大象传媒

I have recorded below events and movements that took place over a period of 4 years. However I have not detailed the atrocities that I endured and witnessed, of which there are many. It has taken the past 60 years to bring myself to the point where I am able to recount my survival of these harrowing times which scarred the few serviceman that made it through.

I volunteered for the RAF at 18 years of age in 1940 and after four months of trade training I was despatched by sea - destination unknown - (on the day Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour)to South Africa and after three days shore leave re-embarked on a smaller ship - again destination unknown - and after a further three weeks arrived in the approaches to Singapore, where a Japanese reception party part of `zero bombers` sank two of the remaining ships in our group of four ships loaded with troops.

The RAF squadron I was attached to was by now sadly depleted and re-deployed to Java. I was then taken to join them and we arrived in Java at Batavia, now renamed Jakarta, and despatched to join the Lockheed Hudsons left in service. The Japanese made an early morning raid and wrote them off too, so we made good use of the two hundred and fifty pound bombs we had and laid them across the airfield and blew up the whole area.

The Japanese caught up with us after a long journey across the country, through rivers and jungle, only to be rounded up and taken back to fill in the bomb craters we had made way back in Batavia. Taken as prisoners and put to work every day we were then returned to Singapore by tramp steamer and later sent to build the infamous railway of death through the Thailand and Burmese Jungles, costing the lives of thousands of allied servicemen and as many Asians. After the completion of the railway we returned to Changi jail to finish our time.

The news that the US had dropped the first atom bomb was heard on a secret radio, as was the news of the end of the war in Europe, so we hoped we would be spared the fate the Japanese had planned for us, i.e. the annihilation of all their prisoners if Singapore was taken by our troops. Still under the Japanese I was sent to Singapore City.

On the day the Japanese surrendered I was able to obtain a printing machine to produce questionnaires for the sick lists needed by the medics when they arrived in the camps. I was then asked to organise a `motor pool` to take Red Cross people to the various camps in Singapore, with the driver and mechanics recuited from the local Chinese. We commandeered cars taking Japanese officers to surrender at the other side of the island and built up a `pool` of cars to set up operations at the Goodwood Park Hotel in the city, which was used as the H.Q. for the repatriation organisers and Red Cross. I was asked by my Chinese crew of mechanics and drivers about pay and took this up with the current Head of Operations who readily agreed to up the rates of pay of these hard working, untiring chinese lads. My stomach was not ready for the rations provided for the incoming staff, so I was invited by the `crew` to accompany them to their homes and given food that I could digest and build up my 6 stone frame once more. I cannot praise enough the chinese friends I made, for their kindness and genuine sincerity towards me. I do have a lasting memory of my time with them in the form of a keepsake which speaks volume. It is just a small autogragh book, full of messages, kind words and thoughts from my good Chinese friends and helpers - Lau Teng Siah. Lau Kiang, Lau Kiow and many more friends and families.

These people all suffered under the Japanese and the Chinese lads that I had the pleasure to call good friends and helpers, gave me a new trust in human nature after the harrowing time we had to endure. After the many years since my departure from Singapore I think of them often and dream the impossible dream of seeing them again some day.

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