the roads and doing very good destruction among the Zeros. They came back across the Causeway into Singapore, prepared to make a stand.”¹
On returning the RA Batteries were already abandoned and Singapore fell.
British POW’s in Singapore
“The 144th was split up shortly after being taken. A party of 100 was sent to Saigon in French Indo-China and later to Hanoi. This party had the most fortunate record of any, for 95% returned home, almost a normal death rate for Far Eastern Service. The remainder of 144th, together with RHQ, continued their imprisonment on Singapore until 18th October 1942 when they were included in a party of about 600 prisoners who were taken to New Britain.”¹
15 Feb. Imprisoned at Changi prison. Alec,s Japanese POW card shows the details of his capture.

Prisoners of war in Selarang Barracks, Changi, 1942. AWM P03821.064

18 Oct. Alec with his 600 of his Regiment is sent to the Solomon Islands, and eventually onto Ballale Island.
The Japanese Navy 18th Construction Battalion arrived at Ballale on November 3, 19
5 Nov. The ship disembarks at Rabaul and the men made to work in very hot conditions with frequent beatings etc. As a result that when the time came to move them on only 517 out of the 600 are alive or fit enough to move.
End of Nov. The 517 is moved to Ballale Island to be used in the construction of an airstrip. See the Story of Ballale Island for the details of the horrendous conditions that Alec must have suffered.

1943

21 Jan. The criminal treatment of the POW’s by the Japanese continued into 1943 and was compounded by the lie that the Japanese Military authorities then recorded. “The Kenkon Maru, now without the prisoners, continued her voyage. On the 21 January 1943, the U.S.Navy submarine SS 212 Gato torpedoed and damaged the Kenkon Maru. just East of Bougainville. (06°12’S, 155°51’E). Her escort then scuttles the ship. This was the action that led to the Japanese lie that the 600 Gunners had been “Lost at Sea”. This date is recorded on Alec’s death Certificate in December 1946.

Son George writes ” “This is the war office certificate confirming dad’s death. Originally we were told that the ship the POW’s were on was sunk.”

What happened to Alec we will never know as the Ballale Story below (and in other recorded histories) indicates he may have perished at the hands of Japanese soldiers or allied bombs (this occurred when the POWs were building the airstrip on the Island.). One thing is for certain the date of death is made up and even June Burgess in her story below has this fact incorrect.

Of the 600 POWs taken to Ballale island, only 18 returned to the UK at the end of the war and Alec’s death is recorded as 5th March 1943. In 1946 the remains of 438 of these British servicemen were recovered on Ballale and were finally interred in graves in the Bomana Commonwealth War Cemetery at Port Moresby where they are tended by the Australian War Graves Commission. The commemorating of Alec Mark Blinko can be seen at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

A simple Memorial monument on Balalle Island, that records the Royal Artillerymen killed in WW2

1986

In 1986 Widow Alice travelled to Singapore to visit the Kranje Cemetery memorial to husband Alec. She wrote this sad letter home.

The Story of Ballalle Island by June Burgess.

My late father, Gunner Alfred William Burgess No 1831431 serving with 144 Battery 35 Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA, lost his life in the Far East on 5 March 1943 as a Japanese Prisoner of War.

I was 6 years old at the time. My mother, sadly, died after a long illness when I was 11 and being an only child I was thus brought up by relatives on my mother’s side of the family.

On the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in the Far East, with many articles being written in newspapers etc, I began to wonder what really happened to my father. We had had a telegram from the War Office – “Missing at Sea, presumed dead 5.3.43”, but was there anyone who could remember being with my dad before he died? With the help of my cousin, Beryl Canwell, I wrote to the Ministry of Defence and paid £20.00 to be told what I already knew – that he had been lost at sea.

However, I also wrote to the editor of “The Gunner” and to the Far East Prisoners of War Graves Archives and was put in touch with a Peter Dunstan who kindly rang me and then sent a brief history of the Royal Artillery “Ballale 600”.

After the fall of Singapore in February 1942, my father was taken prisoner and spent time in the camp at Changi. In early October 1942, the Japanese decided that 600 men from the Royal Artillery units (made up of 126 officers and men from the 35th LAA Regiment 144 Battery plus officers and men from the following RA Regiments: 7th Coast, 9th Coast, 11th Coast, 2nd HAA, 3rd HAA, 5th Searchlight and Hong Kong & Singapore Artillery plus a few men from the RAMC and RASC who had been attached to the RA’s) should be moved from the camp in Changi to another camp in Japan. The 600 were under the command of Lt. Col John Bassett.

The party was taken to Singapore Docks where they boarded a ship believed to be the “Masta Maru” and endured horrendous conditions. Many men were sick at this time and Battery Sgt Major Lambourne of the 11th Coast Regiment died from dysentery. On the journey, it was noticed that the ship was definitely NOT heading for Japan but was heading south. On 5 November the ship docked at Rabaul on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea where the men were unloaded and marched along dusty tracks ankle-deep with volcanic ash despite many being without footwear. During this period the men were made to work in the tropical sun with many beatings.

At the end of November, the prisoners were assembled and the fittest 517 were told that they were to be taken to build an airfield for the Japanese. 82 men did not to go with the party as they were not deemed fit enough – ONLY 18 OF THE ORIGINAL 600 SURVIVED TO RETURN TO THE UK – THESE BEING AMONG THE GROUP THAT DID NOT GO ON TO BALLALE.

The 517 were taken by another hell ship on the two-day journey to the small island of Ballale which is approximately 4 miles in diameter to build an airstrip. In time, probably on completion of the airstrip and the news being received by the Japanese that the Allies were closing in, orders were given that “PRISONERS OF WAR WERE TO BE DISPOSED OF BY WHATEVER MEANS WAS AVAILABLE”.

Accordingly, on 5 March 1943, those who were still alive (some having died of illness and others as a result of Allied bombing as the Japanese had not allowed the prisoners to dig trenches to take cover) were massacred in cold blood and not one of those taken to Ballale survived. It was only through the few natives who lived on the island and who had witnessed the events that this story was able to be recorded by the Australian Forces who re-occupied the island sometime later. In 1946 the remains of 438 of these British servicemen were recovered on Ballale and were finally interred in graves in the Bomana Commonwealth War Cemetery at Port Moresby where they are tended by the Australian War Graves Commission.