大象传媒

This contribution to WW2 People鈥檚 War was received by the Action Desk at 大象传媒 Radio Norfolk. The story has been written and submitted to the website by Rosalie Davis Gibb (Volunteer Story Gatherer) with the full permission and on behalf of John Barton.

One morning I counted 98 bed bug bites. My bed became so rotten I fell through the canvas. So I slept on two 12鈥� boards placed side by side supported by chairs each end. My pin-ups were pictures of food.

Four men decided to escape. They visited a trusted Chinese friend who betrayed them. They were imprisoned and tortured for two years. My sister Marie nursed one of them back to health. Theirs was the first wedding in our camp.

American forces recaptured the Philippines and commenced carpet bombings. We always cheered when they came over. On January 16th 1945 two Mitchell bombers collided over our camp. The pilot emerged from one dangling from a parachute. We heard later he was dragged through the streets by a lorry till he died. To our horror we watched the other plane entangle itself with the parachute and saw the pilot struggling to free himself till the plane hit the ground.

A Japanese mobile anti-aircraft gun on a road outside camp became one of the Americans鈥� targets. One night they dropped a bomb which killed 12 British prisoners. The Japs wouldn鈥檛 let us help until daylight 4 people who were crushed and groaning beneath a 4鈥� thick concrete slab, by which time they were dead.

Funny things sometimes happened. One day a 6鈥�4鈥� Dutchman was being beaten about the face by a 5鈥�2鈥� Japanese, who had to jump up with each blow and eventually ran out of energy. Apparently the Dutchman had defaulted in some black market deal. Dr Talbot lived in the flat below us but hadn鈥檛 put his light out at curfew so I leaned over our verandah and said in my best Indian accent. 鈥淭albot, put out de light鈥�, which was extinguished immediately, much to the laughter of us upstairs. One day 2 ladies in the flat above had a fight and one sank her teeth in the other鈥檚 bottom, thus becoming known as bum biter and bum bitten.

On 15th August 1945 a guard said 鈥淲ar over. American drop bomb size of tennis ball and destroy Hiroshima鈥�. Frenzied ecstasy followed. American carrier based planes dropped food and supplies. We could see the flashing signalling lights of the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy as they swept the approaches of Hong Kong of mines. We all packed our belongings.

One morning HMAS Freemantle glided into the bay. A Chinese sampan woman took me and a girl out to the ship, returning with fresh fruit and tinned food. Our families were delighted and we all had a nice feast.

British soldiers arrived, amazed at the bedraggled, emaciated internees. In mid September we all sailed to Manila on the Empress of Australia, then on to the UK, except my father who stayed to reorganise the Treasury Department, for which he was later awarded the MBE. We had all survived. After a year we joined my dad who had set up home in our house that we lived in before the war.

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