´óÏó´«Ã½

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by CSV/´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Nottingham on behalf of Mr Bert Brown with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions"

I enlisted in the army at the age of 22, June 1940. Then I was posted to London for a six month course, then I was attached to REME and was there through the blitz.
After that I was moved to York and Nottingham for short spells. In April 1941 I boarded a troopship going to Singapore.

It was peacetime in the Far East and after arriving in Singapore we were sent to barracks in Kuala Lumpur. In December the war begun out there and we were moved back to Singapore. There were 250 of us that went back to the docks. Most were sent to Sumatra where most of them were killed on the beaches. A few of us were left behind to fight a rearguard action. We were near the Alexandra Military Hospital. The Japanese overran the hospital and massacred everyone in it. Me and my comrades went back down to the town and went to the General Hospital in Singapore to be treated. The conditions there were awful and there were dead bodies of all different nationalities piled up on the floor. I and a comrade were detailed to bury the dead bodies in a communal grave which was dug with a digger. Meanwhile the Japs commandeered the reservoirs and turned off all the water.

February 1942, Singapore surrendered to the Japanese and I and my comrades were taken to Changi Village (not the prison). Then we were taken to the former Gordon Highlanders’ barracks. There were more than 15,000 prisoners and were told by the Japanese to sign a document promising that we would not escape. We refused and were packed onto a barrack square, made to accommodate about 2000. We were kept there day and night with about 18 inches by 2 feet on which to sleep — after 5 days we agreed to sign the document.

From there we were taken to Thailand, to the Burma Railway, there was 40 in a truck and it took 5 days. We stopped at the end of the line and were made to ‘march’ the last 15-17 miles. I and some of the others had only just come out of the hospital after having dysentery and were too weak to walk. We were about to be shoot by a Japanese officer but a British officer argued with him and managed to persuade him not to. A mini bus was brought to take the rest of us up the line. I worked on the railway for a while then was moved to help build the bridge on the River Kwai. First we built a temporary wooden bridge as the Japanese wanted to move trains through to Burma quickly. Then we started to build the permanent bridge. Later I was sent north to work on the railway again. I worked on the railway for about 2 years.

After that I went back to base camp, a medical camp. While I was there cholera broke out but luckily I didn’t get it. In 1944 the Japanese took out 1000 of the fittest prisoners to take to Japan. We were at a camp in Singapore for about 4 or 5 weeks waiting for the convoy. While we waited we loaded ships with anything the Japanese could get hold of as there was almost nothing in Japan. Eventually the 1000 prisoners were packed into 2 holds on a captured pre war cargo / passenger ship. We were joined by a prison ship from Saigon. There were about 17 ships in the convoy. We were followed by 3 US submarines. The first night the submarines sank 9 of the Japanese ships and the next night they sank 7 more.
My ship was torpedoed on the second night and it sank within 15 minutes. I was trapped and taken down with the ship. The engine room then blew up and some of us were blown to the surface. I had 5 broken ribs, a broken pelvis and a crushed hip. We were swimming, clinging on to wreckage for 2 days and 3 nights in the shark infested water of the South China Sea. Eventually we were collected up by a Japanese whaling factory ship. We were on it for 2 weeks. There were only 250 survivors.

When I got to Japan I was in hospital for 2 months, then moved to join the other prisoners about 8 or 9 miles from Nagasaki. We worked in a factory there. When we were there the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. A few days after I saw a silver B29 plane fly over and some time later a huge mushroom cloud appeared over Nagasaki.
The war ended but I had to wait 2 or 3 weeks then an American plane flew low down over the camp each day, dropping oil drums filled with groceries.

I was taken to an American hospital in Manila for 10 days then I and a British companion ended up with some Australian prisoners being taken to Sydney. I was at the Royal Navy Hospital in Sydney for about 8 to 10 weeks, eventually I was put on a hospital ship to return to Southampton.
Altogether I spent 5 years in the Far East and for 3 and ½ of them I was a prisoner of war, in all the time I received one Red Cross parcel but was not allowed any letter at all. But I was lucky as I got to come home.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.