|
POW |
Surrender - 1942 |
Singapore - from Feb.1942
| Burma -Thailand Railway
| "A" Force |
"B" Force
| "C" Force |
"D" Force | "E"
Force | "F" Force | "G" Force | "H" Force |
"J"
Force |
Singapore - from March, 1945 |
Surrender - 1945
1) Occasional turns around the Hospital wards
NX70486 - BOOTH, Edward Holroyd (Baldy or Ward), Capt. - D
Company, O/C
NX70437 - KEARNEY, Peter Desmond (Black Prince or Des),
Capt. - B Company, 2 l/c
"Do
you remember a young Dutch Lieutenant named Jute Lapre who
worked on the 'Drome. He was a very good guitar player and
did occasional turns around the hospital wards with Des
Kearney and Ward Booth?"
(Source:
Makan No. 114, 1/7/1956)
2) Twenty
first birthdays
NX47498 - GRANT, Thomas Bertram (Tom ), L/Cpl. - C Company, 14 Platoon
Tom, one of
the young fellows in the Battalion, had his twenty first
birthday on one of the Working Parties on Singapore Island.
I asked him which one it was and he has told me that he was
working on the "Shrine Job”, but he's not quite sure of the
name of where he bedded down for the night.
Most of
us would have celebrated four birthdays over there; some
might have had five. It was possible that the Burma Railway
was the venue for the next. I am not at all sure whether it
was at No 1 or No 2 Camp. Indeed conditions were such, that
I doubt, if I could have told you off hand what month it
was, let alone the date of birthdays or any other
anniversary. The wonder of that place was not that so many
died but that any one at all survived the place.
My next
anniversary was on the 'drome job at Changi and the
following one at Johore Bahru; after the Burma Railway
experience these places tend to be forgotten. The 'drome is
not much mentioned these days, though it was, at that time,
a long haul, exposed to the sun all day and every day and
tended to take away some of the edge one may have had. In
Johore Bahru I was on Xl Tunnelling Party and that was also
hard work on the rations of that time.
(Source:
Makan No. 236, Sept/Oct, 1977)
3) Hit on
the head
NX37631 - KNOX, Raymond Charles (Andy), Pte. - C Company, 14 Platoon
"In 1978 the medicos at AGH Concord told him that his blackouts
had undoubtedly been caused on the Aerodrome job, when he had
been hit on the head with a pick-handle by one of the Nips,
apparently it had not been diagnosed that a portion of his skull
had been fractured, so he had lived with that depression and
subsequent blockage of the blood flow ever since."
(Source:
Makan No. 247 May / June, 1979)
4) Buzz
off
NX33407 - PENFOLD, Alan William, L/Cpl., BHQ, Intelligence.
QX18679 - SARON, Arthus (Ripper), Pte., 2/26 Battalion
Alan also remembers, in November
1943, working at the Drome, near the beach, where natives
were allowed to gather coconuts for their village; and one
day were joined by Ripper Saron, an Australian-born Malay
P.O.W. (2/26 Bn), He selected a tree close by to climb, as
he usually did at lunch time. As he came down, however, a
Nip Guard came along and motioned him to buzz off. "Clear
out", in effect was what he said, "You shouldn't be here".
Ripper, a very amazed Malay, took some ten minutes in
explaining that he was actually an Australian P.O.W.
soldier, and he did not want to 'Buzz off',
(Source:
Alan Penfold - Makan No. 196,
Jul/Aug, 1971)
Back
Last updated
29/08/2022 |
