Soap

[Lou Barron]

It was in the days when i was a pow in Singapore the Japs had put us guy on a ex chinese river boat (Tung Wo ) anchored in the Johore Straits .
IT all started from a piece of soap it concerned two of our guys George Doyle and a American we called Tex the soap was apparently belong to one of the Japs and had been left on the upper deck bathroom and these two guys went to get it when they were on the upper deck working so both had a go at getting the soap as we had vey little of it.So it developed int a fight .Thats when the action started the Japs Got into the two of them and stop the fighting .The Japs then lined us all up on the top deck then proceeded to give these two a beating they said for stealing the soap

[happy daze john in oz]

It was in the days when i was a pow in Singapore the Japs had put us guy on a ex chinese river boat (Tung Wo ) anchored in the Johore Straits .
IT all started from a piece of soap it concerned two of our guys George Doyle and a American we called Tex the soap was apparently belong to one of the Japs and had been left on the upper deck bathroom and these two guys went to get it when they were on the upper deck working so both had a go at getting the soap as we had vey little of it.So it developed int a fight .Thats when the action started the Japs Got into the two of them and stop the fighting .The Japs then lined us all up on the top deck then proceeded to give these two a beating they said for stealing the soap

Just glad no one bent over to pick it up Lou LOL

[robpage]

One thing that I never really understood , my late Father was a Royal Marine ashore September 4th 1945 into Singapore , the marines were issued with bars of chocolate , purely for distribution to British ex Prisoners of War , but there were specific instructions that for each man no more than one square off the bar each as the whole bar would certainly cause massive stomach problems to the guys who had had no decent food for years . The experience of what h saw there affected him for years , but he followed orders one man one square

[Lou Barron]

Yes we was told that when help was to arrive and supply with food .Planes had dropped leaflets telling us the same thing .I have said before when we was taken to the HMS Sussex we was given eggs ,bacon and chips but we could not eat it all and it made us sick .Mind you it was very tempiting Getting back to the soap incident the Japs was very stricted on us if we was caught with anything that they thought we had stolen are was given to us by the local people .There was one incident i remember one of our guys Lofty Cooper was caught with a coconut he had picked up on a working party the japs made him stand out in the hot sun with the coconut held up above his head till he collapsed.Another thing they did not like was whistling they would go mad if any of our guys was caught whistling it could earn you a clout across your head