Singapore, Changi and the Burma-Thailand Railway

Singapore, Changi and the Burma-Thailand Railway PDF Author: Kathrine Bell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781877009457
Category : Prisoners of war -
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
This is the story of how Australian prisoners of war dealt with the harsh treatment meted out to them by guards in the infamous prisoner of war camp at Changi, Singapore and at the forced labour camps along the Burma- Thailand Railway.

Singapore, Changi and the Burma-Thailand Railway

Singapore, Changi and the Burma-Thailand Railway PDF Author: Kathrine Bell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781877009457
Category : Prisoners of war -
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
This is the story of how Australian prisoners of war dealt with the harsh treatment meted out to them by guards in the infamous prisoner of war camp at Changi, Singapore and at the forced labour camps along the Burma- Thailand Railway.

Descent into Hell

Descent into Hell PDF Author: Peter Brune
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 1741761883
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1327

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Book Description
'No man has the command of words needed for conveying...the courage and the cowardice; the loyalty and the treachery; the dedication and the dereliction; the strengths and the frailties; the kindness and the brutality; the integrity and depravity; the magnificence and the enormities of men, as revealed by and to those fated to pass through the entrails of hell, in Thailand Burma, during and after the Railway was built.' Descent into Hell is a scrupulously researched and groundbreaking account of one of the most traumatic calamities in Australian history - 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. He describes the shambolic planning by the British in Singapore and the failures and incompetence of some of the Australian command. He debunks the claims about Australian deserters in Singapore, and we learn of the black market in Changi and the beatings, torture and murder on the Thai-Burma Railway. Here too are stories of the war's many heroes and villains: of officers who looked after their men and optimised their chances of survival, and others who looked after themselves at their men's expense; the heroes of battle who became ineffectual and lost in the camps and on the Railway, and the least liked and least respected battlefield officers who came to be great leaders. And then there are countless acts of kindness and decency performed by one POW for another in the most cruel of circumstances. Impressive, compelling and rich in human spirit, Descent into Hell is an unprecedented chronicle by one of Australia's finest military historians.

The Thailand-Burma Railway, 1942-1946: Voluntary accounts

The Thailand-Burma Railway, 1942-1946: Voluntary accounts PDF Author: Paul H. Kratoska
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780415309516
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description


Towards the Setting Sun

Towards the Setting Sun PDF Author: James Bradley
Publisher: Timothy Bradley
ISBN: 9780959018707
Category : Prisoners of war
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description


Singapore and the Thailand-Burma Railway

Singapore and the Thailand-Burma Railway PDF Author: Alfred Knights
Publisher: Arena books
ISBN: 190942112X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
This book presents one of the most vivid descriptions of day-to-day life in a Japanese POW labour camp to have appeared so far. The story follows the experiences of the Norfolk Territorial Regiment from 1942 to 1945, under the command of Lt. Col. Knights, during and after the fall of Singapore. Many will recollect having seen the film, The Bridge on The River Kwai. It tended to fictionalise certain matters of fact. This book, drawn directly from a memoir only recently uncovered, reveals that the Japanese designed railway was successfully completed with the forced labour of Allied troops in conjunction with Chinese and Malay captives. The Royal Norfolks were allocated a section of the line which required excavating deep cuttings in the rock hills parallel with the river. They had their 'own' camp with a Japanese officer in charge. He constantly pressed for quicker progress, and for work to be done by all the prisoners, including those in the camp hospital and their officers, contrary to international law.The Regiment's experiences are reported by Lt. Col. Knights in his book. He gives details of his own and others' sufferings, both those inflicted by their captors and those occurring from tropical diseases and insects, all being worsened by a lack of medicines and food. Some of the local Thais, at great risk to themselves, provided a little of both of those commodities. After the railway was completed, the survivors were marched back into Thailand. There they were required to dig a deep ditch round their camp. It was suspected that this would be their grave when they were shot, if the Japanese decided that they had lost the war. Fortunately the two atomic bombs resulted in the Japanese Emperor himself announcing their surrender, forestalling that action. The final chapters of the book are filled with excitement and tension in the efforts of the British officers to hoodwink their captors.

The Changi Book

The Changi Book PDF Author: Lachlan Grant
Publisher: NewSouth
ISBN: 1742247377
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
The story of Changi, told by those who lived through it. In the tradition of The Anzac Book comes this fascinating collection of accounts of life in the notorious Changi prison camp. Changi is synonymous with suffering, hardship and the Australian prisoner-of-war experience in WWII. It is also a story of ingenuity, resourcefulness and survival. Containing essays, cartoons, paintings, and photographs created by prisoners of war, The Changi Book provides a unique view of the camp: life-saving medical innovation, machinery and tools created from spare parts and scrap, black-market dealings, sport and gambling, theatre productions, and the creation of a library and university. Seventy years after its planned publication, material for The Changi Book was rediscovered in the Australian War Memorial archives. It appears here for the first time along with insights from the Memorial’s experts. ‘A moving insiders’ account of life in Changi.’ —Peter FitzSimons ‘A fresh perspective on Changi: illuminating stories from the inside.’ —Les Carlyon

The Changi Camera

The Changi Camera PDF Author: Tim Bowden
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780733629624
Category : Changi POW Camp (Changi, Singapore)
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
In THE CHANGI CAMERA, acclaimed author Tim Bowden presents a unique record of one Australian soldier's experience of the fall of Singapore, captivity in Changi and enduring the hell of the Thai-Burma Railway. George Aspinall was a keen photographer and, even in the very worst of conditions, he managed to take photos, process them and so preserve for later generations the reality of incarceration. Along with George's own memories of those years, Tim Bowden has written a gripping and authoritative overview of what happened in Changi and on the Railway. This powerful narrative and unique collection of almost one hundred photographs combine to give us a raw and graphic account of just what George and thousands of his fellow Australians endured.

The Burma-Thailand Railway of Death

The Burma-Thailand Railway of Death PDF Author: E. R. Hall
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Burma
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description


Stolen Years

Stolen Years PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781877007156
Category : Prisoners of war
Languages : en
Pages : 157

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Book Description


Medical Officers on the Infamous Burma Railway

Medical Officers on the Infamous Burma Railway PDF Author:
Publisher: Frontline Books
ISBN: 1399095633
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
In 1944, a compilation of medical reports from the main prisoner of war work camps along the infamous Thailand-Burma railway was submitted to General Arimura Tsunemichi, commander of the Japanese Prisoner of War Administration. The authors stated that the reports were neither complaints nor protests, but merely statements of fact. The prisoners received only one reply – that all copies of the documents must be destroyed. As one officer later recalled, ‘Of course, this was not done’ and copies of these reports survived, stored away in dusty files, for future generations to learn the truth. Work on the railway began in June 1942, the Japanese using mainly forced civilian labour as well as some 12,000 British and Commonwealth PoWs. Such is well-known. So are the stories of ill-treatment and brutality, many of which have been published. The vast majority of these accounts, however, were written after the war, colored by the sufferings the men had endured. The reports presented here are quite unique, for they were written by the medical officers in the camps as the events they describe were unfolding before their eyes. The health and well-being of the PoWs was the medical officers’ primary concern, and these reports enable us to learn exactly how the men were treated, fed and cared for in unprecedented detail. There are no exaggerated tales or false memories here, merely facts, shocking and disturbing though they may be. We learn how the medical officers organised their hospitals and dealt with the terrible diseases, beatings and malnutrition the men endured. As the compilers of the reports state, 45 per cent of the men under their care died in the course of just twelve months. But equally, we find that the prisoners did have a voice and had the facilities, and the courage, to write and submit such reports to the Japanese, perhaps contradicting some of the long-held beliefs about conditions in the camps. Through the words of the Medical Officers themselves, some of the detail of what really happened on the Death Railway, for good or ill, is revealed here.