[61], Weight loss among Allied officers who worked on construction was, on average, 914kg (2030lb) less than that of enlisted personnel. The Australian War Memorial acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia. Even though defeated, they displayed the Anzac skills of resourcefulness, laconic humour, mateship and survival against the odds. Between 180,000 and 250,000 Southeast Asian civilians and over 60,000 Allied prisoners of war were subjected to forced labour during its construction. The wooden bridge was reused for pedestrians and cars. Hence (Captain) MBE. [39] More prisoners of war were imported from Singapore and the Dutch East Indies as construction advanced. The railway was completed on 16 October 1943 . The British POWs suffered the highest number of dead of any Allied group on the ThaiBurma railway. The largest of these is at Hellfire Pass (north of the current terminus at Nam Tok), a cutting where the greatest number of people died. In 1944, the course of war began to change drastically, and it became clearer that Germany was losing the war. Once you have ordered the document identify the relevant index card and make a note of the two part reference given for example 1/13. Coates, Impressions of the Nakom Pakon Hospital, written at the request of the Japanese Imperial Army. Search with terms like POW and prisoner and, less reliably, with the names of individuals. These included troops of the British Empire, Dutch and colonial personnel from the Netherlands East Indies and a small number of US troops sunk on the USS Houston during the Battle of Java Sea. Oakes' typescript account of the defence of Malaya and Singapore Island , treatment as POW, including Oakes time with "H" Force work and repatriation. These personnel were used as labourers in various hospitals along the railway. These coolies have been brought from Malaya under false pretenses 'easy work, good pay, good houses!' By early 1945 there were nearly 3,000 Australian prisoners of war in Japan. Starved of food and medicines, and forced to work impossibly long hours in remote unhealthy locations, over 12 000 POWs, including more than 2700 Australians, died. Web"Dusty" Miller was a British P.O.W. On 26 October 1942, British prisoners of war arrived at Tamarkan to construct the bridge.
WebAmong the 32,500 soldiers taken prisoner, mostly Dutch, British, and Australian, were 534 members of the U.S. battalion, 21 men of the original 558 having been transferred and three killed in action. War Crimes and trials. Consultthe escape and evasion reports in WO 208, which give individual accounts of escape attempts or capture or awards for those who assisted escape attempts. List view Image view Object Title map, hand drawn EPH 729 Object category Maps Production date Unknown Creator Unknown Object Title identity tag, Far-East POW EPH 30 Object category Souvenirs and ephemera Production date The majority of Australian prisoners from Changi and Java were sent to Thailand to assist in the building of the railway. It was built from 1940 to 1943 by civilian laborers impressed or recruited by the Japanese and prisoners of war taken by the Japanese, to supply troops and weapons in the Burma campaign of World War II. Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, at Thanbyuzayat, 65 kilometres south of Moulmein, Myanmar (Burma) has the graves of 3,617 POWs who died on the Burmese portion of the line. George Ernest Ramsey. From Bampong, they marched 140 kilometres north to Tarsau. It is also known from a study of the Australians who joined the army in World War II that they were generally young and unmarried. Probably their motives were mixed: a desire for adventure, a sense of duty, nationalism and a conviction that they were part of a proud Australian military tradition dating from Gallipoli. If you are looking for a report that has not been digitised, you will need to use the card indexes. Captain J. L. Hands commanded A battalion (337-strong), and the Dutch R battalion also came under Dunlop's command. The railway was completed on 16 October 1943. WebMy grandfather, William White, was a Japanese prisoner of war. He was a driver, Lance Corporal Royal Army Service Corps and in Singapore when it surrendered to the Japanese. In the 1980s Australian ex-POWs returned to Thailand and reclaimed Hellfire Pass from the jungle which had swallowed it when the Burma-Thailand railway was demolished after World War II. The experiences of prisoners elsewhere were, in fact, very diverse but this website can only hint at these. A few have been digitised and are available to download. D Force (2,242-strong under Lieutenant Colonel C. A. McEachern) left Changi for Bampong in four groups between 14 and 18 March 1943. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. WebThe notorious Burma-Siam railway, built by Commonwealth, Dutch and American prisoners of war, was a Japanese project driven by the need for improved The papers of Sir Edward Ernest Dunlop include his military and prisoner of war experiences and related post-war concerns. [14][15][16], The railway was completed ahead of schedule. Id like to know his movements etc. [90], Three cemeteries maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) contain the vast majority of Allied military personnel who died on the Burma Railway.[90]. [8th Division in Captivity - "K" Force (Medical Force):] Report on "K' Force (Medical) 1945-1946. At the other point, in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, lies the remains of 4, 946 men. Hospitals were established at Tanbaya, Tarsau, Kanburi, Nakom Paton and Tamuan. Parts of the abandoned route have been converted into a walking trail.[28]. For liberation reports, use the advanced search in our catalogue to search WO 208 by surname and either first name or initials. These hospital registers (WO 347) kept by the prisoners of war, provide medical details such as: They also provide personal details such as unit, age and religion. Its purpose was to supply the Japanese forces in Burma, bypassing the sea routes which had become vulnerable when Japanese naval strength was reduced in the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway in May and June 1942. WebIn 1944, a compilation of medical reports from the main prisoner of war work camps along the infamous Thailand-Burma railway was submitted to General Arimura Tsunemichi,
Fifty-nine were women from the Australian Army Nursing Service. There are good reasons for this. [8th Division in Captivity - "H" Force (Thailand):] "H" Force in Thailand. north carolina discovery objections / jacoby ellsbury house Subscribe now for regular news, updates and priority booking for events.Sign up, All content is available under the Open Government Licence [66][67] No compensation or reparations have been provided to Southeast Asian victims. [48][49] In the foreword to Charles's book, James D. Hornfischer summarizes: "Dr. Henri Hekking was a tower of psychological and emotional strength, almost shamanic in his power to find and improvise medicines from the wild prison of the jungle". It also describes the living and working conditions experienced by the POWs, together with the culture of the Thai towns and countryside that became many POWs' homes after leaving Singapore with the working parties sent to the railway. [32], One of the most notable portions of the entire railway line is Bridge 277, the so-called "Bridge on the River Kwai", which was built over a stretch of the river that was then known as part of the Mae Klong River. WebThe list contains over 1700 names and is particularly interesting as a record of the decimation, by disease or untreated wounds, of prisoners working on the Burma The book Through the Valley of the Kwai and the 2001 film To End All Wars are an autobiography of British Army captain Ernest Gordon. During that time he was allowed to send 5 postcards home to his Stark. Life in the POW camps was recorded at great risk by artists such as Jack Bridger Chalker, Philip Meninsky, John Mennie, Ashley George Old, and Ronald Searle. Russell Braddon's The Naked Island (1951), for example, sold well over a million copies and stayed in print for decades. Another cohort of 450 US personnel suffered 100 deaths. Aiming to finish the railway as quickly as possible the Japanese decided to use the more than 60 000 Allied prisoners who had fallen into their hands in early 1942. All of that makes this railway an extraordinary accomplishment."[20]. [13], Estimates of deaths among Southeast Asian civilians subject to forced labour, often known as rmusha, vary widely, because statistics are incomplete and fragmented. Not all Australian POWs worked here in 1943. D Force was also stationed at Kanburi, Tarsau and Konyu, where they worked on Hell Fire Pass. However, it is known that all of them had volunteered to serve. [30] Other nationalities and ethnic groups working on the railway were Tamils, Chinese, Karen, Javanese, and Singaporean Chinese. [69] An unknown number of Malayan workers were housed in a nearby camp. In its vicinity a sequence of bridges and embankments were needed to keep the railway route along the escarpment level.
[8th Division in Captivity - "D" Force (Thailand):] POW Camps, Thailand, Report on Kinsayok Camp and Hospital and Tarsau Base Hospital, 1943-1944. WebIn 1944, a compilation of medical reports from the main prisoner of war work camps along the infamous Thailand-Burma railway was submitted to General Arimura Tsunemichi, commander of the Japanese Prisoner of War Administration. Many of the sources for British Prisoners of War in Europe also cover British Prisoners of war in the Far East. Spoorweg Mij", "----198111", "Historical Fact on the Burma Death Railroad Thailand Hellfire pass Prisoners conditions", "Hellfire Pass Interpretive Centre and Memorial Walking Trail", "Stories of Death Railway heroes to be kept alive", "Cast into oblivion: Malayan Tamils of the Death Railway", "The forgotten Malayan labourers of Burma Railway during WWII", "Notes on the Thai-Burma Railway. However, the British would form only a minority of the Allied POWs in Burma. In reality, however, the death rates of British and Australians across all sites on the railway were scarcely any different 22 and 21 per cent respectively. In 1939 the age limits for enlistment in the AIF were 19 to 35 years of age (higher for officers and some NCOs). Initially, 1,000 prisoners worked on the bridge and were commanded by Colonel Philip Toosey. The reports cover prisoners held in Europe (and North Africa). Please note, some of these are available on Findmypast(). His life and death is attested to in Ernest Gordon 's autobiographical work Through the Valley of the Kwai (also published under the titles To End All Wars and Miracle on the River Kwai ). in Thailand on the Burma Railway during Second World War. Search by name for details of some 200,000 individuals held by German authorities during the Second World War, in seriesWO 416.
Since the upper part of the Khwae valley is now flooded by the Vajiralongkorn Dam,[19] and the surrounding terrain is mountainous, it would take extensive tunnelling to reconnect Thailand with Burma by rail.
Education Zone | Developed By Rara Theme. Web1945-1989 1990 to the present day Show more filters Applied filters Far East Prisoner of War Showing 1-30 of 98 records. Public entrance via Fairbairn Avenue, Campbell ACT 2612, Book your ticket to visit: awm.gov.au/visit, Copyright In 1960, because of discrepancies between facts and fiction, the portion of the Mae Klong which passes under the bridge was renamed the Khwae Yai ( in the Thai language; in English, 'big tributary'). Among the last survivors from the Burma Railway is 95-year-old Sir Harold Atcherley who finally, after seven decades, published his own diary, the one he kept On this end of the railway the workforce was largely Australian, Dutch and local rmusha. Use this to identify the relevant book within WO 347/14-59, the book numbers run sequentially. burma railway prisoners of war list. Reports of Japanese War Crime Trials and the peace treaty. Webochsner obgyn residents // burma railway prisoners of war list. [75] Repair work soon commenced afterwards and continued again and both bridges were operational again by the end of May. At the end of May, F Force was distributed among five main camps, with 1,800 Australians at Lower Songkurai, 393 at Upper Songkurai and 700 at Konkoita. Australian War Memorial, Canberra. Thus, ferries were needed as an alternative connecting system. [77], Hellfire Pass in the Tenasserim Hills was a particularly difficult section of the line to build: it was the largest rock cutting on the railway, it was in a remote area and the workers lacked proper construction tools during building. $33.86. The force eventually moved to Hintok. They include bothBritish prisoners of war and other nationalities. By far the majority of British POWs nearly 29 000 of them were sent to Thailand. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}140227N 993011E / 14.04083N 99.50306E / 14.04083; 99.50306. The total length of miles, the total number of bridges over 600, including six to eight long-span bridges the total number of people who were involved (one-quarter of a million), the very short time in which they managed to accomplish it, and the extreme conditions they accomplished it under. [53], The construction of the Burma Railway is counted as a war crime committed by Japan in Asia. Theatre programs from concerts held in Prisoner of War camps (3/16/47) and menus (13/4/34) are of great interest and highlight the courageous efforts which people make to maintain their self esteem, integrity and dignity. Royal Air Force and prisoner or Merchant and prisoner of war for merchant seamen PoWs, FO for Foreign Office records (use our guide to, use the card index in the reading rooms at The National Archives, feedback on the usefulness of escape aids or instructions provided beforehand, place/location of the incident in which air crew went missing, type of aircraft from which air crew went missing (for example,Blenheim), Stalag (Stammlager) in most cases, a camp for NCOs and enlisted men, Oflag (Offizierlager) a camp for officers only, Stalag Luft (Stammlager Luftwaffe) a camp for Air Force officers administered by the Luftwaffe, Dulag (Durchgangslager) a transit camp where captured aircrew were processed and interrogated before being sent to a permanent camp, sometimes the ailment/ disease admitted for, liberated prisoner of war interrogation questionnaires (1945-1946), nominal lists of prisoners of war (1943-1945), enquiries into missing personnel including PoWs (1940-1945), selected notifications of deaths (1939-1942), Merchant Navy prisoners of war (1939-1945). PoW reports were compiled by the Red Cross and supply details of camp conditions. More than one in five of them died there. The In preparation for the daily Last Post Ceremony. All visitors require a free timed ticket to enter the Memorial Galleries and attend the Last Post Ceremony. One of the earliest and most respected accounts is ex-POW John Coast's Railroad of Death, first published in 1946 and republished in a new edition in 2014. Search by camp name in WO 224 for some details of PoW camps. Search and downloadselected prisoners of war records 1715-1945 on Findmypast (). Webochsner obgyn residents // burma railway prisoners of war list. In all, over 8000 of these men and women around 35 per cent would die during captivity, more than 2800 of them working on the ThaiBurma railway. Also browse using our catalogue in: Consult CAB 101/199 and WO 32/14550 for some reports made by former PoWs. Our records are incomplete, so you may not find the information you are looking for. Its route was through Three Pagodas Pass on the border of Thailand and Burma. All memory is selective. Second World War - PoWs held in Europe, 6. Although Dunlop was only one of 106 Australian POW medical officers, in recent years he has come to represent them alland the values of courage and compassion that they and many Australians manifested in captivity. Contents 1 Background 2 Internment 3 Death 4 See also 5 References WebCasualty information compiled by Lieutenant-Colonel J M Williams, Australian Army Medical Corps, of Australian prisoners of war, Burma - Thailand and Japan, including section on A handful of veterans, including Mr Hamley, have made their way from across the country to take part in a service to acknowledge the experience of building the railway common to 60,000 Allied prisoners of war, including more than 13,000 Australians. Roll of Honour for "F" Force Personnel-including cause of death, date of death, personal effects and list of awards/punishments, camp equipment and rations. [8], The project aimed to connect Ban Pong in Thailand with Thanbyuzayat in Burma, linking up with existing railways at both places. We'll protect your details in line with our Privacy Policy. Since the Netherlands East Indies had been under Dutch control for centuries, the Dutch POWs included not only Europeans but Eurasians, who had acquired full civil rights, and indigenous soldiers, including Sundanese, Javanese, Menadonese, Ambonese and Timorese. In 1943 Dutch prisoners were sent to Thailand where they suffered the same hardships as other Allied POWs. 1 is the book number and 13 the page number. 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