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Now the C.O. decided that we must be prepared to help our army, when they landed to release us. We organized ourselves into cadres for unarmed combat, and I was one of the instructors.

Our big unpopular adjutant originated from Canada and considered himself a tough guy. He decided to join my cadre and demonstrate on little me what to do to the Japs. I had the very great satisfaction of demonstrating in front of the men how little he knew about unarmed combat; it was the only chance I was ever to have of throwing an officer into the air, and all quite legitimate.

Moreover he never forgave me, and it was many months later, when working on the Thai railway, that he had the chance to get his own back.

We made ourselves lances and bows and arrows, all from bamboo, to be ready when ‘D’-Day arrived. Then one of the officers ran a tactics cadre for senior N.C.Os; when he asked for a volunteer to climb a palm-tree and strap himself in (as we knew the Japs had done), I of course spoke up. Since my first palm climbing exploit, I had practiced quite a bit, so now was able to reach the top without too much trouble, and all without climbing irons.

As I tried to settle myself into a comfortable position, I suddenly found every square inch of my body covered with stinging ants. They were even in my eyes, and I almost fell the thirty feet or more as I tried to scramble down with my eyes closed. When I eventually found my way down the tree and into the nearest water, I was completely covered with stings, and took several days to recover.

I wondered afterwards whether these ants walk all the way up those long branchless trunks, or if the nest is started while the tree is small, and its occupants lead a self-sufficient existence as the tree grows.

Changi was quite unlike any other camp in which we were to be kept. Firstly, this was to be the only place where we were allowed to run our own affairs, with little interference from our captors. Conditions were incomparably better than we ever again experienced.

When Singapore fell, the Japs could have had very few troops to spare to guard the forty or fifty thousand prisoners they had found themselves landed with, so the main body of them was put into this corner of the island and left, more or less, to fend for itself for the early part of the captivity. The shoreward perimeter was thinly guarded by Sikhs and Japs, but seaward needed no guarding - we weren't going anyware.

On the thirty-first of August, for some strange reason the Japs issued us with forms to sign, declaring upon our honour that we would not attempt to escape. It is the duty of every member of the British armed forces, if taken prisoner, to attempt to escape at the first opportunity, so there was a hundred per cent refusal to sign.

I was in the middle of making a swimming pool for my ducklings the following day, when we were ordered at short notice to parade on the 'padang', as our sports field was called.

Japs arrived, and spent all morning counting us, and we were then dismissed none the wiser as to the point of the operation. We found out the next day, when we were ordered to parade with our kit, cooking utensils, tools, rations and all the battalion equipment.

No exceptions were made in our lines, so sick men had to parade also. As the hospital was not to be evacuated, however, I managed to get a message to good old Dr. Barber to ask him to feed my ducks while we were away.

Camp gear, and the sick in need of help, were shared out among us, and for once we were marched off without the usual delay. The destination proved to be Selarang, a peace-time military barracks. Although only two miles off, we had a job to make it without jettisoning some of our loads, as the Japs drove us at a fast rate with no rests.

When we arrived we found the buildings already occupied by Australian troops. Fifteen thousand of us were however driven in through the gates. The site was about two hundred by three hundred yards in size.

The multiple storey barrack block was in the centre, and a hard road ran round the perimeter of the area. The Japs told us that any man setting foot on this road would be shot instantly, and the machine guns which they set up all round us reinforced their words.

As our leaders tried to find enough room for us all, another three thousand prisoners turned up from somewhere, and these had also to be accommodated. It was announced that we were here as punishment for not signing the non-escape document; we were to stay until we did sign it.

The officers cast lots for theit companies'positions, and our brigade was lucky in getting the top floor of the barrack block; the majority were allocated space on the ground outside. The Japs told us that they would issue a pint of water per man per day, but no food. There was no water at all in the pipes, so no toilets could be used.

Now our retention of discipline and organization became manifest, as work parties were formed and quickly started digging through the hard tarmac of the barrack square to make a row of latrine trenches. We worked like mad, knowing that if we did not get done quickly, dysentery would spread through the crowd like wildfire; within a few hours the first row was ready, and in continuous use.

Our building was so full of men that even the stairs were occupied, and it took a quarter of an hour stepping over our comrades to reach the latrines from our topfloor. Our dysentery cases had therefore to remain down below.

As usual, I started to explore, and soon saw a trap-door in the ceiling, and by persuading a few comrades to form a human pyramid, I climbed up, opened the door and scrambled out on to the roof. There were some old charpoys up there, so I took the string mattress off one, made a crude rope ladder out of it, and was soon joined by half a dozen friends. I rigged up a tent by fixing my gas cape up over one of the best of the charpoys, so was probably the best accommodated of us all.

As it came on to rain I managed to squeeze a couple of the lads in beside me but the others sat around holding odd pieces of material over their heads to try to keep out the worst of the wet. The word of my discovery spread around, and there were soon a couple of hundred men up there with us, preferring the wet to the foetid conditions below.

The next day we were again given an opportunity to sign the form, but all refused once more. The Japs had decided to starve us out, but they did not know that our officers had retained a reserve of food for just such an occasion as this. We broke up doors and cupboards for firewood, and our cooks provided food. We were far from starving and for once appreciated what our officers had done for us.

By nightfall of that second day, however, there were forty fresh cases of dysentery reported and two of diphtheria. We had no facilities for treating them whatsoever.

Two men had died during the day, and when we asked the guards for permission to bury them outside the wire we were curtly refused. Delay would have caused those diseased bodies to decay very quickly, so we at once commenced to dig up the parade ground again to bury them before their germs spread any further.

From up on the roof next day we could see that the enemy were guarding us in their hundreds, with both Sikhs and Japs. It seemed pretty clear that they were regarding this operation very seriously, and intended keeping us there until we either signed or died.

The Jap commander now sent round a message that the hospital, wounded and isolation cases included, would be evacuated here on the morrow, and that we would have to find room for them in with us.

So the screw was to be tightened even further. Nearly a hundred new cases of dysentery developed as the day wore on, and several of suspected diphtheria (nearly always fatal under those conditions). Many of the bad cases were unable to reach the toilet in time, and the barracks were beginning to become nearly as bad as the tennis court in those earlier days.

That evening our top brass held an emergency meeting to decide whether they could be justified in holding out any longer. The consequences of bringing the wounded and infectious cases into our crowded camp were no doubt discussed, together with the moral implications of virtually condemning thousands of us to death to try to maintain our honour. They came to the only conclusion possible and issued the order to sign.

However, we found a way to sign and still to keep our options open; splitting up into pairs, each man signed his partner's name and thus the Japs were satisfied, and we could still feel free to escape when the opportunity came along.

Early next morning we paraded to return to Changi. The Japs allowed us to make several journeys this time, and as the resident Selarang Aussies lent us a handcart we had a very much easier trip.

On our return, it was announced that any of us camping on high ground from which the sea could be seen, were to move into Selarang, and although this only affected Third Corps, we helped them with the move.

Much speculation arose as to why this was found to be necessary, and some of us surmised that perhaps the Japs thought our submarines might surface at night and signal to us.

Our shopping party had by now purchased some sports equipment including a football. On the fifth day after our return from Selarang I watched our football team defeated three goals to two by the Suffolks.

A rugby ball had also appeared from somewhere, and I was invited to play for the regiment; after a few practice games we turned out for our first match. Then the C.O. asked me to take charge of the battalion rugby team, which I was very pleased to do.

We had no ball of our own, so we had to hold scrum practice etc., with a bundle of rags. However, the C.O. promised to ask the shopping party to try to find us a ball, and a week later I received a message to the effect that I could collect one from the officers' mess. Unfortunately, there was a puncture in the bladder; having no puncture outfit I tried latex gathered from a local rubber tree, but this would not work as something is evidently added to it before it can be used. We never did get our ball repaired.

Chapter 20

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