Additional general notes on the memorial
Lieutenant Harry Bernard Windows killed in action 1943.
Regiment : 3 Battery 6th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery. Service number : 172845
Date of death : 5th March 1943 aged 26. Buried : Commemorated on Singapore Memorial, Column 3.
Relatives : Son of Walter and Annie Mary Windows, of Birlingham, Worcestershire
Supervisor comments
Harry Windows was captured by the Japanese on 15th February 1942 and was one of the unfortunate members of the 600 (Gunners) Party, a group of 600 British Gunners sent out of Singapore on 18th October 1942, most of which ended up on Ballale Island (south of Rabaul, N.G.) to build an air field for the Japanese. Many of these men lost their lives when the Americans heavily bombed the small island in June 1943 and all of the remaining survivors were mass executed the following day by the Japanese. There were no survivors of the 517 men who made it to Ballale Island (1 died in transit and 82 were off loaded (in transit from Singapore) at Rabaul, being too sick to continue to travel. Just 18 out of this entire party of 600 survived the war, all being amongst those left at Rabaul.
The date of death for all of the victims of this atrocity is recorded as 5th March 1943, which stems from an ‘official’ report by the Japanese that their transport ship was bombed by the Allies on that date and all lives were lost. The Allies didn’t ‘buy’ the story and an investigation was undertaken post war which (with the assistance of local natives) ultimately uncovered the mass graves on Ballale Island which revealed the reality. All of the remains were re-buried at Bomana War Cemetery in New Guinea and recorded as “unknown’ due to the inability of positively identifying individual remains.
A letter from Harry Window’s mother, Mrs A.M. Windows, Broadway House, Burlingham, Nr Pershore, no date, but reply from council dated 25th April 1950, can be found within war records held at Worcestershire Archives requesting that his name be added to the county roll of honour. The letter states that Harry Bernard Windows, 2nd Lieutenant, 3rd Heavy A.A. Battery Royal Artillery, 6th A.A. Regiment, died as a POW in the Far East in 1943.