- Contributed by听
- newcastlecsv
- People in story:听
- Lloyd Brewis.
- Location of story:听
- Dunkirk, Singapore, Canada, Halifax, Thailand
- Background to story:听
- Army
- Article ID:听
- A5530952
- Contributed on:听
- 05 September 2005
I was in the Territorial Army at aged 18. On the 1st September, I went to Dunkirk, I was then shipped out where I went to Singapore, Canada and Halifax and then I was transferred to American Ships where I went to Trinidad, Capetown, Mombasa, and Bombay for 5 days.
I was on a ship with square funnels which was rare in those days, and on our way to Singapore, we were bombed and one of our lads was killed. We also shot down 3 aircraft on the way in.
On my 21st birthday, we were given a bar of chocolate and 3 biscuits.
3 days later, we arrived at some famous barracks, Keppel Harbor where we unloaded the ships.
We were then sent to Thailand where we were building the railway embankment, 3 of our lads tried to escape but were shot dead.
We were at the bangpom camp facing machines guns every morning.
We were then shipped to Japan where there was 300 in the hold, it was very cramped. We were then sent to work on the copper mines where we worked until the end of the war. When the war ended, the camp ended and stopped us working but they didn鈥檛 tell us what had happened. However the guards had changed so we had an idea.
It wasn鈥檛 until the 2nd of September that someone got in touch with us; we managed to get a train down to the beach where the USA Navy took us across the Atlantic.
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