embarked aboard HMT Orcades for Sumatra but later diverted to Java. He was promoted to Warrant Officer Class II during this time. Defence of Java and prisoner of war The 1st Australian Corps with the 6th and 7th Division were moving from the Middle East to Dutch East Indies. Sailing far ahead of the 7th Division ships, the fast liner Orcades with 3400 men including the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion without its heavy equipment, reached Sumatra at midday of 15 February. Orcades was disembarking troops just hours before the fall of Singapore when ordered to reembark troops and divert from Sumatra to Batavia in Java. Disembarking at Batavia on 18 February, Peeler's battalion was combined with the other units aboard Orcades to form Blackforce. This ad hoc grouping, under the command of fellow Victoria Cross holder Brigadier Arthur Blackburn, was tasked with defending a series of airfields and supporting the Dutch. Blackburn organised his men into a brigade formation, consisting of a headquarters and three infantry battalions—the men of the 2/2nd Pioneers made up the bulk of Blackforce's 2nd Battalion. On 28 February 1942, elements of the Imperial Japanese Army landed on Java. Blackforce was stationed at Buitenzorg, poised to advance west to confront the invaders. However, rapid Japanese progress pushed the defending Dutch forces in the opposite direction, and Blackforce was assigned the defence of Buitenzorg and Leuwiliang. As the situation deteriorated further, Blackburn was forced to withdraw his men east on the night of 4/5 March, and again on 7/8 March. On 8 March, the Dutch surrendered, ordering all men to lay down their arms. With supplies running low and unable to contact the Australian Government, Brigadier Blackburn announced the surrender of Blackforce four days later. Peeler and his fellow soldiers thus became prisoners of war. At the time, he was one of three Australian Victoria Cross recipients of the First World War serving overseas, all of whom were "swept up in the Japanese advance"; Blackburn surrendered with Peeler at Java, while Walter Brown was caught up in the fall of Singapore, where he is believed to have been killed attempting to evade capture. Peeler was among a contingent of Australian captives transported to work on the Burma Railway. Despite the "harsh treatment" meted out by the Japanese, he later played down his ordeal, stating: "I wasn't treated too badly, apart from nearly starving ... But what the Japs