Description
Object description
Well-written and informative memoir (82pp ts) of his Royal Air Force service and experiences as a prisoner of war in the Far East during the Second World War, beginning with his call-up into the RAF in May 1941 and basic training at Skegness, joining No. 45 Maintenance Unit at RAF Kinloss (Scotland) as a motor transport mechanic, posting in October 1941 to 242 (Canadian) Squadron preparing for overseas deployment at RAF Valley (Wales), the voyage to the Far East in the troopship EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA in December 1941, arriving at Java in January 1942 and proceeding from there to Sumatra the following month, based at Palembang, until the unit was moved back to Java shortly after in face of the Japanese advance, RAF operations against the Japanese from Tjililitan airfield, the evacuation to Bandoeng and Tasik Malaja in March 1942, going into captivity after a brief period at Pamegataan (?) where a proposed 'last stand' failed to happen, his first experience of a Japanese POW camp at Semplak aerodrome near Buitenzorg, transfer to Makasura camp, August - October 1942 and from there to Changi, Singapore (aboard the SINGAPORE MARU), where he was briefly interned before proceeding to Japan in the KAMAKURA MARU in late November for labour in and around the Kawanami shipyard on Koyagi Shima island (Kyushu – Fukuoka 2 camps), where he spent the remainder of the war and witnessed the atomic bomb drop on Nagasaki in August 1945 and the effects of the blast in the vicinity of the POW camp, a detailed account of events there at the time of the Japanese capitulation, his departure from Koyagi in mid-September 1945 and the long journey home via the USA and Canada, concluding with his demobilisation at RAF Cosford and re-adjustment to civilian life in a 'Resettlement Camp' at Chorley.
Content description
Well-written and informative memoir (82pp ts) of his Royal Air Force service and experiences as a prisoner of war in the Far East during the Second World War, beginning with his call-up into the RAF in May 1941 and basic training at Skegness, joining No. 45 Maintenance Unit at RAF Kinloss (Scotland) as a motor transport mechanic, posting in October 1941 to 242 (Canadian) Squadron preparing for overseas deployment at RAF Valley (Wales), the voyage to the Far East in the troopship EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA in December 1941, arriving at Java in January 1942 and proceeding from there to Sumatra the following month, based at Palembang, until the unit was moved back to Java shortly after in face of the Japanese advance, RAF operations against the Japanese from Tjililitan airfield, the evacuation to Bandoeng and Tasik Malaja in March 1942, going into captivity after a brief period at Pamegataan (?) where a proposed 'last stand' failed to happen, his first experience of a Japanese POW camp at Semplak aerodrome near Buitenzorg, transfer to Makasura camp, August - October 1942 and from there to Changi, Singapore (aboard the SINGAPORE MARU), where he was briefly interned before proceeding to Japan in the KAMAKURA MARU in late November for labour in and around the Kawanami shipyard on Koyagi Shima island (Kyushu – Fukuoka 2 camps), where he spent the remainder of the war and witnessed the atomic bomb drop on Nagasaki in August 1945 and the effects of the blast in the vicinity of the POW camp, a detailed account of events there at the time of the Japanese capitulation, his departure from Koyagi in mid-September 1945 and the long journey home via the USA and Canada, concluding with his demobilisation at RAF Cosford and re-adjustment to civilian life in a 'Resettlement Camp' at Chorley.
History note
Cataloguer SWW