Long, James (Oral history)

British private served with Royal Army Service Corps in GB and France, 11/1939-5/1940; served with Holding Coy, Pioneer Corps at Clacton-on-Sea, GB, 6/1940-8/1940; served with Motorcycle Section, 2nd Bn Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders in GB, 8/1940-10/1940; served as despatch rider with 55 Coy, Royal Army Service Corps, 18th Infantry Div in GB and Singapore, Malaya, 11/1940-2/1942; prisoner of war in Changi and Sime Road Camps, Singapore, Malaya, 2/1942-9/1942, on Burma-Thailand Railway, 9/1942-3/1945 and Ubon Camp, Thailand, 3/1945-8/1945

REEL 1 Background in Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight, GB, 1916-1939: family; education; employment; membership of Boy Scouts; sense of community in Carisbrooke; volunteering for military service on outbreak of Second World War, 9/1939; interest in motorcycles, trips with friend Arthur White and instructing new motorcyclists; brief membership of Civil Air Guard. Aspects of enlistment as private in Royal Army Service Corps in GB, 11/1939: enlistment; medical. Aspects of training with Holding Coy, Pioneer Corps at Clacton-on-Sea, GB, 6/1940-8/1940: reception at unit; procedure on arrival and pay. REEL 2 Continues: relations between recruits; daily training routine; drill, rifle handling, discipline, physical fitness and route marches; rifle and bayonet training; use of Lewis Gun, Boys Anti-Tank Rifle and Mills Bomb hand grenades; typical meals; map reading, trench digging, gas chamber training; butchery course at Aldershot; kitchen work at Clacton-on-Sea. REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of period as private with Royal Army Service Corps in GB and France, 11/1939-5/1940: enlistment and posting to unit, 11/1939; company and field kitchen composition at Portsmouth, GB; move to France, 3/1940; conditions at Calais, France; butchery work and meat supply; poor hygiene in field kitchens; kitchen duties; lack of in service training or drill. Recollections of period as private with Royal Army Service Corps in France, 5/1940: indications of start of German advance; state of retreating troops; retreat to Dunkirk; arrangements for feeding troops; conditions at Dunkirk, France including German Air Force attacks, lack of systematic destruction of equipment and vehicles; abandoning vehicles and making way to beach; nature of Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombing attacks; reaction to scene on beach; wading out to small boat; German Air Force attacks during crossing to Folkestone, GB. REEL 4 Aspects of period as private with Motorcycle Section, 2nd Bn Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders in GB, 8/1940-10/1940: posting to unit at Inverness after period with Holding Coy, Pioneer Corps at Clacton-on-Sea, 6/1940-8/1940: discipline and training displayed by unit; daily training routine; role as motorcycle machine gunner; opinion of Military Norton WD Big 4 Motorcycle with side car; composition and reconnaissance role of Motorcycle Section; training 'schemes'; duties as despatch rider and motorcycles preferred; picket duties at radio station, Wick, 10/1940. Aspects of period as despatch rider with 55 Coy, Royal Army Service Corps, 18th Infantry Div in GB, 11/1940-10/1941: background to transfer to 55 Coy, joining unit at Letton Hall; assignment as despatch rider attached to divisional Royal Artillery regiments; convoy duties. REEL 5 Continues: duties with divisional headquarters; unit personnel; recreational activities; divisional move to Scotland, winter 1940-1941; freezing conditions at billets in Jedburgh; move to Alderley Edge; early 1941; attitude to issue of overseas kit; inoculations. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Oronsay and USS Leonard Wood from GB to India, 10/1941-12/1941: embarkation aboard HMT Oronsay at Bristol, GB, 10/1941: conditions on board; lifeboat drill; transfer at to USS Leonard Wood, 11/1941; conditions on board; submarine scare in South Atlantic. REEL 6 Continues: shore leave in Cape Town, South Africa; Christmas dinner in Indian Ocean, 25/12/1941; impressions of Bombay, India, 12/1941; conditions at Ahmednagar Camp, 1/1942. Aspects of voyage aboard SS Felix Rousell from India to Singapore, Malaya, 1/1942-2/1942: embarkation aboard HMT Felix Roussel; American attitude towards Japanese; composition of convoy, rumours of strike aboard HMT Empress of Asia; Japanese air attack on convoy in Straits of Malacca; manning Bren Gun on deck; dive bombing attack on HMT Felix Roussel; destruction of HMT Empress of Asia and aftermath of attack, 5/2/1942. REEL 7 Continues: Recollections of operations as despatch rider with 55 Coy, Royal Army Service Corps, 18th Infantry Div in Singapore, Malaya, 5/2/1942-15/2/1942: arrival in Singapore, 5/2/1942; location of company in Tek Hoc Rubber Plantation; daily Japanese bombing raids and lack of Allied air cover; troop movements in expectation of Japanese landing; dangers as despatch rider of night-time movement of troops; arrival at Klooni Hill, Bukit Timah Road, 10/2/1942; assignment to pick up lorry of barbed wire; taking up infantry position in trenches on Klooni Hill with older brother Bill Long; Japanese use of spotter aircraft to direct mortar fire and impossibility of movement during daytime; intensification of Japanese attack; glimpses of Japanese advancing and retreat of 1st Bn Cambridgeshire Regt; reputation of Japanese troops and their preparedness for jungle warfare; situation in Singapore, 14/2/1942; ceasefire order for Allied toops and continued Japanese mortar attacks; finding NCOs in air raid shelter; finding company dead; loss of motorcycle and kit; surrender 15/2/1942, treatment by Japanese and obtaining food. REEL 8 Continues: Recollections as prisoner of war in Changi and Sime Road Camps, Singapore, Malaya, 2/1942: march to Changi Camp, 15/2/1942; physical condition on arrival; accommodation; prisoners of war self-organisation and educational classes; number of prisoners of war in camp; maintaining unit organisation and officers wish to maintain hierarchy; rush of civilians to leave Singapore, 10/2/1942-15/2/1942; story of two soldiers who deserted and escaped to Ceylon; requirement to bow to Indian National Army guards in camp; food, sea bathing and conditions; move to Sime Road Camp; duties of working party making shrine to Japanese dead; witnessing beating of British prisoner of war by Japanese for disrespect; camp leisure activities; officers' maintainence of privileges; knowledge of Japanese beatings; Imperial Japanese Army discipline. REEL 9 Continues: minor beatings received; return to Changi Camp, 5/1942; Selarang Square Incident, 8/1942-9/1942 including squalid conditions on square, signing parole under duress and realisation of Japanese lack of value for human life; detailed for working party. Aspects of train journey from Singapore, Malaya to Thailand, 9/1942: loading of prisoners of war into steel railway trucks; trading possessions with Japanese and Chinese in Changi prior to departure; train journey; food stops; conditions in trucks; prisoner of war suffering from dysentery. Recollections of period as prisoner of war on Burma-Thailand Railway, 9/1942-3/1945: waterlogged conditions at Ban Pong Camp; march to Kanchanaburi Camp; effects of poor diet; prickly heat sores; arrival at Tamarkan Camp, 9/1942; method of clearing jungle; organisation of prisoners of war; working in section under Lieutenant Geoffrey Adams. REEL 10 Continues: opinion of Lieutenant Geoffrey Adams, officers in general and of Captain Jim Taylor; Japanese requirement that working parties be chosen by British officers; various duties including cookhouse; cooking rice, vegetables available and poor quality rice; means of supplementing rations; symptoms of diet deficiences including skin complaints, prickly heat sores and beri-beri; incidence of dysentery and malaria; causes of leg ulcers and improvised treatments; sleeping arrangements; building camp huts; daily routine. REEL 11 Continues: work routine; rations; latrines; washing in river; drinking water; arrival of prisoners of war allocated to build bridge over River Kwae Noi; building wooden bridge under supervision of Japanese engineers; brutality of Korean guards illustrated by story of a Takeshi Kaneshiro nicknamed 'The Undertaker'; method of driving wooden piles into river bed and practical problems encountered; preparation of wood by Thais; simplicity of wooden bridge design; prisoner of war injuries during construction; building of railway embankment between Kanchanaburi and Tamarkan; requirement to move cubic metre of earth per day and Japanese requirement for prisoners of war to work harder; cruel Japanese 'jokes' played on prisoners of war; prisoners of war favourite duties; laying railway track; opinion of camp commander Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey, his help to men and being prepared to stand up to Japanese; opinion of Japanese camp commandant Lieutenant Shinji Takasaki nicknamed 'The Frog'. REEL 12 Continues: construction of concrete piles for steel bridge; method of excavation of river bed using divers' helmets, conditions and dangers of work underwater; making concrete for pillars and means of building up piles; effect of work on skin and working without clothes; his improvised underwear 'snaprag' and lack of other clothing; speed of construction of concrete pillars; building concrete 'shoulders'; rivetting steel bridge and dangers for prisoners of war; means of allocation of duties; dislike of carrying railway sleepers; difficulty of shovelling shingle from railway bed; feelings about completion of bridge; opinion of film 'Bridge Over the River Kwai' (1957); incident when he and his brother Bill reacted to Japanese guard's mistreatment and guard's subsequent behaviour; chance meeting with younger brother Len, 7/1943; building bridges further up line; volunteering with Vic Smith for party as driver/mechanic; working in stores hut at railway halt at Kanchanaburi, 8/1943-9/1943. REEL 13 Continues: composition of party at Kanchanaburi under Japanese guards; prisoner of war casualties and damage caused by US Army Air Force raid, 29/11/1944; prisoners of war detailed to deal with unexploded bomb; US Army Air Force Consolidated Liberator attack on steel bridge, 13/2/1945; more lenient regime at Kanchanburi Camp; prisoners of war recieving food from Thais. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Ubon Camp, Thailand, 3/1945-8/1945: move northwards; clearing jungle and beginning construction of airstrip; contracting spinal malaria and lack of medicine; digging tunnels in rock for ammunition stores and water wells; duties of wood parties providing fuel for trains; difficulties of working in dense tropical vegetation and wildlife dangers. REEL 14 Continues: sight of tiger in camp; insect problem including red ants, leeches, lice, rats and flies; desirability of bees nests; state of prisoners of wars' health; prior recollection of outbreak of cholera during 'speedo' period in 1943 exacerbated by Tamils' lack of hygiene; spread of cholera; friendship with Vic Smith; prisoners of war detailed to repair damage caused by Allied air raids; officers ordered by Japanese to work on railway during 'speedo' period; prior recollection of Kempetai discovery of wireless amongst officer prisoners of war in Kanchanaburi Camp. REEL 15 Continues: tension amongst Korean and Japanese guards during 1945; rumours about progress of war; Japanese punishments witnessed including description of bamboo cage treatment and prisoner of war being put into underground hole during monsoon; mental health of prisoners of war, need for survival instinct and incident of former despatch rider simply giving up; improvment in morale during 1945. Aspects of liberation and return to GB, 1945: arrival of Allied paratroopers at Ubon Camp 8/1945; surrender of Japanese in camp; situation in camp and relations with former captors; uniform issue, supplies and inability to eat; Douglas Dakota aircraft landing on airstrip constructed by prisoners of war; airlifting former prisoners of war to Rangoon, Burma; hospitalisation to restore health; voyage aboard hospital ship from Burma to GB: arrival at Southampton, GB, 28/10/1945; lack of medical examination and being classed A1 despite weight and poor digestion; home leave; extent of wife's knowledge concerning his whereabouts during war. REEL 16 Continues: postcards sent home and cards from wife; Japanese pilfering of Red Cross parcels, Reflections on prisoner of war experience: difficulties of readjusting to civilian life; need to be outside; problems with pschological effects of imprisonment; medical problems encountered; discharge; later medical and psychological examination at Royal Hospital Haslar and subsequent award of disability pension in 1980; effects of prisoner of war experiences on his brothers; recurring long-term psychological effects of prisoner of war experience; wife's attitude towards his condition; attitude towards Japanese and Koreans. Aspects of period with Heavy Transport Coy, Royal Army Service Corps in GB, 1952: call-up with Z Reserve; assignment to unit at Larkhill Camp; attending scheme at Bulford Camp during winter flood; standing down after five weeks.