Description
Object description
British private served with No 7 Column, 13th Bn King's Regt (Liverpool), 77th Indian Infantry Bde during First Chindit Expedition Operation Longcloth in Burma, 2/1943-3/1943; prisoner of war in Rangoon Central Prison, Rangoon, Burma, 5/1943-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Whitechapel, London, GB, 1920-1939: family; education; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Aspects of period as private with 13th Bn King's Liverpool Regt in GB and India, 1940-1943: call-up for military service, 6/1940; joining battalion after basic training; voyage from GB to India via South Africa, 1941 including civilian hospitality in Durban, South Africa; in barracks at Secunderabad. India; role as regimental policeman; story of how he used oblique method to arrest drunken soldier at dance. Recollections of operations with 13 Platoon, No 7 Column, 13th Bn King's Regt (Liverpool), 77th Indian Infantry Bde during First Chindit Expedition Operation Longcloth in Burma, 2/1943-3/1943: joining Chindits, 1943; move to Dimapur, India; address by Brigadier Orde Wingate before expedition; how his group became separated from rest of column; participation in Major Mike Calvert's Headquarters Column attack on railway sidings; rejoining No 7 Column; attempt to get to Fort Hertz; how Burmese guides led his group into Japanese ambush; division of group and how he and group of six tried to trek eastwards into China.
REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Burma, 4/1943-5/1943: capture by Imperial Japanese Army; interrogation by Japanese; Japanese leaflets to induce surrender; role as batman to Japanese officer; friendship with Japanese named Tagata; story of how he sang for his supper; reception in camp at Maymyo; introduction to Japanese discipline; cattle truck journey to Mandalay; kindness shown to prisoners of war by Japanese soldier. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Rangoon Central Prison, Rangoon, Burma, 5/1943-4/1945: arrival at prison; living conditions; symptoms of beri-beri; contracting dry beri-beri; dependence of prisoners of war on comradeship; deaths from illness of prisoners of war; treatment for scalding injuries and contracting lockjaw; United States Army Air Force raid on Rangoon; death of United States Army Air Force personnel; work on Rangoon Docks; story of prisoner of war who went mad from Japanese treatment.
REEL 3 Continues: Japanese propaganda about progress of war; death of Chinese prisoner of war General Chi; beating of prisoner of war by Japanese officer; trading with Burmese. Aspects of march from Rangoon towards Thailand, 4/1945: plan to march prisoners of war to Thailand; route of march via Pegu; Japanese abandoning of prisoners of war in Pegu; United States Army Air Force attack on prisoners of war and Burmese villagers; how Burmese headman tried to enlist help of British prisoners of war to stop shelling of his village. Aspects of liberation and return to GB, 1945: liberation by units of British Fourteenth Army, 30/4/1945; treatment of former prisoners of war; flying out of Burma; rehabilitation of former prisoners of war in India; reaction to return to GB; amusing sketches of prisoner of war life.