H Ortiger 64808
Escaped on the Ship
ml311
Died by drowing when ML311 a Royal
Navy Fairmile Launch was sunk by Japanese cruiser in
the Banka Strait , 15.2.42
SGT R Sandilands attested that "Major Ortiger was on board the ML311 when it was sunk en rout to Java
. I myself was in the water for three days .
About midday on the second day (16.2.42) a body lying face downwards Major Ortiger came floating past me and was definitely dead .
I knew Major Ortiger very well ,
as I had worked for him in R.A.O.C Catterick camp
round about 1935 and again in Malaya ans Singapore
1941 to 1942 .
His height would be about 5ft. nine inches or ten, very fair, and of good
build, would weigh about twelve and half stone. () Sgt.
R. Sandilands, # 7584291.Catterick camp, Yorks…”.
Sgt.
Sandilands also confirms that he was an ‘eyewitness’ to the death by drowning
of Major Ortiger in a schedule form ‘Casualty (L)
Interrogation Form No. 1’
(also in file WO361/316) when ML311 was sunk by a Japanese cruiser at 6.00am on
Sunday 15 February in Banka Strait, NEI.
(Research by Michael Pether [email protected])