Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Roy was the son of William Jantke and his wife Emily, and was born on 14 October 1942 at Balaklava SA. On 28 June 1924, aged 21, Roy married Ivy Elizabeth Holyoak at St Paul’s Church, Adelaide. On 10 June of the following year, they had a son William Roy (known as Bill). Roy’s mother Emily died in 1928, aged 60.

Roy was a 38-year-old vehicle painter living with Emily and Bill at Woodville North SA when he enlisted in the 2nd AIF at Wayville on 5 March 1942. He had previously served in the Militia with the 4th Garrison Battalion. Given his previous service and civilian job, he immediately marched out to the 2/4th Reserve Motor Transport Company in Victoria and joined his new unit. After little further training, on 10 April the unit entrained for Sydney, and embarked for Singapore, arrived there on 24 April. Roy was a member of C Section of the company, made up almost entirely of South Australians.

Once in Singapore, Roy’s unit was earmarked as additional transport to that allocated to the 8th Australian Division, the main Australian force in Malaya and Singapore. The company was sent to Malacca on the southwestern coast of Malaya, about 220 kms north of Singapore. C Section and some other unit elements established a base at Jasin, about 16 kms north of the town. Jasin camp was pretty basic, and while their atap sleeping huts were constructed, they slept in tents. C Section took its turn as the town picquet in Malacca, but its main task was collecting and delivering supplies around the base area at Malacca with their trucks. These were initially a combination of Ford three, five and a few seven-tonners. They were gradually replaced by Canadian-built Ford Blitz trucks from June onwards. The troops knew these are Marmon’s, as they were based on a design by the Marmon-Herrington Company. The unit also had Ford and Austin utilities for lighter work. Drivers needed training on any vehicles they were not already familiar with, and this took up some considerable time prior to major transport tasks being undertaken, and each month they did military skills training in the field. Local leave was in Malacca, and longer leave in Kuala Lumpur. Rarely did the men get to Singapore due to the distance.

During the middle of 1941, up to 80 members of the unit could be in hospital in Malacca with illness or disease, mostly caused by the tropical conditions. C Section became ammunition transport specialists and underwent special training for this task. Most of the unit, including C Section, moved to Singapore in August 1941. In the same month the whole unit moved the 22nd Brigade from one coast of Malaya to the other, and then became the primary transport unit operating on Singapore Island, assisting with the build-up of reinforcements arriving from Australia and elsewhere in the British Empire.

When the Japanese invasion on Malaya began in December 1941, the 8th Division was deployed on the Malayan peninsula, and fought several delaying actions before being withdrawn to Singapore in late January 1942. By 30 January, the last Allied troops had crossed the Johore Causeway, and it was deliberately blown up to prevent the Japanese from using it. The division fought desperately as part of the defence of the island, only to be captured on 16 February. Roy was captured along with his unit. In June 1942, Roy was in hospital with dysentery for a week.

Sent with B Force to Sandakan in July 1942, he slaved on the airstrip until it was put out of action permanently around Christmas 1944, and died of malaria in March 1945. His remains were presumably buried at Sandakan, but the camp records were destroyed by the Japanese, and he has no known grave and his service and sacrifice is commemorated on the Labuan Memorial at the Labuan War Cemetery, Malaysia.