From Greenhills to Singapore
James Sutherland
The story of a young man named John Kerle Tipaho Haberfield from the very south of New Zealand. In World War II, he enlisted in the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve and after training as a pilot in England and Canada he joined the Fleet Air Arm. Late in 1943, he was posted to a fighter squadron and joined to the Far East completing further training in India and Ceylon. He was then posted to the aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable and was shot down during a bombing raid on two oil refineries on Palembang in Sumatra. He was captured and sent to Outram Road Prison where he and another eight aircrew were executed. His life from this period is recorded in letters sent home to his family during the war.