Railway of Hell

Railway of Hell PDF Author: Reginald Burton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781848842991
Category : Prisoners of war
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The experiences of British and Allied prisoners of war at the hands of their Japanese captors have shocked civilised soicety for over half a century. A number of exceptional accounts have emerged but very few of the quality of Reggie Burton's Railway of Hell (originally published in 1963 as The Road To Three Pagodas). As a young captain in The Royal Norfolk Regiment, the Author witnessed the desperate fighting that preceded the fall of Malaya and Singapore, when he was badly wounded before being captured. The victorious Japanese were initially overwhelmed by the number of POWs they were responsible for. All too soon the horror of the ordeal in store for their equally unprepared captives became clear. Forced labour, inadequate rations and virtually non-existent medical care quickly became the POWs' lot. Yet far worse was to come. After an appalling journey in cattle trucks, Reggie Burton and his dwindling band of fellow captives were put to work on the Burma-Siam railway, which today epitomises one of the low points of Twentieth Century inhumanity. Railway of Hell's vivid description of the barbarism and hardship endured is guaranteed to shock and move its readers. There is much here that goes beyond normal comprehension - not least the fortitude, courage and lack of bitterness displayed by the Author and his erstwhile comrades.

Railway of Hell

Railway of Hell PDF Author: Reginald Burton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781848842991
Category : Prisoners of war
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The experiences of British and Allied prisoners of war at the hands of their Japanese captors have shocked civilised soicety for over half a century. A number of exceptional accounts have emerged but very few of the quality of Reggie Burton's Railway of Hell (originally published in 1963 as The Road To Three Pagodas). As a young captain in The Royal Norfolk Regiment, the Author witnessed the desperate fighting that preceded the fall of Malaya and Singapore, when he was badly wounded before being captured. The victorious Japanese were initially overwhelmed by the number of POWs they were responsible for. All too soon the horror of the ordeal in store for their equally unprepared captives became clear. Forced labour, inadequate rations and virtually non-existent medical care quickly became the POWs' lot. Yet far worse was to come. After an appalling journey in cattle trucks, Reggie Burton and his dwindling band of fellow captives were put to work on the Burma-Siam railway, which today epitomises one of the low points of Twentieth Century inhumanity. Railway of Hell's vivid description of the barbarism and hardship endured is guaranteed to shock and move its readers. There is much here that goes beyond normal comprehension - not least the fortitude, courage and lack of bitterness displayed by the Author and his erstwhile comrades.

Hell on Wheels

Hell on Wheels PDF Author: Dick Kreck
Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing
ISBN: 1555919529
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
Overnight settlements, better known as "Hell on Wheels," sprang up as the transcontinental railroad crossed Nebraska and Wyoming. They brought opportunity not only for legitimate business but also for gamblers, land speculators, prostitutes, and thugs. Dick Kreck tells their stories along with the heroic individuals who managed, finally, to create permanent towns in the interior West.

Hell under the Rising Sun

Hell under the Rising Sun PDF Author: Kelly E. Crager
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 9781585446353
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Late in 1940, the young men of the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery Regiment stepped off the trucks at Camp Bowie in Brownwood, Texas, ready to complete the training they would need for active duty in World War II. Many of them had grown up together in Jacksboro, Texas, and almost all of them were eager to face any challenge. Just over a year later, these carefree young Texans would be confronted by horrors they could never have imagined. The battalion was en route to bolster the Allied defense of the Philippines when they received news of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Soon, they found themselves ashore on Java, with orders to assist the Dutch, British, and Australian defense of the island against imminent Japanese invasion. When war came to Java in March 1942, the Japanese forces overwhelmed the numerically inferior Allied defenders in little more than a week. For more than three years, the Texans, along with the sailors and marines who survived the sinking of the USS Houston, were prisoners of the Imperial Japanese Army. Beginning in late 1942, these prisoners-of-war were shipped to Burma to accelerate completion of the Burma-Thailand railway. These men labored alongside other Allied prisoners and Asian conscript laborers to build more than 260 miles of railroad for their Japanese taskmasters. They suffered abscessed wounds, near-starvation, daily beatings, and debilitating disease, and 89 of the original 534 Texans taken prisoner died in the infested, malarial jungles. The survivors received a hero’s welcome from Gov. Coke Stevenson, who declared October 29, 1945, as “Lost Battalion Day” when they finally returned to Texas. Kelly E. Crager consulted official documentary sources of the National Archives and the U.S. Army and mined the personal memoirs and oral history interviews of the “Lost Battalion” members. He focuses on the treatment the men received in their captivity and surmises that a main factor in the battalion’s comparatively high survival rate (84 percent of the 2nd Battalion) was the comraderie of the Texans and their commitment to care for each other. This narrative is grueling, yet ultimately inspiring. Hell under the Rising Sun will be a valuable addition to the collections of World War II historians and interested general readers alike.

Hell Train

Hell Train PDF Author: Christopher Fowler
Publisher: Solaris
ISBN: 1849973172
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Imagine there was a classic supernatural chiller that Hammer Films never made. A grand epic produced at the studio’s peak, which played like a cross between the Dracula and Frankenstein films and Dr Terror’s House Of Horrors... Four passengers meet on a train journey through Eastern Europe during the First World War, and face a mystery that must be solved if they are to survive. As the Arkangel races through the war-torn countryside, they must find out: What is in the casket that everyone is so afraid of? What is the tragic secret of the veiled Red Countess who travels with them? Why is their fellow passenger the army brigadier so feared by his own men? And what exactly is the devilish secret of the Arkangel itself? Bizarre creatures, satanic rites, terrified passengers and the romance of travelling by train, all in a classically styled horror novel.

Descent Into Hell

Descent Into Hell PDF Author: Peter Brune
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781459683532
Category : Australia
Languages : en
Pages : 719

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Book Description
Descent into Hell is a scrupulously researched and groundbreaking account of traumatic calamities in Australian history, namely the Malayan Campaign, the fall of Singapore and the subsequent horrors of the Thai-Burma Railway. Unpicking the myths and legends of the war, Peter Brune goes to the heart of the Australian experience.

Behind Bamboo

Behind Bamboo PDF Author: Rohan Deakin Rivett
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780851795775
Category : Prisoners of war
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Living Hell

Living Hell PDF Author: Chor Boon Goh
Publisher: Asiapac Books Pte, Limited
ISBN:
Category : Prisoners of war
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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The Railway Man

The Railway Man PDF Author: Eric Lomax
Publisher: Charnwood
ISBN: 9781444819854
Category : Large type books
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
During the Second World War, Eric Lomax was forced to work on the notorious Burma-Siam Railway, and was tortured by the Japanese for making a crude radio. Left emotionally scarred, and unable to form relationships, Lomax suffered for years - until, with the help of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, he came to terms with what had happened. Almost 50 years after the war his life was changed by the discovery that his interrogator, the Japanese interpreter, was still alive; their reconciliation is the culmination of this extraordinary story.

No Mercy from the Japanese

No Mercy from the Japanese PDF Author: John Wyatt
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1844684520
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
By the laws of statistics John Lowry should not be here today to tell his story. He firmly believes that someone somewhere was looking after him during those four years. Examine the odds stacked against him and his readers will understand why he hold this view. During the conflict in Malaya and Singapore his regiment lost two thirds of its men. More than three hundred patients and staff in the Alexandra Military hospital were slaughtered by the Japanese he was the only known survivor. Twenty six percent of British soldiers slaving on the Burma Railway died. More than fifty men out of around six hundred died aboard the Aaska Maru and the Hakasan Maru. Many more did not manage to survive the harshest Japanese winter of 1944/45, the coldest in Japan since record began. Johns experiences make for the most compelling and graphic reading. The courage, endurance and resilience of men like him never ceases to amaze.

Railway Signal

Railway Signal PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroads
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description