大象传媒

Eric Robinson's story
Our thanks go to the pupils of Hugh Sexey School in Blackford, Somerset, who collected and prepared these stories with the help of local war veterans. The authors are credited at the end of each story.

MR. Eric Robinson鈥檚 World War II Story

Mr Robinson was 19 when the war broke out and felt very excited about it. He served as a mechanic in the R.A.F. He was posted to Singapore with the R.A.F on August 1914, to a part called Steigha. There was an R.A.F plane called a Buffalo, and the Japanese Planes were called Zeros. The Buffalos were terrible against the Zeros some Hurricanes were sent, but the Hurricanes were destroyed as well. So we decided to evacuate to Java.2 days l before we came under attack, we went down to help the American Flying Fortresses because they were being bombed. When the Japanese came and Landed in Java the Americans flew to Australia and we bombed up the Japanese. We were then sent to Tasik Malaya. That day we were told the Dutch had surrendered. We were then told that that there was no chance of escaping, but we chose different. The Japanese arrived at the camp on about March the 9th.

When the Japanese came. We then decided we would try and escape. We entered the village and with the money we had we bought 2 bottles of Quinean tablets because Malaya was very prevalent on that part of the island. That night we set off down towards the coast. We travelled for 3 or 4 days. We came to a little place up in the mountains. There was a little Chinese village and they were very good to us. They gave us water, food, toothbrushes made from the local produce and one of the villagers sent their little son with us to show us the way because the journey was very difficult from where we were. The young boy was about 11. He stayed with us all day. Once he was sure we knew where we were going, he went back. While we were going down the track we heard in the drums beating. Now in Java each little village has its own set of drums so they can pass messages to each other to tell the Dutch when the Japanese aircraft were coming in. Eventually we came round on the slope, down to the sea .We could sea the huge Indian Ocean surf crashing on the shore.

As we went a little bit further on. We came to a little oil plantation. There was a little bungalow there and down the bottom of the garden was a Dutchman waiting for us. He said to us 鈥樷�橶e knew you were coming鈥欌��, we said 鈥樷�榟ow did you know we were coming鈥欌��. He replied and said 鈥樷�� my houseboy read the drums; they had seen you already and knew you were coming down this pathway. So we stayed with him for 3 days he gave us food, money (100 Gilders,) powangs and a map of Java, because we didn鈥檛 have any idea of were we were. We were travelling along the beach for 3 or 4 miles, when we came across a washed up life boat on the shore. We then came to a point where the cliffs came out from the land right into the sea so we couldn鈥檛 progress any further along the beach. The river came down along the side of this we went up the river then across it into a small valley and we stayed in the valley for a couple of days and decided then to get out of the valley, but it was basically impossible because the jungle was so thick on the surrounding hills we couldn鈥檛 find a way to get out. Eventually we found an old watercourse and we went right up it and over the hills. We were very lucky to find the watercourse so we could get out.

A few days later we made camp along the side of the river. It was getting evening time we were cooking what little food we had been given. Then we heard someone coming along the jungle path once we put out the fire (very quickly) and went round the corner but instead of a bad guy it was an Australian. His name was Bert Thomson. We sat beside the fire and he sang us several songs, like Waltzing Matilda .He then decided to join forces with us. We set off from there and we carried on a few more days, then the sea came so we had to cut inland quite a way. We came to a place where they were making coconut oil. The people couldn鈥檛 start the lorry so they couldn鈥檛 deliver them. Because we were all technicians we got the lorry going. The driver said 鈥樷�橧鈥檒l give you a lift through the jungle pathway鈥欌��. So we jumped in the van and hid behind the barrels and off we went. We went about 5 or 6 miles. We had no weapons with us apart from the Australian who had a revolver. All of a sudden the lorry stopped dead. And the driver came along dropped the tailboard and took 2 barrels out .We looked out and saw about 100-200 British troops surrounded by Japanese guards. But the driver didn鈥檛 give us away; they just put up the tailboard and drove off. About 3 miles after we asked to get off because we were shaken.

We went on for a few more days walking. Still climbing away from the cost. One evening as we were climbing we saw a village on our right. So we had to be careful because the Japanese would put money on our heads and the locals might shoot usand hand us over. But the Chinese wouldn鈥檛. It was getting dark now and we went round the back. We went in a Chinese shop, he was very good to us. He gave us cigarettes. He said you can stay here tonight but don鈥檛 let any of the villages see you. We had a splendid meal and then he let us listen to the news from Chun-ken. Just then another Chinese man came bursting in and said in Malaysian 鈥渂an ya suskin鈥�(there lots of trouble the Japanese have come into the village鈥�. So we said we couldn鈥檛 wait here they鈥檒l chop our heads off, including the Chinese man. We took off and carried on climbing and as we climbed we went through streams of hot water. We got so stuffy in back of our throats. We thought it was strange and in the morning we realised we hadn鈥檛 climbed a mountain we had climbed an mountain volcano.

It was a beautiful sight, we lit a fire and made some coffee, that the Chinese man had given us. We pressed from there and on this particular evening we climbed down and a Japanese patrol came in and caught us. We were very fortunate because the Japanese had killed a lot of our content, but they didn鈥檛 kill us. They put us in a camp near a rubber plantation, where all the locals lived. All the locals were good to us and gave us food. They did all the cooking, the soup we had was chilli soup. We thought how we thought how can people eat this food all the time but it was that or stave!!! So eventually we ate it and began to like it that鈥檚 when we saw the first execution. There was five Dutchman and 10 Japanese men they only stood 5 metres apart and I asked Bert Thoman 鈥渢hey won鈥檛 shoot them from there will they鈥� He said 鈥淣O they鈥檒l go back a bit鈥� but they just shot the men in to a trench. We then went on to the main camp in Bangdon, this is where we met all the British and the Australians. We stayed there for quite a while,about a year. Then they shipped us back to Singapore.

We started to build the airport there. We went up and down these holes inside a hill and it was very hot. Then we went on from Singapore Harbour up the coastline where we ran into a Typoon. We went into a place in China called Canean Bay. We stayed there for 2 days and after about a week we wend down to a place called Yakuna by a mountain and it was strange working down a mine. We were doing all sorts of jobs there, drilling into the rock face, putting the dynamite in. When we put the dynamite in a Japanese man would run and light them and w'd run away like headless chickens. We would only fill 5 trucks a day of dynamite and we said to the Japanese "you give us food we fill your trucks". But they wouldn't The Americans were working on 1 level, the Koreans on another. We would only fill 5 but the Koreans filled 25 trucks. The Japanese thought they had a bright idea and put so many Koreans with the American and English. We'd never seen a Japanese man shout so much, because what we did is we taught the Koreans to only fill 5 barrels, like us. We were marching down this valley when we all looked up. We thought we'd imagined it, but what is was was the flash from the Atom bomb. After that the war was more or less over and the Japanese changed their attitude completely and gave us food and nearly everything we needed. Almost one week later we were in Singapore harbour travelling back to England.

By James Tyson and Eleanor Rowntree

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