pow days

Louis I have read your cofepow story and enjoy(is that the right word) your continuing snippets on this forum. The younger generation may probably think that reading details of our memories that "life was just a bowl of cherries" but your experiences bring us all back down to earth. Keep your snippets of your life coming as it is educational for all of us and they are being recorded for posterity -lest we forget-. So thank you for taking the time to input your experiences it is appreciated and we are glad that you made it through. Ivan

You are right Ivan. What word should we use? Maybe appreciate might be more apt ~ I don't know! Anyway Lou keep up the good work. It is a fascinating insight into the horrors you guys endured.:Thanx:

We did have a scare one day the Japs came into the jail it was Kempei Tai the Japanese secret police they turfed us out of our and lined us up in the yard hell whats this i think the dysentery really come on ,what they was looking for was secret radios we honestly thought they was going to be a mass beating the gaurds was pushing a shovin with their rifles and bayonets .I dont think they got any radios not that i know of .The people who had these radios hadall the ingenuityin the world not that us guys was in the know but we did get some of the news Some of the places where they had these radios was unbelievable i dont know how true this was but the said that one of the radios was in a guys wooden leg .At that time rumours was all the go one said that the Aussies had landed in Sumatra these of couse was bore hole rumours .These bore holes dug in the yards was our only form of toilets no toilet paper and newspaper was used for rolling our tobaco in when we got it we use to water instead of paper the newspaper useto come from all places of the local people and even the japs the japs published a paper i think the name was Syon time they had a different name for Singapore

One thing i forgot to mention was that when Italy packed in there were i think two Italian submarines came into Singapore but what did the Japs do took the crews off them a banged them in jail with us some of them on our floor and they had to work too.Anyhow we was still digging these bloody tunnels and it was not very pleasant because every now and again they would collapse it was not like digging to solid rock the only thing that was good that we got to keep in contact with some of the locals .The Chinese was very good to us but they suffered badly i could tell a story about some of the things we did see what the Japs did to them .I think i mentoned this before but on work part we had finished for the day (12 hours ) when we was marching back to the jail wev was passing a Malay garden it was growing tapioca and the roots what we wanted as we would get to fry them like chips in palm oil .Weuse to light a fire in the yard .Anyhow there was only six of us with one guard he was little guy in fact the rifle and bayonet was bigger than him .We said to tapioco ok so becond ok so a couple of got into digging the roots out then we heard a lot of yelling and screaming we looked up and so this guy running towards us we thought what the hell the guard would stop him but no the gaurd took off to so we took too minus our roots

It musthave been about the first few months into 1945 that we noticed how some of the guards seemed to be very young guys most of the older guards had gone .The older guards was mostly sergeants and officers and the use bully the youngs guards then in turn the young ones would take it out on us it was getting bad as the Japs cut the food ration down and the beatings alsogot worse but the spiritof our guy was still pretty good the Yank planes was coming over more often .the working partys was still in big demand by the Japs . It was on one of these partys (little did we know it it was to be one of our last ones )There six of us detailed to the usual digging tunnels we use to do everything possible to get a rest we would go slow and the guards would come on to us screaming speedo speedo and the would show is how we should do it .This was one way we got to have a(yasume)a rest .But it did not work out for us .The sergeant lined us up and gave us abelting with his stick then the other guards got stuck in to .It was to be the last hiding we was to get .The very next day we went out as usual on the working party but we was just about to start when a Jap officer stop us and said (horyos)prisoners to go back to the jail .When we got back we could see that things was happening but what we did not know

Getting back into the jail everyone was asking what is happening then someone said the Japs had packed in but afterall the rumours we had heard we still could not believe this .This was about the second week in August it was when we had no more working partys we then knew that it had really happened .The army officers told everyone to stay calm and not do anything .It was a couple of days later that planes came over and dropped leaflets telling us to stay put help was on its way it was then we started to jump up and down . The only thing there was guys still dying and ther was alot of very sick people some of the guys off our ship wasin a bad way one of them Don MacDonald was a very sickman he wa the storekeeper off our ship(i died a couple of weeks later )Then we heard about the atom bomb that stopped the war .Even to this day people have denounced the bomb but if it had not been for the bomb i and many others pows would not have survived .Even if the Japs had not killed us all we could not of survived a few months longer

Just out.Hover folks will not bore you for long It was not long after the planes dropped the leaflets the next lot of planes came over this they dropped para troops .They were to keep us guys from running amok.The Japs ,Koreans and the Indians had all disappeared i did hear stories of some of the pows got hold of some of the guards and beat them up .All we was concerned about was getting something to eat and get cleaned up we got sick of picking lice of beds.Anyhow it was not long before more planes arrived this time dropping Army medical personal and supplies things was really moving .They rigged up showers and other things they stripped us off our clothes what little we had and put us through the showers and then another shower were they sprayed us then gave us a shirt and shorts i just cannot remember but they cleaned out the cells things was happening that quick .One thing i do remember very plainly was when trucks arrived with royal navy guys and they banged us mn and navy guys into the trucks and off we went to the docks in Singapore HMS SUSSEX was the ship they was taken us guys to .Myself and Tommy Davies he was still suffering from a loss of eye sight and i was moreless looking after him ,anyhow once we got aboard the cruiser we was grab by a couple of sailors and taken down to one of the mess decks.They could not do enough for us they said they will gives a good feed but lo and behold i so a big loaf of bread and a tin of jam with other stuff i said to Tommy how about a slice of bread and jam that was the first bread we had have for nearly three and half years

You know the old saying Your eyes are bigger than your belly well that was us guys .Them sailors on the SUSSEX sure gave us a feed but most of the ex pows was sick afterwards .If i remember it said on the leaflets they droppedwas not to eat to much of the food we was to get apparently our stomachs would not be able to digest the food in a large quantity.The guys off the cruiser gave us cigarettes a lot of other goodies they were really good to us .Back at the jail things was certainly moving .The doctors was giving us a going over and grading us for going home .The red cross people was there and i think that Mountbatten arrived at the jail .Anyhow i was lucky again i was to be on the first draft to be sent home also was Tommy Davies and Paddy Boland it was into early into September that we was on our way .Down to the docks inSingapore was the good ship SS Monawai waiting to take us home

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Lou, your postings on this subject have been an eye opener for many I think, only those who have been there can fully understand the real horrors you and others went through. As I said before we need people like you to record all you can remember of your trials, so that future generations hopefully will appreciate what you went through so they could be free.

Then the day came for us to leave the jail they had trucks lined up outside the jail us three stuck together and got into one of the trucks and of we went .I can remember as we was going through Singapore we saw group of Japs and Koreans being put to work they were guarded by British soldiers we all gave them a big cheer .Going aboard the Monawai we was taken over by nurses and how lovely they looked we wasthen taken down below to a troop section with bunks .The very next day we set sail the food was really good and we had to take a few pills at meal time .The nurses checked our weight every so often when i was weighed by the doctors inthe jail i was just over 6stone so we started to put on weight .One of the nurses took a shine on me she really made a fuss over me .In the mean time us mn guys got talking to some of the crew and they gave us some ciggies and a couple of bottles of beer they in turn could not do enough for us . Our next port of call was Colombo