Digger’s Wartime Letter Details the Act of God That Saved His Life

Sergeant who escaped the Fall of Singapore via a small boat and ended up in northern Australia.

Officials lay a wreath during the annual ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day dawn service at Coogee Beach in Sydney, Australia on April 25, 2025. Dawn services were held across the two countries on the anniversary of the ill-fated 1915 campaign of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps that left 11,500 of them dead in what is now Turkey during World War I. David Gray/AFP via Getty Images

In what World War II survivor Richard “Digger” Bryant could only describe as an act of God, he survived death by a matter of metres, escaping repeated Japanese pattern bombing while fleeing the enemy via a small “tub” boat.

These are the details that the now-late Digger—an Australian sergeant in Singapore—describes in a wartime letter to one of his brothers back home.