大象传媒

I was called up on the 18th January 1940. After training, we were embarked at Gurrock and sailed on 26th October 1941. After various stops we were embarked on a journey to Singapore. Our ship was bombed and set on fire. We jumped ship, were picked up and taken to Singapore, but all our arms and ammunition went to the bottom of the sea. We were taken to dry land, but were told that General Beckwith Smith of the 18th, didn't want us to land there, but was over-ruled by General Percival on political instructions. We were in a battle at Bukitima. I received a bullet wound to the head, but was resuscitated in hospital. After a few days the surrender took place and we had to walk many miles to Changi gaol. We worked at Changi and also built a sea wall at Tangongrue, which disintegrated at the first neap tide, whether somebody managed to put a small amount of explosive in amongst the rubble, I don't know! We were then put on a train for Burma. When we got to the railhead we then walked for something over 200 miles to a new camp at Sonkurai. We marched mainly at night and it took quite a few days. There were 1680 of us to start with, but after seven months at the camp there were about 220 left. A lot of prisoners died from various diseases. If they died from cholera they were not buried but we had to start a fire with wood from the forest and burn them. At night we slept next to one another and in the morning you picked up your dead mates and took them out and burnt them. At Sonkurai we were put to work building a three-span wooden trestle bridge. The bride rose 30ft above the fast-flowing river and logs had to be hauled from the forest by us and we were knee-deep in mud because it was the monsoon season. Through this it was easy for the guards to beat us about the shoulders and head with a pickaxe handle. Ten people attempted an escape from the camp but were all recaptured and executed in various inhuman ways. The funeral fires had to be kept alight in pouring rain and people who were on duty stoking the fires could be dead themselves by evening. I should say it was a lousy hotel, the food was poor and the service was dreadful. We had a Chaplain there called Duckworth who did what he could to enable us to face what was happening. I was mentioned in dispatches as I took out two Japanese machine gun nests at Bukitima amongst other things. I don't know whether I got the mention for that, or it may have been for robbing the Japanese canteen, or maybe for marrying my wife who brought me back to sanity after my experiences in the war. I would say that during the time we spent in Changi, we would always ensure that any of our own colleagues who were sick would have sufficient to eat, even if we had to go out under the wire at night at the risk of being caught and having your head chopped off, but after all, what was life in that place - it made no difference.

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