大象传媒

This story is about my father-in-law who was a Stoker petty Officer aboard HMS Prince of Wales when she was sunk by Japanese aircraft.

HMS Prince of Wales was part of Force Z which was at Kuantan, Malaya when the Force was attacked by Japanese Bombers on the 10th December, 1941. The Prince of Wales together with the battleship HMS Repulse were sunk. My father-in-law was a survivor. He was picked up by a British Destroyer after some 6 hours in the sea and transported to Singapore. He developed pnemonia on route and upon landing was taken to a hospital in Singapore where he remained until Singapore fell to the Japanese on the 15th February 1942. He told me that many of the nurses and doctors at the hospital were either shot, imprisoned or beheaded and recalled seeing many heads displayed on one of the bridges.

He was taken prisoner and spent the remaining war years on the Burma railway where he not only was subjected to the most extreme barbarism but was also to witness the death of many of his compatriots.

Robert was not a very big man. He stood at about 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed around 10 stone, but he was as tough as old nails. The girl to whom I am now married and I were only 15 years old when we met and as a result over subsequent years I got to know her family well. Like thousands of other P-O-W's Robert whilst a great survivor would go through terrible periods of depression. At times he would speak to no-one for weeks on end, then suddenly, he would re-appear as if out of a trance and would act perfectly normal.

On occasions he would confide in me. This came about after I had joined the RAF and I suppose he considered me to a part of his own particular world. Some of the stories he told me I have never told my wife because I know they would upset her too much. Some stories were of a light hearted nature, which I found incredible considering the misery he went through. He told me how they could with some guile and luck get the Jap and Korean guards to do the work for them. For example, in very broken English they would tell the prisoners to drive a stake into the ground at the side of the railway track and then joined it to another with wire. Robert would respond with "No savvy, no savvy" The guard would be amazed at a 'Westoner' not being able to comprehend such a simple task so he would do the work for him, having completed one small part Robert would respond "Still no savvy" and the guard would do another. Robert said "If I could get the bounders to do three I thought I was doing well. The down side of course was when they cottoned on to what he was doing. "It was worth the beating just to get one over them" he told me.

Because he was a Petty Officer, he was made responsible was all the personnel under his particular group (being the senior NCO). There was a time when three men decided they would escape. Despite Robert advising them against it all three managed to get out into the jungle. In the event none of them survived, but because they had escaped, he was interrogated by the Kempai Tai (The japanese equivalent to the Gestapo). They drove bamboo stakes through both his calf muscles and hung him from them for a number of hours. He walked very badly as a result for many years afterwards. His comment following relating that story to me was "But they weren't all bad you know. If you make a friend of one of them, they will be your friend for life and a more loyal friend you will never find"

Another occasion he told me that being a Roman Catholic and despite all the hardships, a Mass would be held in the camp every Sunday. This Mass was led by a Japanese RC Priest. The Commandant, decided that the practise was to cease, his instructions were ignored and the Masses continued until the commandant threatened to kill all those who attended including the Priest. The Sunday following the threat, the Jap priest carried out the Mass as normal calling other catholics to attend. The Commandant stood down from his threat. Robert said that that priest was the bravest man he had ever met.

Just prior to the end of the war, many of the guards suddenly vanished, however, by this time Robert's state of health was such that he was unable to escape, when relief eventually came he weighed just 6 stone. He told me that to his absolute disgust, when troops arrived to repatriate them a couple of prisoners grabbed a local native girl and raped her. "Of course they never made it back home, I believe that they were suffocated, which was wrong of course but we didn't go through all that for them to let us all down right at the end. I suppose their families were told that they did not survive."

Robert's physical well being had to be built back up before they would allow him home and it wasn't until October 1945 that he eventually returned home to Plymouth.

I remember well his remarks when the film 'Bridge over the River Kwai' was first shown in Plymouth cinemas and he had been invited along with other POW's to attend and appear on stage before the showing. He said "There was no way I was going on display. And as for that film,well it was all one could do to move from place to another with little to no clothing, dyssentry, berry berry and the likes. How they thought we could have the wind to whistle Colonel Bogey is beyond me."

Robert survived until 1963 when he died suddenly from a heart attack. He was a remarkable man, well loved by his family. I never heard him swear once, he was also a Godly man and despite all he went through rarely spoke badly about the japanese. "There is good and bad the world and I am alive and that's all that matters" he said to me on one occasion.

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