These ulcers were evil things. You scratch yourself on a bamboo without knowing it, and because the bamboo is very sharp the infection is carried deeply in. Next day there is the beginning of a sore there that you don’t notice, but scratch absent-mindedly with dirty finger nails. The following morning there is an open ulcer the size of a red, raw sixpence. You can’t go sick with that, and there’s no known available cure for it. The medical orderly patches you up with a wad of disinfectant, and you make your own bandage out of a strip torn off an old Jap-Happy. Next day, though, the thing’s as big as a shilling, and two days later it’s a vile looking, open sore with a stinking, suppurating yellow and red carbuncular centre, and the size of a half-crown. To stand up and walk at all hurts like hell, but it’s a matter of luck if the Nip medical orderly will let you go sick or not. If he does, the bloody thing will stop getting bigger so fast – possibly; but if he makes you work again you can expect a wicked hole the size of a tennis ball by the end of the week, and perhaps if they ever do evacuate you, you’ll have to lose a leg . . .

One day our saving river was put out of bounds. We asked why, and were told that it was routine cholera precautions whenever the river, which certainly had risen tens of feet, was full of flood water. Then we heard vague stories of cholera somewhere up country and there was danger of infection through the river. Poor, poor devils, we thought, presuming that some Thai village had picked up the infection somehow or other.

A morning or so later, though, there was a rumour about cases in a British camp, but we didn’t believe it, because cholera couldn’t attack British camps in the year 1943 – cholera was a scourge of the Dark Ages! The very next day we heard that cholera was in our own H.Q. camp, just three kms away, and that two men were already dead from it.

From that day the fear of death was with us and every possible anti-cholera precaution was taken. First, the river was totally out of bounds. All food was to be served covered over with leaves, and special men at each meal fanned banana leaves to keep the flies away, and no fried cooking was allowed so that dishes could be more easily and hygienically prepared. Terrific talks on the way cholera infection came were given to the men. Flies and water were the two main dangers, and under no circumstances must they put their faces in river water; it was better to throw away a bit of food a fly had settled on, rather than risk eating it. Because we were all afraid, every order was obeyed meticulously. The Nips fenced off their part of the camp in anticipation; we were not allowed in.