Taken literally from Thompson's "The Battle of Singapore": "The Argylls' ambush had failed but the Japanese had walked right into B Company's rifle, mortar and machine-gun fire and suffered heavy losses. One of the dead - who was shot through a rubber tree by an Argyll with a Boys anti-tank rifle - was a European in a peaked cap. Although the man was never positively identified, he was suspected of being a German member of the French Foreign Legion in Indochina who had thrown in his lot with the Japanese." Does anyone know something else on the subject? Even though the author mentions that no positive ID was ever achieved, maybe there have been updates (which I have not been able to find so far ) between the time of writing and today.
I know something different: the 2 ASH history implies A Coy's left flank guard got the kill (B Coy being to the right of A Coy so I don't think there's much scope for confusion). Mind you, all it has to say about the odd man out is: A European among them was shot. I'll have a look in Moon Over Malaya...
Moon Over Malaya mentions Ian Morrison as the source of the tale, and adds that there were at least two more killed, though it's not clear if that was in the same engagement. It also says B Coy. Morrison's Malayan Postscript includes a few accounts of Europeans fighting with the Japs but simply says that: ... one of the Argylls, a golf professional in civil life, claimed to have shot a white officer in enemy uniform with an armour-piercing rifle as he hastily took shelter behind a tree.
NMP's reprint of Japanese Military Forces March 1942 has some short notes on Fifth Column in Malaya, one of which states, not without typos: Enemy patrols have on at least one occasion been preceded by a German dressed in Civilian clothes, who engaged troops in conversation while enemy patrol come into a firing position
