Killer General Mallaby Until the Battle of November 10 in Surabaya, Indonesia

Brigadier General Mallaby, known to General Mallaby, was a young British executive officer with a brilliant career. However, who would have thought, the general who was born on December 12, 1899 was dead before his 46th birthday at Jembatan Merah, Surabaya, East Java. Mallaby died miserably on October 30, 1945. Mallaby's death still left a mystery because the mysterious shooter had never been answered until now.

There are a number of statements from witnesses of history which also included historical actors about the mysterious Mallaby death at Jembatan Merah Surabaya, including:

- The late Roeslan Abdulgani (Secretary of the KNI),

     "Who killed until now nobody knows,"

- Suparto Brata

     "Nobody knows or witnesses who saw who killed Mallaby,"

     as quoted from Wikipedia.

But based on the testimony of Muhammad, the youth leaders who came into the Internatio Building to cool the atmosphere.

Inside the building, Mohammed saw for himself the British army had prepared mortars directed at the crowd surrounding the Mallaby car.

He also heard the telephone connection between Captain Shaw and his commander at Westerbeuitenweg at the Port of Tanjung Perak, Surabaya.

The plan, if the crowd was bombarded with mortars, they would be left in turmoil. The opportunity will then be used by British soldiers who are besieged at Internatio Building to escape.

"Because the room door is left open, I can guess that the mortar in front of the window will be aimed at a series of cars that are stopping near the Red Bridge. Maybe by calculation, if the bullet is fired at the target, the people will panic, giving the chance for Brigadier General Mallaby to run away. Apparently, my guess was not wrong. Because the Sudirman Resident's car burned to the ground, it was hit by mortar fire, "

Des Alwi quoted Muhammad as saying in the book.

"But what happened then was an unknown explosion, which destroyed Mallaby's car. This triggered chaos, which continued into uncontrolled riots," said Des Alwi.

"But what happened then was an explosion that was unknown, which destroyed Mallaby's car. This triggered chaos, which continued into uncontrolled riots,"

said Des Alwi.

He continued the story, that in the meantime there were some young men who could save themselves from the rain of British troops. Someone jumped to the edge of Kali Mas, and then whispered:

"Sir, it's done".

"Lo, what's done right?" Asked Doel Arnowo (Chair of the Indonesian National Committee).

"His British general, sir, the old man. The car exploded and he was burned to death".

"Who blew up?" We asked in unison.

He immediately answered,

"Didn't know. Suddenly there were grenades exploding from inside the car. But, indeed from our side, there was also someone who shot at the car."

As soon as Mohammed's explanation was quoted by Des Alwi in his book.

Another version explains

Two locations that were still "hot" at that time were the Lindeteves Building at Semut Bridge and Internatio Building on Jembatan Merah.

The Internatio building was occupied by Allied forces under the leadership of Major K Venu Gopal. The building was surrounded by around 500 armed youth. When the Liaison Bureau arrived at the courtyard of the building, the crowd immediately gathered.

"... a mob of young people demanded that British forces in Gedung Internatio put down their weapons and march out. They promised that British soldiers and officers would be free to return to the airfield," Smith was quoted as saying by J.G.A. Parrot in a research report titled Who Killed Brigadier Mallaby? which was published in the Indonesian journal October 20, 1975.

Smith, Mohammad, and Kundan entered. "I allowed the three men to enter, hoping to buy time. After some time, Kundan left the building, left Captain Shaw and the Indonesian officer earlier ..." Gopal wrote in his letter dated August 8, 1974 to Parrot.

"Meanwhile, armed men began to urge into the building, I have no other choice, except to start the attack. This decision is really my own making," Gopal continued.

Gunfire erupted. According to Smith, soon an armed Indonesian approached the car and shot four times at them. The shot missed, but they pretended to be dead. Assuming the enemy was killed, the person left.

The battle ended around 20.30. After that, continued Smith, two young men came to the car. They tried to run the car, but failed. One of them then opened the back door on Mallaby's side. The general moved, which made the young man know Mallaby was still alive. There was a conversation.

Mallaby requested that one of the members of the Liaison Bureau be called upon by Indonesia. The two young men then left.

One of them came back to the front door on Mallaby's side. The conversation happened again. Suddenly the young man extended his hand through the front window and shot Mallaby with a gun. The general is dead.

Seeing the incident, Smith pulled out the grenade pegs he received from Laughland. The young man reacted by shooting the two British officers. His shot grabbed Laughland's shoulder.

Smith immediately threw grenades beyond Mallaby's body through the open door. Smith and Laughland quickly ran and plunged into Kali Mas.

As a result of the grenade explosion, the seat behind the car caught fire and the young man was allegedly killed. After several hours in Kali Mas, the two British officers were able to rejoin their forces.

Major General EC Mansergh, Mallaby's successor, issued an ultimatum to Indonesian forces in Surabaya on November 9, 1945 to hand over weapons without conditions.

However, the ultimatum was never fulfilled. On November 10, 1945 a historic battle broke out because the Indonesian side ignored this ultimatum.

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