Charles Paris was born in Valletta in 1921. At 18, in January 1940, without his parents’ knowledge and before waiting for his conscription papers, he joined the Royal Navy as an assistant steward at the Naval Depot. After two months training, he was drafted with other Maltese cooks and stewards to the County Class cruiser HMS Sussex, which had made a brief stop at Malta on its way from South Africa to the UK.

Leading steward Charles Paris in June 1940.

The vessel docked in Liverpool in March for a two-month refit and then joined the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow. But the ship developed a propeller fault and proceeded to the Clyde in Scotland for repairs. On the night before it was due to leave on September 18, 1940, at about 1am, a lone German bomber dropped three bombs on Yorkhill Quay, one of which fell on the cruiser, which fully loaded with ammunition.

The bomb went through the officers’ pantry and down into the engine room. Paris was halfway down to his action station – ‘A’ turret magazine – when the explosion threw him some distance away against the bulkhead. The lights went out and the vessel was deliberately flooded in shallow water to prevent it from exploding and killing the crew and the inhabitants living in the area.

Paris felt terribly cold and knew he was hurt. His throat burned from the blast and smoke inhalation. He tried shouting for help but was choking. The ship’s crew ran in all directions flashing their torches but failed to notice Paris as he was lying in a corner.

Finally, a stoker recognised Paris and tried to pick him up, but Paris pushed him away because he was in terrible pain. So the seaman told Paris to grab his overalls and follow him, crawling slowly until they came to a gangway and up to the first flat. Rescuers, including Maltese seamen, laid him on a stretcher and carried him up to the deck and down the gangway to one of the waiting ambulances.

The injured were taken to the Western Infirmary in Glasgow. Two of the crew were dead and 16 injured. As Paris was being wheeled to the operating theatre, he passed out. He regained consciousness four days later, bandaged from head to foot with second-degree burns, and he was being given morphine every half hour. After four months in the infirmary and in a hospital outside Helensburgh, he was granted sick leave, which he could ill afford those days, spending Christmas and the New Year 1941-2 in Glasgow.

Paris was then sent to Devonport Barracks where he met the rest of the Maltese staff. They all agreed it was a miracle how he had survived. Chief messman Andrew Micallef told Paris he was going on the York Class heavy cruiser HMS Exeter which was still being repaired in the Clyde. He invited Paris to join him and the latter agreed. HMS Exeter left Devonport Dockyard in March 1941. It sailed around Africa to the Middle East, and later proceeded to Sri Lanka where it arrived in September 1941.

After Japan attacked the US Navy at Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941, HMS Exeter was involved in protecting convoy duties from repeated attacks by Japanese aircraft. When British Singapore fell on February 15, 1942, Japanese land, air and sea forces dominated the southeast Asian theatre of war and Exeter was sent to reinforce the Eastern Striking Forces under the Dutch Admiral Karel Doorman.

The squadron, comprising the Australian cruiser Perth, and American and Dutch warships was overwhelmed by a Japanese naval force in the Java Sea, and was decimated in the first battle. Only two Allied ships and the damaged Exeter  were left afloat. The latter managed to limp to Sourabaya in Java and thereafter tried to escape to Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, Exeter was ambushed by a superior Japanese force consisting of four heavy cruisers and three destroyers and was seriously damaged in the ensuing second battle of the Java Sea.

HMS Exeter sinking in the Second Battle of Java Sea on March 1, 1942.

Maltese ratings formed part of the ammunition parties on the guns and gave first aid. However, their position was untenable for the vessel started sinking, and as they had expended all their ammunition, the skipper gave the order to abandon ship. Over 2,000 Allied seamen, about 90 from Exeter, perished in the battle. Paris leaped into shark-infested waters. The survivors were left clinging to flotsam for over 27 hours before they were picked up by a Japanese destroyer and taken to the island of Celebes.

For Paris and the other survivors, it was the start of over three years of unbelievable suffering – a hell on earth. They were guarded by armed soldiers, and any lagging survivor was immediately thrashed with bamboo sticks. On arrival, they were kept at the former Dutch barracks at Celebes island until the Japanese built a camp at Klapa Grove and housed the prisoners there. The place consisted of huts where the prisoners-of-war (POWs) slept on the floor. They were treated as slaves, doing menial work for their masters from 8am to 6pm with an hour’s break at noon.

Paris recalled his POW experiences as too horrendous and still an emotional subject

Jobs included clearing the jungle for new roads, breaking rocks into small stones with a sledgehammer for runways, cutting into the face of tin mines and even unloading war material from ships, which went against the Geneva Convention. Prisoners were treated like beasts of burden and anybody who was unable to work was beaten senseless. The prisoners were separated in groups of 10 and warned that if any member tried to escape, the others in the group would also be promptly beheaded with a Samurai sword by the evil camp commandant Yoshida. None of the POWs’ parcels or letters were ever received at home.

Paris recalled his POW experiences as too horrendous and still an emotional subject. Many prisoners were sick, without any medical care and treated like beasts of burden. They suffered from various illnesses such as beriberi, scabies, dysentery, malaria, pellagra, Weil’s disease, ulcers and foot rot. No medicine was available. Some men even went mad.

Charles Paris was among the Maltese crew that embarked on HMS Sussex in Malta, on its way from Port Said to Liverpool for a refit when war was declared.

Worst of all, added Paris, was the gnawing hunger as the POWs were being starved to death. Those who survived did so on a handful of rice with a little sugar thrice a day with an egg on rare occasions. The Dutch doctors encouraged the prisoners to eat eggshells for the vitamins they contained. These were dried in the sun, crushed and mixed with rice. Some risked their necks to survive, stealing even from dustbins.

But there was a ray of light. Maltese petty officer Ugo Calleja, who was a cook, was put in charge of the camp kitchen with Paris as his assistant and a staff of 30 prisoners, including the other Exeter Maltese, comprising canteen assistant Maurice Dimech who survived when the destroyer HMS Encounter was sunk. They fed some 26,000 English, Dutch, Australian, New Zealand, American, Malaysian and Filipino inmates daily.

On one occasion, Calleja made pane di Spagna sponge cakes from ducks’ eggs which so pleased the Japanese that they ordered him to make these for their New Year celebrations, enough for 14,000. Calleja also cooked cats and dogs brought to him secretly by other hungry POWs, at great risk as he would have been severely punished had he been caught.

When Germany surrendered in May 1945, the news took some time to filter through to the camp. Only when some Dutchmen on a working party were given a leaflet with the news dropped by an Allied aircraft did these welcome tidings reach the POWs, narrated Paris.

He explained that they had to take extra care not to let this news excite them outwardly as the enemy were likely to rave and carry out mass beatings. In fact, the Japanese became more beastly and erratic, making all the working parties of very sick prisoners walk some four miles and working extra hours until dark. What was worse was the fact that the Allies did not know of the prison camp and since it was near the Makassar dockyard, they had to endure bombing raids and there were near misses.

The heavy cruiser HMS Exeter entering Grand Harbour, circa 1937-38.

On August 6 and 9, 1945, American B-29 bombers dropped the first atomic bombs, laying waste the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing, maiming and burning thousands of people. Consequently, Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945. When the Japanese finally informed them that the war was over without saying who had won, the prisoners went down on their knees, crying with joy and embracing each other.

It was several weeks before an Australian party arrived in three small ships and they were greeted by a guard of honour of 20 tattooed and emaciated POWs. However, only two could stand as the others were so weak that they could only sit or lie down.

When the Japanese admiral entered, he saluted, bowed and offered a bouquet of flowers to the senior Australian officer. But when the latter saw the sorry sight of the prisoners, he tossed them disdainfully into the sea. But his men reacted differently. Angered by the sorry plight of their colleagues, they vented their feelings and instantly raised their guns in revenge ready to mow down the enemy, but were restrained by their commanding officer.

A few days later, HMS Maidstone, a submarine depot ship, called at Makassar and all the British, Australian and Maltese prisoners embarked for Freemantle, Australia. Once on board, the starving ex-POWs scrambled for the pantry. Thus, the POWs’ misery, beatings, disease and mental torture finally ended. Paris arrived home on board the destroyer HMS Lauderdale and was reunited with his family.

In November 1948, Paris married Mary née Bajada and they had three children: Tony, Rita and Marthese. He retired from the Royal Navy in 1956 and never wavered from his faith in the Lord. He used to recite the Holy Rosary every day with a special set of rosary beads given to him by an atheist Scotsman, which he had lost in the foundering of his ship.

Paris was a cobbler by trade and during his imprisonment, he used to retrieve worn-out truck tyres to make clogs for his colleagues at Makassar. He donated a sample of this footwear to the National War Museum, and the present author presented the museum a poster featuring Paris’ story on May 8, 2012. Exactly three months later, the tough and resilient Paris passed peacefully away, aged 91.

The wreck of HMS Exeter was located on February 21, 2008, by a team of divers of the Australian - New Zealand Chapter of the International Explorers Club, 90 miles north of the small island of Bawean, off the north coast of East Java, at a depth of 200 feet.

On August 24, 2008, the Royal Navy frigate HMS Kent laid wreaths over the wreck in the presence of a number of veterans and descendants, and the diver who discovered the wreck, Kevin V. Denlay, tied a White Ensign to the Exeter’s port torpedo tube.