Description
Object description
Photocopy of a wordprocessed memoir (112pp) written in the 1990s describing how, as an Aircraftman 1st class, he took passage with a draft on the troopship ANDES from the United Kingdom to South Africa (December 1941 - January 1942) and then on the freighter CITY OF CANTERBURY from South Africa via Singapore to Java (January - February 1942); his brief period of active service in Java until the surrender of the Netherlands East Indies (February - March 1942); his time as a prisoner of war in Java in the camps at Tasik Malaja (March - April 1942), Mauspati aerodrome (April - May 1942), Jaarmarkt and HBS in Sourabaya (June 1942 - April 1943) and Tjimahi and Bandoeng (May - October 1943), on the prison ship FRANCE MARU for the voyage from Java to Sumatra (November 1943), in Pangkalangbali camp in Sumatra (November 1943 - May 1945) and in Changi Gaol, Singapore (May - September 1945); his evacuation by air to India and treatment and convalescence in military hospitals in Calcutta and Ranchi (September - October 1945); and his repatriation by air (October 1945). The most interesting passages in the memoir concern the mutiny by servicemen on board the CITY OF CANTERBURY at Durban in protest at conditions on the ship; the working parties to which Robertson was attached at the camps in Java and Sumatra, notably for airfield construction at Pangkalangbali; the total inadequacy of the diet in all the camps and the consequent ill-health and deaths among the prisoners; the unpredictability and frequent brutality of their captors and their occasional concessions to the prisoners.
Content description
Photocopy of a wordprocessed memoir (112pp) written in the 1990s describing how, as an Aircraftman 1st class, he took passage with a draft on the troopship ANDES from the United Kingdom to South Africa (December 1941 - January 1942) and then on the freighter CITY OF CANTERBURY from South Africa via Singapore to Java (January - February 1942); his brief period of active service in Java until the surrender of the Netherlands East Indies (February - March 1942); his time as a prisoner of war in Java in the camps at Tasik Malaja (March - April 1942), Mauspati aerodrome (April - May 1942), Jaarmarkt and HBS in Sourabaya (June 1942 - April 1943) and Tjimahi and Bandoeng (May - October 1943), on the prison ship FRANCE MARU for the voyage from Java to Sumatra (November 1943), in Pangkalangbali camp in Sumatra (November 1943 - May 1945) and in Changi Gaol, Singapore (May - September 1945); his evacuation by air to India and treatment and convalescence in military hospitals in Calcutta and Ranchi (September - October 1945); and his repatriation by air (October 1945). The most interesting passages in the memoir concern the mutiny by servicemen on board the CITY OF CANTERBURY at Durban in protest at conditions on the ship; the working parties to which Robertson was attached at the camps in Java and Sumatra, notably for airfield construction at Pangkalangbali; the total inadequacy of the diet in all the camps and the consequent ill-health and deaths among the prisoners; the unpredictability and frequent brutality of their captors and their occasional concessions to the prisoners.
History note
Cataloguer RWAS
History note
Catalogue date 2002-07