Five: 1939/45 Star, Pacific Star, Defence Medal, War Medal and Australian Service Medal correctly impressed to VX18985 C. W. Mucklow,
Sergeant Charles William Mucklow a native from Nathalia, Victoria enlisted on 6 Jun 1940. The 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion fought as companies during the Syrian campaign, but when the Vichy French counter-attacked Merdjayoun on 15 Jun 1941, the 2/2nd regrouped to hold the Litani Bridge and prevent further enemy advance.
On 17 Jun, the 2/2nd participated in the attack on Fort Merdjayoun. French machine-gun fire quickly stopped the attack and the Australians suffered 27 killed, 29 captured, and 46 wounded.
In early 1942 the 2/2nd sailed on the Orcades reaching Oosthaven in Sumatra before going to Batavia. The troops aboard Orcades combined as ‘Blackforce’ to defend Java. The Japanese landed on Java on 28 February 1942. Blackforce went into action at Leuwiliang near Buitenzorg on 4 March fighting against the Japanese for two days but was ordered to lay down arms the day after Dutch surrender on the 8th of March. The majority of the 2/2nd survived the fighting and spent the rest of the war as prisoners. Of these, 258 men died, most while working on the Burma-Thailand railway.
Mucklow was part of Williams Force, who worked the Burma end of the railway. He died of beri beri at Tha Makham camp, Thailand, on 29 Jan 1944. His body was recovered at the end of the war and reinterred in the CWGC cemetery at Kanchanaburi, Thailand.
EF SOLD
