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Chapters (40)
  1. FOREWORD
  2. RAILROAD OF DEATH
  3. REFERENCE LIST:
  4. Railroad of Death
  5. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION (1948)
  6. INTRODUCTION
  7. PART ONE: SINGAPORE
  8. CHAPTER 1
  9. CHAPTER 2
  10. CHAPTER 3
  11. CHAPTER 4
  12. CHAPTER 5
  13. PART TWO: RAILROAD OF DEATH
  14. CHAPTER 6
  15. CHAPTER 7
  16. CHAPTER 8
  17. CHAPTER 9
  18. CHAPTER 10
  19. CHAPTER 11
  20. CHAPTER 12
  21. CHAPTER 13
  22. PART THREE: BASE CAMPS AND LIBERATION
  23. CHAPTER 14
  24. CHAPTER 15
  25. CHAPTER 16
  26. CHAPTER 17
  27. CHAPTER 18
  28. CHAPTER 19
  29. CHAPTER 20
  30. APPENDIX ONE:
  31. APPENDIX TWO:
  32. APPENDIX THREE:
  33. APPENDIX FOUR:
  34. APPENDIX FIVE:
  35. APPENDIX SIX:
  36. APPENDIX SEVEN:
  37. APPENDIX EIGHT:
  38. APPENDIX NINE:
  39. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  40. And The Dawn Came Up Like Thunder

So next day we downed tools. Then Kokubu changed his tactics. He said it was very unfortunate, but if the officers didn’t work exactly as before, but quite voluntarily, he’d have to close the theatre, and that would be bad luck on the O.R.s, wouldn’t it? But we were utterly sick of Nip hypocrisy and we refused to be blackmailed. The theatre was closed. Then the supplies to the canteen were strangled until that was closed, too. Yet Kokubu lost his minor battle and he lost face: for he failed, as he’d hoped, to split the officers from the men, and the men watched the proceedings, didn’t grumble, but merely said ‘bloody bastard Nips’ slightly more frequently than before. Both we and the man knew that, for security reasons, the Nips were preparing a special Officers Camp at Kamburi and that we’d soon be going; therefore these penalties on the whole camp need not last long.

The Nips then began telling the O.R.s that when the officers left, the men would be very well treated and all the bans would be lifted, but the men listened silently; they knew the Nips too well. There was not long to wait. Within a few days we were officially told that we were being moved to Kamburi Camp. It would eventually be a proper Officers Camp where we would only be asked to do two or three hours camp work per day. All the officers in Thailand would be assembled there.

We left in batches to march to Kamburi via Tamarkan. There was a search of all our kit before we left Chungkai but all my hidden stuff was missed. Before I left I buried the original copy of this book with the help of an Australian in a secure place under the double shelter of an atap shack that stood under a huge tree. And then, carrying a stretcher loaded with kit, bedding and washing tins between us, Henry and I left Chungkai almost exactly three years after we’d been taken prisoner.

CHAPTER 18

THE first stage of the journey to Tamarkan was uneventful, but as Noel Scott developed dysentery and I once more got malaria, we rode the last part of the journey to Kamburi itself on the baggage truck and we arrived in the new camp on February 19th, 1945. This was our last Thai camp, and ushered in a period that was wretched, monotonous and unhappy.