大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War website by a volunteer from Suffolk Radio on behalf of Frank Claydon and has been added to the site with his permission.

I was called up before the war and was in the TA in Stradishall (near Newmarket). When war broke out I was doing guard duty on an aerodrome.

In 1940, around the time of Dunkirk, I was on the coast at Bacton. I was there from June to November. Our morale was quite low waiting for an invasion that didn鈥檛 come. I then returned to Norfolk (Wymondham) and then on to Scotland for intensive training. We arrived on New Year鈥檚 Day and it snowed all the time we were there.

We then returned to the Midlands, to Arbury Park near Nuneaton. There was a lot of bombing going on. Then we transferred to Lichfield Barracks and then on up to Liverpool where we boarded the troopship 鈥極rcades鈥� and went across the Atlantic to Halifax in Nova Scotia. I remember the first night out in a very rough North Sea; after a meal of tripe and onions there were only six of us left to eat the next meal! We were escorted half way across the Atlantic by American boats (before they came into the war). We continued our journey in an American boat, USS West Point鈥�, down to Jamaica (we were fed extremely well until there were orders to cut down on our rations!) We then went across to Cape Town. It was very pleasant and we were very well treated. After we had left there, we heard about two big battle ships being sunk off Malaya.

We then went to Bombay and we had three weeks training in India. After this we moved on to Singapore to fight the Japanese. As we landed in Singapore there were Japanese planes overhead 鈥� a place we thought was a fortress was a terrible disappointment. There were no defences, just two guns pointing out to sea. I was taken prisoner and five hundred of us were put into a tennis court for a week with Japanese guards. We then had to march up to Chunkai (where there was a big prison camp). We were the last ones up there among thousands of prisoners. We were put in a sand pit with a few old tents. I had my twenty-first birthday there (I boiled some rice in a baby鈥檚 pot. The enamel chipped off so the rice was somewhat crispy!) We were sent out on working parties and were lucky to return back to the camp without having being clouted by our Japanese or Korean guards.

We were told to salute the Japanese flag. One day a car drove by but a friend and I decided instead to just turn our back on it. We were seen by some British officers standing on the hill opposite and were told off. We had to go in front of our Commanding Officer and were put on a charge for 鈥榥ot saluting the Japanese flag鈥� 鈥� we were told that 鈥渋t鈥檚 chaps like you that do away with the little privileges we are getting鈥�. For ten days we had to do extra work and had our cigarette rations stopped.

After about six months we were transferred to the Thailand and Burma railway. Life was terrible and I caught cholera in a place near the Burmese border. I was put in the sick bay in a ravine 鈥� we lived in small tents and most of us went in there to die. I was extremely ill for three weeks 鈥� at one time I drank some strong disinfectant (we had been given this to gargle with but I feel drinking it instead, saved my life!) and somehow I managed to pull through. I was extremely weak but I had to return to work on the railway. It was Monsoon time and very wet and miserable. Back at the base camp, Chunkai, I kept out of the way of the guards as much as I could.

I was back in the sick bay for a while and then I travelled by train from Thailand to Japan and then on to Singapore 鈥� it was a four day train trip and I cannot remember any of it; I was probably too ill to be aware of my surroundings. We had a couple of free days in Singapore and then we had to carry lumps of rubber on to the boat. We were told they were life jackets but we knew they were much too heavy for that. In Borneo, our boat broke down; there was no fresh water and it was very hot. We then took off for Manila and when we arrived we had to wait on the boat for repairs; the Americans were bombing all around us. A week later we took off for Japan. It was a day and a half out, at about 10.00 in the morning, when the Americans sank our ship. I was unable to swim and the only life belt I could find had been eaten through by rats 鈥� I clung on to a piece of wood and luckily the water was calm and not cold. A Japanese destroyer came along side and picked up the Japanese and then later on in the afternoon a fishing boat came and picked us up. The boats were full and we spent four days getting back to Manila with the Americans trying to bomb us. There had been 1200 of us on board ship; 100 had already died, buried at sea, and only 300 of us survived the bombs. Once back in Manila, we were taken off the fishing boat and put in jail. We were kitted out with clothes and then put on to another boat with 1000 American prisoners. It was a grain carrying boat and we were 鈥榮tored鈥� in the hold 鈥� the conditions were terrible and there was hardly room to stand or sit down. We were chased around the sea by American submarines and ended up in Formosa (Taiwan). I spent Christmas 1944 there in a fairly good camp. Whilst there I had a job looking after the garden 鈥� the tomatoes there were enormous (I had my suspicions about the fertilisers they were using!)

I eventually ended up on the Southern Japanese island of Kyushu. It was a mining camp. I spent the last six months of the war digging coal. When the Yanks dropped the bomb on Nagasaki there was just a big mountain between us. The Americans had been dropping bombs all around us and I was in the sick bay with dysentery.

We knew the war was over as the machine guns around the camp were pointed inwards 鈥� 鈥淓xterminate all prisoners鈥�. Everything was very quiet all day but then Emperor Hirohito decided to end the war and we could all go home.

I returned in an American ship via Vancouver. We spent a week there and were greeted by cheering crowds and were very well looked after, We then took the train across Canada and arrived in Southampton on the Queen Mary. There was no one to greet us there.

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