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Back Railroad of Death
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

But the hospital was the most amazing site we had ever seen. It consisted of an ordinary atap hut, and it lay in a low part of the camp so that it was permanently flooded. When we visited it that afternoon there was over a foot of water right through the hut, and in several places the water level was only a few inches from the bamboo slats on which the sick men lay. The M.O. could just do his rounds in gum boots, but at the far end he had to walk on slats as the water was too deep. Under such conditions lay operation cases, men who had malaria, dysentery and beri-beri all mixed up together. The hospital itself was a tremendous breeding ground for mosquitoes, and by night they hummed there like bees swarming. This, too, was the hospital to which we would have to evacuate our heavy sick until we could build one of our own in the camp we were about to erect for ourselves.

The water all came from a single well about half a mile down a sort of lane. On either side of this lane Thai men and women sold their wares. At the time we had no Thai currency, but had we been prepared to sell our kit we could have got plenty. A small Thai boy showed and offered me 40 dollars for my watch; anyone who had a watch, ring or Parker Pen, was besieged by rival bidders, and many fell to the confusing and tempting offers.

Along this lane, we also saw a Buddhist burial; there was chanting and laughter and beating of gongs, and we could see flames rising from a funeral pyre, surrounded by the yellow-robed priests. It seemed a hilarious affair.

We stay in Bampong just under two days and then we were off to Kamburi, or Kanchanaburi, a camp some 40 kilometres north-west. We travelled at breakneck speed by truck and got there in an hour. Sometimes the Thais threw fruit into the speeding vehicles, and a bunch of bananas in the face going at 40 m.p.h. is no joke! Kamburi Camp lay facing the town across a flat field that was referred to as the aerodrome. It was a quite uninteresting camp, on a flat, muddy plain. We were met by a Nip interpreter named Adachi, who told us that on the following morning we would march four kilometres to our final destination, Chungkai Camp.