Descent into Hell: The fall of Singapore - Pudu and Changi - the Thai Burma railway

by Peter Brune

  2 ibid.

  3 ibid.

  4 Hank Nelson, POW Prisoners of War, Australians Under Nippon, p. 62.

  5 Pond Papers.

  6 Sergeant Frank Baker, 2/20th Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 9 January 2006.

  7 Private Walter Patterson, 8th Division Ammunition Sub Park, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Adelaide, 18 July 2005.

  8 Sergeant Bert Donaldson, 2/19th and ‘U’ Battalions, interview with the author, Temora, NSW, 8 October 2005.

  9 Thompson Papers, folder 2 of 4.

  10 ibid.

  11 Newton, R W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 571.

  12 ibid. p. 420.

  13 ibid. p. 575.

  14 Private Gus Halloran, 2/19th Battalion, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Port Macquarie, NSW, 18 April 2005.

  15 Private Walter Patterson, 8th Division Ammunition Sub Park, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Adelaide, 18 July 2005.

  16 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 576.

  17 Private Charles Edwards, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author Melbourne, 17 February 2007.

  18 Private Gus Halloran, 2/19th Battalion, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Port Macquarie, NSW, 18 April 2005.

  19 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 578.

  20 ibid.

  21 ibid. p. 579.

  22 Private Gus Halloran, 2/19th Battalion, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Port Macquarie, NSW, 18 April 2005.

  23 Private Charles Letts, Malay Volunteers, interview with the author, Singapore 4 January 2008. The interview was not taped at Letts’s insistence, but a record of the interview, undertaken with the author and Frank Taylor, was committed to paper later that day. Letts knew of Hempson, Gairdner and Heath through prewar business and social dealings.

  24 Aid To Prisoners of War in South Thailand, Internment Camp, Tha Pracharn, November 28th 1943, written by Heath and Hempson. A copy of this report was given to the author by Private Gus Halloran.

  25 Ibid. Gus Halloran. Extracts from further report dated 25 July 1945 at Civilian Internment Camp Vajiravudh, and also written and signed by Heath and Hempson.

  26 Personal Account of ‘V’ Organisation by Lt. Col. Knights, Commanding Officer of 4th Bn. Royal Norfolk Regt. Copy from Newton’s papers and given to the author by Gus Halloran, 20 July 2006.

  27 AWM 54 554/2/1C, Brigadier C.A. McEachern, Report on Conditions, Life and work of POWs in Burma and Siam 1942–1945.

  28 Extracts from further report dated 25 July 1945 at Civilian Internment Camp Vajiravudh, written and signed by Heath and Hempson. Copy from Newton’s papers and given to the author by Gus Halloran, 20 July 2006.

  29 ibid.

  30 Rod Beattie, interview with the author, Kanchanaburi, Thailand, 13 January 2008.

  31 Private Jim Stewart, 2/19th Battalion, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 1 October 2004.

  32 ibid.

  33 Sergeant Frank Baker, 2/20th Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 9 January 2006.

  34 Sergeant Bert Donaldson, 2/19th and ‘U’ Battalions, interview with the author, Temora, NSW, 8 October 2005.

  35 Private Charles Edwards, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 17 February 2007.

  36 Private Len Gooley, 8th Division Ammunition Sub Park, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Adelaide, 18 July 2005.

  37 Private Gus Halloran, 2/19th Battalion, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Port Macquarie, NSW, 18 April 2005.

  38 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 572.

  39 Sergeant Frank Baker, 2/20th Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 10 January 2006.

  40 ibid.

  41 ibid.

  42 ibid.

  43 Private Jim Stewart, 2/19th Battalion, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 1 October 2004.

  44 Sergeant Jack de Loas, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Bomaderry, NSW, 13 January 2005.

  45 Sergeant Bert Donaldson, 2/19th, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Temora, NSW, 8 October 2005.

  46 In a telephone conversation with the author (15 March 2013), Captain Rowley Richards coined the term ‘faeces, food, fingers, flies’, and pointed out that the expression was fairly widely used on the Railway. He further stated the incidence of dysentery on the line often came down to the ability of camps to instigate rigorous standards of hygiene.

  47 Sergeant Frank Baker, 2/20th Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 10 January 2006.

  48 Lieutenant Frank Ramsbotham quoted in Don Wall, Singapore and Beyond, p. 160.

  49 Private Jim Stewart, 2/19th Battalion, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 1 October 2004.

  50 Sergeant Frank Baker, 2/20th Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 10 January 2006.

  51 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 587.

  52 ibid. p. 588.

  53 Private Gus Halloran, 2/19th Battalion, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Port Macquarie, NSW, 19 April 2005.

  54 Private Walter Patterson, 8th Division Ammunition Sub Park, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Adelaide, 18 July 2005.

  55 Sergeant Jack de Loas, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Bomaderry, NSW, 13 January 2005.

  56 Private Gus Halloran, 2/19th Battalion, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Port Macquarie, NSW, 19 April 2005.

  57 ibid.

  58 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 588.

  59 Ian Denys Peek, One Fourteenth of an Elephant, p. 146.

  60 ibid.

  61 ibid. p. 155.

  62 ibid. p. 147.

  63 Sergeant Frank Baker, 2/20th Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 9 January 2006.

  64 Private Gus Halloran, 2/19th Battalion, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Port Macquarie, NSW, 19 April 2005. Private Jim Stewart, 2/19th Battalion, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 1 October 2004.

  65 Ian Denys Peek, One Fourteenth of an Elephant, p. 23.

  66 ibid. p. 118.

  67 ibid. p. 175.

  68 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 595.

  69 Private Gus Halloran, 2/19th Battalion, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Port Macquarie, NSW, 19 April 2005.

  70 Private Len Gooley, 8th Division Ammunition Sub Park, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Adelaide, 18 July 2005.

  71 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 597.

  72 Sergeant Frank Baker, 2/20th Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 9 January 2006.

  73 Private Gus Halloran, 2/19th Battalion, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Port Macquarie, NSW, 18 April 2005.

  74 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 571.

  75 Rod Beattie, interview with the author, Kanchanaburi, Thailand, 13 January 2008.

  76 Thompson Papers, folder 2 of 4.

  77 Hank Nelson, POW Prisoners of War, Australians Under Nippon, p. 59.

  78 Moore could have only been in either ‘S’ Battalion or ‘T’ Battalion, which was partly made up of 4th Anti-tank Regiment members; and Rod Beattie was able to furnish the author with Moore’s railway record: ‘Moore was in T Battalion. So Wang Pho [sic Wampo] then Konnyu [sic Konyu] then to Japan. Recovered from Fukuoka.’ Email Beattie to author, 15/3/2013.

  79 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 600.

  80 Rod Beattie gave the author a copy of his statistics for ‘U’ Battalion while the author was in Kanchanaburi with him in January 2008.

  81 ibid. ‘T’ Battalion.

  82 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, pp. 643–4.

  83 Private Len Gooley, 8th Division Ammunition Sub Park, ‘U’ Battalion, interview with the author, Adelaide, 18 Ju
ly 2005.

  29 ‘F’ FORCE

  1 Thompson Papers. Folder 2.

  2 Allan S. Walker, Australia In The War of 1939–1945, Medical Series, Middle East and Far East, p. 593.

  3 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, pp. 571–2.

  4 Thompson Papers. Folder 2.

  5 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 646; and Beattie, The Death Railway, A Brief History, p. 21.

  6 Stan Arneil, One Man’s War, p. 71.

  7 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 572.

  8 Jim Ling, 8th Division Signals, interview with the author, Sydney, 14 July, 2006.

  9 The Story of F Force, by J. F. Hardacre. A copy of this document was most kindly given to the author by Rod Beattie, in Kanchanaburi, 13 January 2008.

  10 E. E. Dunlop, The War Diaries of Weary Dunlop, Java and the Burma-Thailand Railway 1942–1945, p. 221.

  11 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 646.

  12 Hank Nelson, POW Prisoners of War, Australians Under Nippon, p. 62.

  13 Thompson Papers. Folder 2.

  14 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 572.

  15 Thompson Papers. Folder 2.

  16 Stan Arneil, One Man’s War, p. 71.

  17 Jim Ling, 8th Division Signals, interview with the author, Sydney, 14 July, 2006.

  18 Lance-Corporal John Roxburgh, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Albury, NSW, 6 October 2005.

  19 Stan Arneil, One Man’s War, p. 72.

  20 Allan S. Walker, Australia In The War of 1939–1945, Medical Series, Middle East and Far East, p. 589.

  21 AWM 54 253/1/1, Diary written by VX 29818 Captain B. A. Barnett.

  22 Private Paddy O’Toole, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 5 January 2006.

  23 Stan Arneil, One Man’s War, p. 75.

  24 Private Jack Coffee, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 9 October, 2006.

  25 Private Paddy O’Toole, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 5 January 2006.

  26 Warrant Officer 2 Bert Mettam, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Adelaide, 22 October, 2006.

  27 Copy of a report written by Dillon and given to George Beard. Copied and sent to the author, 5 July 2007.

  28 Col. S. A. F. Pond’s ‘General Notes taken from diary kept while a POW and expanded here and there.’ After the heading it says: ‘Written more than 30 years later.’ Lieutenant-Colonel Pond’s notes were given to Corporal Bob Christie, Secretary of the 2/29th Battalion Association. Christie gave the author copies of the originals on 11 October 2006. These notes will hereafter be cited as ‘Pond Papers.’

  29 AWM 54 253/1/1, diary written by VX 29818 Captain B. A. Barnett. This diary was discovered by Joyce Bradley at the AWM. It had been wrongly catalogued many years ago when donated, and is quoted for the first time in this work. Hereafter to be referred to as ‘Barnett Diary’ and the date.

  30 Captain Adrian Curlewis, 8th Division HQ, diary. Curlewis’s daughter, Philippa Poole, allowed the author to examine the diary and copy material not published in her book, Of Love and War, The letters and diaries of Captain Adrian Curlewis and his family 1939–1945. Referred to henceforth as ‘Curlewis Diary’ and the date.

  31 Mills, Roy, Doctor’s Diary and Memoirs, Pond’s Party, F Force, Thai–Burma Railway.

  32 Barnett Diary, 8–9 May 1943.

  33 Private Paddy O’Toole, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 5 January 2006.

  34 Lance-Corporal John Roxburgh, 2/29th Battalion, account of his experiences during the campaign, and as a POW, written up straight after the Japanese surrender. Copy most kindly given to the author in Albury, NSW, October 2005.

  35 Lance-Corporal John Roxburgh, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Albury, NSW, 6 October 2005.

  36 Pond Papers.

  37 Barnett Diary, 20 May 1943.

  38 ibid. 26 May 1943.

  39 ibid. 27 May–3 June 1943.

  40 Curlewis Diary, 6 June 1943.

  41 Pond Papers.

  42 Corporal Jim Kennedy, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Albury, NSW, 6 October, 2005.

  43 Warrant Officer 2 Bert Mettam, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Adelaide, 22 October, 2006.

  44 Jim Ling, 8th Division Signals, interview with the author, Sydney, 14 July, 2006.

  45 Corporal Bob Christie, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 5 January 2006.

  46 Jim Ling, 8th Division Signals, interview with the author, Sydney, 14 July, 2006.

  47 Corporal Bob Christie, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 5 January 2006.

  48 Lance-Corporal John Roxburgh, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Albury, NSW, 5 October 2005.

  49 Mills, Roy, Doctor’s Diary and Memoirs, Pond’s Party, F Force, Thai–Burma Railway, p. 64.

  50 ibid. p. 62.

  51 ibid. p. 62.

  52 Allan S. Walker, Australia In The War of 1939–1945, Medical Series, Middle East and Far East, p. 606.

  53 Corporal Bob Christie, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 4 January 2006.

  54 Private Paddy O’Toole, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 5 January 2006.

  55 Pond Papers.

  56 AWM 54 554/2/1C, Brigadier C.A. McEachern, Report on Conditions, Life and work of POWs in Burma and Siam 1942–1945.

  57 Coast, J., quoted in Railway of Death, p. 123.

  58 Rowley Richards, A Doctor’s War, p. 190.

  59 Pond Papers.

  60 ibid.

  61 ibid.

  62 Corporal Bob Christie, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 5 January 2006.

  63 Private Paddy O’Toole, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 11 October 2006.

  64 Corporal Jim Kennedy, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Albury, NSW, 5 October, 2005.

  65 Private Paddy O’Toole, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 11 October 2006.

  66 Pond Papers.

  67 Corporal Jim Kennedy, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Albury, NSW, 5 October, 2005.

  68 Curlewis Diary, 30 June 1943.

  69 Mills, Roy, Doctor’s Diary and Memoirs, Pond’s Party, F Force, Thai–Burma Railway, p. 91.

  70 Barnett Diary, 11 August 1943.

  71 ibid. 16 August 1943.

  72 Mills, Roy, Doctor’s Diary and Memoirs, Pond’s Party, F Force, Thai–Burma Railway, p. 94.

  73 Curlewis Diary, 17 August 1943.

  74 Private Paddy O’Toole, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 11 October 2006.

  75 Corporal Bob Christie, 2/29th Battalion, letter to the author from Melbourne, 2 November 2006.

  76 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 580.

  77 Lance-Corporal John Roxburgh, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Albury, NSW, 6 October 2005.

  78 Rod Beattie’s records, Pond’s party.

  79 Pond Papers.

  80 Lance-Corporal John Roxburgh, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Albury, NSW, 6 October 2005.

  81 During interviews with veterans, it was fascinating to hear that nearly all of them on the Railway perceived a return to Changi as their goal. Changi was indeed called ‘home’.

  82 A. W. Penfold, W. C. Baylis, K. E. Crispin, Galleghan’s Greyhounds, p. 291.

  83 From Hunt’s entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

  84 Private John Boehm, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Barwon Heads, Geelong, 29 December 2005.

  85 Hunt quoted in Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 573.

  86 Wall, Heroes of F Force, p. 9.

  87 ibid.

  88 A complete copy of Lieutenant Ron Eaton’s diary was kindly sent from Sydney to the author by his daughter, Mrs Catherine Goodings. Cited hereafter as ‘Eaton Diary’ and the date.

  89 Lieutenant Kelsey, 2/26th Battalion, in Wal
l, Heroes of F Force, p. 137.

  90 Eaton Diary, 29 May 1943.

  91 ibid. 31 May 1943.

  92 Corporal Arthur Isaac, 2/30th Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 17 April, 2007.

  93 Private Neville Riley, 2/30th Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 17 April, 2007.

  94 Eaton Diary, 3 June 1943.

  95 Lieutenant Kelsey, 2/26th Battalion, in Wall, Heroes of F Force, p. 139.

  96 Corporal Arthur Isaac, 2/30th Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 17 April, 2007.

  97 Eaton Diary, 27 June 1943.

  98 Corporal Arthur Isaac, 2/30th Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 17 April, 2007.

  99 Private Neville Riley, 2/30th Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 17 April, 2007.

  100 Eaton Diary.

  101 Stan Arneil, One Man’s War, p. 130.

  102 ibid. pp. 125–33.

  103 ibid. p. 133.

  104 Private Jack Coffee, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 9 October, 2006.

  105 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 581.

  106 ibid.

  107 ibid. p. 580.

  108 Pond Papers.

  109 Newton, R. W., The Grim Glory of the 2/19 Battalion AIF, p. 646; and Beattie, The Death Railway, A Brief History, p. 586.

  110 Eaton Diary, 1, 5, 11 July 1943.

  111 Private John Boehm, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Barwon Heads, Geelong, 29 December 2005.

  112 Stahl, F. E., Autobiography of a P.W,(J) p. 43.

  113 Eaton Diary, 19, 28, July 1943.

  114 ibid. 6 August 1943.

  115 Private Jack Coffee, 2/29th Battalion, interview with the author, Melbourne, 9 October, 2006.

  30 ‘WHERE ARE THE REST, MAJOR?’

  1 Varley Diary, 20 December 1943.

  2 ibid. 24 December 1943.

  3 Allan S. Walker, Australia In The War of 1939–1945, Medical Series, Middle East and Far East, p. 638–9.

  4 Wigmore’s spelling is ‘Rokyu Maru’, whilst Captain Rowley Richards—who was aboard the vessel—has ‘Rakuyo Maru’, both in his book and in writing to the author. The latter is used in this work. The subsequent fate of the two vessels is chiefly taken from Richards’s book, A Doctor’s War, and from correspondence between him and the author during late May 2013.

  5 Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, p. 615.

  6 Private Wal Williams, 2/19th Battalion, interview with the author, Sydney, 24 April 2005.