Article 6 - Major Philip Malins, M.B.E., M.C., Order of the Rising Sun - a giant of a man who commanded Gurkhas alongside Japanese troops!

A memorial to the victims of the Hiroshima atomic bombings was the “dying wish” of an ex-WW2 Dunkirk veteran, Major Philip Malins, M.B.E. M.C., Order of the Rising Sun, from Solihull in the West Midlands. He worked for 10 years to have the monument, which includes a stone from Hiroshima’s ruins, installed at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

He died on April 9th 2012, aged 92, before he could see the monument unveiled. Keiichi Hayashi, the then Japanese ambassador to the UK, was at the unveiling ceremony. The International Friendship and Reconciliation Trust, of which Major Malins was a former chairman, took up the project. Phillida Purvis from the Trust recalled: “It was fateful that he died on the day the stone arrived from Hiroshima into this country, but he knew his endeavours had been successful. It was his dying wish that the stone be turned into a memorial and we promised him that would happen.”

After the Japanese capitulation in August 1945, the Allies had to move swiftly to occupy large areas of south-east Asia in order to repatriate their PoWs, round up surrendered Japanese and maintain law and order. Malins, then a captain in the Royal Indian Army Service Corps (RIASC), accompanied 20 Indian Division in its move from Burma to what was then French Indochina and is now Vietnam.

Having been appointed supply and transport officer to 80 Indian Infantry Brigade, he flew to Saigon with the advance party. The local people soon realised that the British presence was merely the precursor to the return of the colonial French, from whom they were seeking their independence. As a result, the mood turned ugly. The Japanese prisoners quickly realised they were in danger from the local population and offered to join with their British captors to defend Saigon which was besieged, and every night buildings were set on fire. As casualties mounted it became clear that the Brigade did not have the manpower to defend a large city. The weather was bad, however, and attempts to fly in reinforcements were restricted.

On 27th September 1945, the situation became critical, and Malins was ordered to break out of Saigon with an armed convoy of 14 Japanese lorries and bring back rifles, machine guns and ammunition from a Japanese arms dump at Laithieu, about 12 miles distant. On the way, it was clear that the rebels were massing in large numbers.

The convoy arrived two hours before dark, and since it was impossible to load the vehicles and return to Saigon before nightfall, Malins decided to hole up in the Japanese-defended dump. His scratch force numbered 80 Japanese infantry, 18 Gurkhas and 12 recently liberated Dutch PoWs.

At first light they left, with the Gurkhas in the leading truck; Malins followed in a staff car with a Japanese lieutenant-colonel and an interpreter. Soon the convoy was halted by trees felled across the road and attacked by the rebels.

Malins got the roadblock cleared, but could extricate only nine of his lorries from the ambush. To avoid incurring more casualties, he sent the other five back under escort to Laithieu. Despite intense fire from 200 gunmen, he succeeded in getting the rest of the convoy through to Saigon. Five Gurkhas, six of the Dutchmen and an unknown number of Japanese soldiers were killed. Many more were wounded. He was the only British officer known to have commanded a force of Japanese soldiers and Gurkhas in action! He was a tall man, towering above the much smaller soldiers of his joint command, and did his best to keep low to avoid presenting such a tempting target.

The weapons that did get through were used to re-arm French troops, and Saigon held out. Malins was awarded an Immediate Military Cross for his outstanding leadership.

Philip Geoffrey Malins was born in Birmingham on 8th May 1919, and educated at King Edward VI Grammar School. He joined the Territorial Army in 1938, and was subsequently commissioned into the RIASC. He took part in the evacuation from Dunkirk and was the only survivor when a German bomb scored a direct hit on the truck in which he was travelling, and which was carrying three tons of petrol.

Malins arrived in Burma in 1943. On one occasion he had to oversee the crossing of the 600m-wide Chindwin River by 1,350 mules, as 32 Indian Infantry Brigade advanced 250 miles to capture the key roadhead town of Budalin.

South of the town, at night, his muleteers ambushed a Japanese truck. To his enduring regret, Malins was obliged to give the order to fire, killing 22 Japanese soldiers. When he gave the order to “cease fire” one man was not dead and fired at Malins from four yards away. The bullet passed through his ammunition pouch without exploding the ammunition. The soldier then killed himself with a small hand grenade carried for that purpose. This incident deeply scarred Philip in later life and it haunted him. It was this incident which was the driving force behind his efforts for reconciliation in the years following.

In Saigon he was responsible for providing rations for 6,700 Allied personnel, including newly released PoWs and 69,000 surrendered Japanese personnel.

After being demobilised he spent six years in Malins Engineers, the family business, before becoming Midland regional manager of the British Institute of Management. After he retired he dedicated his time to various ex-Services associations.

With Dame Vera Lynn, he played a leading part in the British Legion’s campaign to obtain an ex gratia payment of £10,000 to each surviving prisoner of the Japanese, together with widows and civilian internees. He believed strongly in the importance of reconciliation between former enemies and, as chairman of the International Friendship and Reconciliation Trust, helped to organise services at Coventry and other cathedrals.

He was responsible for creating the Grove of International Friendship and Reconciliation at the National Memorial Arboretum. As a member of the Burma Campaign Fellowship Group, he visited Japan several times and helped host return visits by former Japanese servicemen to England. In 2003, he received the Japan Society award for his contribution to Anglo-Japanese reconciliation. He was also was awarded the “Order of the Rising Sun” by Japanese government for his “outstanding contribution to post-Second World War reconciliation between the UK and Japan” according to the Japanese Embassy (London). The presentation of the medal took place in 2010.

He visited over 110 countries and remained an enthusiastic long-distance walker (a member of the Centurians walk race club - who walked 100 mile routes) and cyclist; the latter well into his eighties. He was still driving his car in his 92nd year. I had the great privilege to know Philip in his later years. Much will be made of the monument today which I have visited and his contribution is recognised. Sadly, as already stated, he died shortly before he could actually see it. Remember him when you view the memorial - ‘Pass his torch’.

Mike Finchen

Code: 61971