大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from 大象传媒 London on behalf of Frank Jones and has been added to the site with his permission.

Patrolling with sticks:
"In 1940, I was 22, married, living in Lambeth, East London, and working with the Press Association in London as a telephone copy taker. I joined the Royal Artillery (RA) and did three months anti-tank training at Waterloo barracks in Aldershot.

It was during the 'Phoney War' so we didn't have much to do other than routine patrolling. Then onto Walton on the Naze and Frinton to await posting to a regular regiment or battery. We patrolled the beaches there with sticks, as we didn't have rifles or other proper weapons. Eventually we got orders to move en route to France but when we got to London we were diverted to Yorkshire as the Dunkirk evacuation was happening.

Molotov cocktail training:
In Halifax, we joined a regular battery of gunners who had just returned from Dunkirk and did more training, guarding and doing exercises. One of my jobs was to train the local home guard on various weapons for home defence. I became a bit of an expert with Molotov Cocktails (a bottle filled with petrol with a rag wick). One of my most important warnings to the home guard was not to get splashed as you threw them.

The Singapore Surrender:
After a further 12 months spent near Beverley, at which time I was promoted to lance-bombadier, we got orders to go overseas, but we didn't know where. We finished up in Malaya via Singapore. Our job was to guard the front line in Siam (now Thailand), just waiting for things to happen, which they did, with the invasion of Malaya and the shocking sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse by the Japanese. We fought all the way down through Kuala Lumpur and from one side of Malaysia to another.

Now a bombardier, I was number-one on a 2lb anti-tank gun, fighting from December to February 1941. I never actually came face to face with the Japanese, and we were certainly not frightened of them. In February we retreated rapidly into Singapore where we guarded a road leading into a causeway. A few days later, the 25lb battery next to us packed up and said "It's all over". We said "That's ridiculous" and stayed there for the rest of the day. We went back towards the town and found it was true. We waited there for a while, before being sent to Changi prison.

Prisoner of the Japanese :
From the start, the Japanese were very harsh. Changi was mostly just rough ground, very little shelter from the sun and there was hardly any water. Fortunately our Royal Engineers got a water supply going so we avoided a serious drought. All the PoWs (Prisoners of War) were herded into one area and ordered to sign a paper saying they wouldn't try to escape. We refused at first, but our generals made us do it.

The conditions were dreadful. We had a cursory health examination by our own doctors who had no option but to pass all of us as fit for work. We got into one of barrack blocks so being under cover helped a bit. Our numbers were gradually whittled down. We'd sometimes go out in work parties into Singapore or elsewhere and come came back to find half our unit missing.

Fired on by a US sub:
After a while, I don't remember how long, we were taken to the docks and embarked on a PoW ship. One of the blokes said that it had been sold a few years before to the Japanese as salvage. Our journey took several weeks, during which we were fired on by a US submarine, but fortunately, they missed us.

Down the mine:
About 150 of us, including Aussies, disembarked in Moji, in Japan, from where we boarded a train and went to a little village, whose name I don't recall. We were put into huts in two groups. One group would work days and other nights, mostly down a coalmine. I'd never been down one before, but basically, I took it as it came. Conditions were very bad - brutal treatment by the guards, and very hard work. Among it was building tunnels, which was very dangerous as there were no roof supports. We had three types of guard: military, civilian and coalmine, and we had to watch out as cruelty was often down to the individual guard regardless of their unit.

I was in charge of our group and had a yellow flash on the side of my cap which, luckily, meant I got left alone mostly but my physical condition was very poor and went down to five stone.

Escape:
You could walk out pretty well any time you liked. One Aussie did and they brought him back dead, but refused to show us the body, so we don't know how he died. But escape was hopeless, as we'd stick out like sore thumbs in the Japanese landscape.

The end:
10 days before the end of the war, I was moving into a position to dig some coal when the tunnel behind me collapsed and trapped my leg. My mates carried me through the tunnels and onto a wagon. I put on a tourniquet and loosened it occasionally in case of gangrene. I was taken to the top by my group and transported to a sort of hospital. A Japanese doctor took my leg off above the knee.

Disappearing guards:
I was taken back to the barracks the next day following an air-raid. It was August 4th 1945, and by Aug 15th it was all over. Word came through that all the guards had disappeared. That disappointed many of my comrades because they would have liked to have got their revenge.

I embarked for the UK in September and arrived back in December. I returned to PA and stayed with them as a copy-taker for the next 40 years. I now live in Lancing, Sussex and regularly attend events run by *Blesma, the organisation that has done so much for me and ex-service people like me."

*BLESMA (www.blesma.org) :
BLESMA accepts responsibility for the dependants of its Members and, in particular their Widows. It also accepts responsibilities for those who have suffered the loss of use of a limb in Service. The objects of the Association are to promote the welfare of all those of either sex who have lost a limb or limbs, or one or both eyes, or the use of limbs as a result of service in any branch of Her Majesty's Forces or Auxiliary Forces and to assist needy dependants of such service limbless. It will also help those Ex-Service Men and Women who lose a leg after Service.

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