Description
Object description
British officer served with 1st Indian Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regt, Indian Artillery, Anti-Aircraft Defences (Malaya) Fortress Singapore Div in Singapore, Malaya, 1942; prisoner of war in Changi Camp, Singapore, Malaya, 2/1942-10/1942, on Burma-Thailand Railway, 10/1942-6/1945 and Nakom Nayok Camp, Thailand, 6/1945-8/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as officer with 1st Indian Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regt, Anti-Aircraft Defences (Malaya) Fortress Singapore Div in Singapore, Malaya, 1941-1942: joining Territorial Army, 1938; commission, 1941 and posting to unit; ineffectual artillery unit; miscalculations in defence of island; surrender to Japanese, 15/2/1942; initial impressions of Japanese, 2/1942. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Changi Camp, Singapore, Malaya, 2/1942-10/1942: march to camp; loyalty of Punjabi Mussulmen; self-justification of Indian National Army officer; Japanese code regarding prisoner of war disobedience; reasons why some Sikhs joined Indian National Army; separation of British and Indian personnel in unit; location of camp; accommodation; effects of rice diet; low morale; apportioning blame for fall of Singapore; character of Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Holmes' command.
REEL 2 Continues: attitude towards British military command; attitude and indiscipline of some prisoners of war; amenity pay; buying supplies; salt production; tree-felling work impeded by physical condition; camp university; musical entertainment; military lectures; post-war popularity of Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival with Far Eastern Prisoners of War Association members; food issues; camp discipline; beauty of environment; freedom of movement; Red Cross supplies; memories of Selarang Square Incident, 8/1942-9/1942; camp concerts; book supply; arrival of Dutch and American prisoners of war.
REEL 3 Continues: Red Cross supplies. Recollections of period as prisoner of war on Burma-Thailand Railway, 10/1942-1944: train journey to Thailand, 10/1942; conditions in Ban Pong Camp; sentimentality of guards; conditions of troops on arrival at Kanyu I Camp; effect of river water on health; use of bamboo; rice nausea; washing and sleeping arrangements; insanitary conditions; contracting dysentery; tools used by prisoners of war; food obsession amongst prisoners of war; greater adaptability of Malay Volunteer prisoners of war to conditions; tension created by officers' purchasing majority of egg supplies; contact with home; an unpopular officer; Japanese attitude towards sick; Christmas in camp, 25/12/1942.
REEL 4 Continues: work of padres in Kanyu I Camp; combating deficiency diseases; controversy of sharing of food; prisoner of war court martial; pay; tension between officers and other ranks; Japanese pressure on sick; searches for maps; contempt for officers amongst personnel in Australian Army; comradeship among Australians; countering diarrhoea; prisoner of war humour; morale amongst Australians and Dutch; impossibility of escape; move to hospital at Chungkai Camp, 4/1943; reads diary extract describing conditions during 'speedo' period; location of Chungkai Camp.
REEL 5 Continues: accommodation in Chungkai Camp; drinks; arrival of mail; meat supply; Japanese attitude towards prisoners of war; prisoner of war morale; condition of Tamil labourers; deaths from 'speedo'; cholera scare; prisoner of war officer/NCO relations; camp currency; news of conditions at Kanyu I Camp; conditions in Chungkai Camp; first medical supplies; reads diary extract describing prisoner of war conditions and deaths amongst sick; amputations; prisoner of war thefts and punishments.
REEL 6 Continues: doctors allocation of medicines; air raid threat; conditions of prisoners of war arriving from the railway camps; prisoner of war fears for ultimate fate; rareness of suicide and insanity; Japanese temperament; prisoner of war nursing skill; character of camp commandant; occupation therapy clinic; work of Lieutenant-Colonel Ernest 'Weary' Dunlop senior medical officer; contact with home; nicknames for Japanese guards; language classes; entertainments; circulating news from home; camp library; Japanese propaganda film; rumours of German surrender; character of new camp commandant, 2/1944; tobacco supply; religious life in camp.
REEL 7 Continues: religious life in camp; anti-social prisoners of war who stole; his removal to Nakom Paton Camp, 5/1944; prisoner of war casualties during Allied air raid on Nakom Paton Camp; separation of officers from other ranks; new Japanese restrictions and confinement of prisoners of war to huts, 1945. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Nakom Nayok Camp, Thailand, 6/1945-8/1945: removal of officers to camp, 6/1945; deceiving Japanese into transporting illicit radio into camp; family predicament of Dutch prisoners of war; liberation, 8/1945; food supply; behaviour of camp commandant on surrender; reception of prisoners of war in Rangoon, Burma. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Changi Camp, Singapore, Malaya, on Burma Thailand Railway and Nakom Nayok Camp in Thailand, 2/1942-8/1945: long-term physical and psychological effects of imprisonment.
REEL 7 Continues: attitude towards Japanese; fate of Korean guards on Japanese surrender; prisoner of war plans to defend themselves against potential Japanese massacre on surrender; learning of Royal Air Force iintention to bomb Nakom Nayok Camp.