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All the Information in the ‘FEPOW Family’ belongs to the writer and are not ‘Public Domain’. Permission must be obtained before any part is copied or used.
Killed in Action
Royal Army Medical Corps
197 Field Ambulance
History
by Ray Watson
Excerpts from ‘Mr Sam’ Far Eastern Heroes
Compiled by Ron Taylor
Into Captivity Singapore
15th February 1942 - 15th August 1945
Our hospital was near to the Singapore Cricket Ground and as we would soon be in a PoW camp, a trip to the cricket ground was taken to find anything we may be able to utilise. I saw a beautiful new pair of shoes and picked them up. All of a sudden a scream of “Kurrah!”. I nearly defecated in my pants (this was the only way I can explain the fear that came over me at that time). The Japanese soldier was small and mean looking. Hearing that word made me think he was going to kill us. His rifle was at the ready and I expected a bullet to rip into me at any moment. However, it did not, because all he wanted was the beautiful new shoes that I had just found. I immediately handed them over to him and he beamed all over his face. He thanked me profusely and wandered on his way, I often wondered what would have happened had I refused him.
Our hospital was desperately short of food. Someone told me that the racecourse on the outskirts of Singapore had been a supply depot before the Japanese had invaded the island. A driver, a Eurasian girl (nurse) and myself volunteered to go to the racecourse and see what we could pick up. We boarded the ambulance and set off. We wore huge Red Crosses all over us because we had heard that the Japanese recognised the insignia. Halfway to our intended destination, again we heard that dreaded word ‘Kurrah!’. Our ambulance stopped sharply and our driver came round to open the back door where we were. The Japanese saw our Eurasion nurse and they went crazy. Four of them battered her from head to foot and crushed her pelvis with their rifle-butts. The poor, helpless girl bled profusely as they dragged her away.
We found the racecourse and we were given a load of edibles because we were Red Cross. The trip turned out to be worthwhile and the effort put into the exercise gave us much pleasure. But, the horror of losing that poor little nurse gave us many sleepless nights. Upon arriving back at our hospital, we were congratulated for getting the supplies. But at such a cost.
I said my goodbyes to my colleagues at the Singapore Hospital Camp because I was picked out to rejoin my own unit the 197 Field Ambulance Unit.
All regiments including the 197 headed for Changi. As we wearily trudged along our way to the prison camp, the Japanese Commanding Officer came to see our own Commanding Officer and informed him that he wanted a detachment of our troops to accompany a Japanese detail. Two of our officers and thirty of our troops were detailed and we broke away from the main party. We had seen what the Japanese had done to Chinese hanging them from lamp posts, this gave us no hope what so ever as to what we were being led into.
We stopped at a place, very much like a river, which led off from the sea at Singapore. Submarines and small craft used the inlet every day. There was a big house, in which the Japanese were congregated. The only job we were given to do was to take down the Union Jack Flag and replace it with the Japanese Rising Sun Flag. Obviously, the inevitable row broke out with objections as to who was to hoist the Japanese Flag. We were all privates except for two doctors, so I automatically took over and started to issue orders, saying, in no uncertain terms, that I intended to return to England and that we must do as they say, until the situation changed.
Once again I heard the word ‘Kurrah!’ and so up went the flag whether anyone liked it or not. Tremendous cheers went up from the Japanese who had stood with their rifles at the ready. They then gave us two great bags of food for being so cooperative.
On the site were houses that we could turn into barracks in which we were to stay for five weeks. We had the use of a sports field and they gave us cricket and football gear. We continued cutting the grass, and doing any little odd jobs for the Japs, communicating by gesticulations.
Each time we cut the grass on the field, the Japanese gave us more food, and so that existence was right up our street and we continued to play football and cricket. Surely PoW life could not have been that good and so we made the best of it whilst we could. We worried about our colleagues we had left in Changi. I never ever found out exactly where we were.
One day the Japs indicated that me and five colleagues were to accompany them. As always, ones thoughts were on whether or not we would return. We followed them because they could be happy one minute and just as likely to kill us the next. Worse still, they gave us spades to carry and that meant that we would have to dig, but dig what? They led us down to the water-edge where a small platform acted as a mooring point for small craft. The Japs then stopped, going very quiet, they pointed to some trees. To our surprise we were shown the body of a white-man. They indicated to me to dig a grave in which to bury him and we did as we were told. We dug the grave amongst the trees for the unknown man, and I decided that it was only right to say a prayer before we committed the body to the grave. I politely indicated to the Japanese soldiers that they should remove their headgear. They immediately did as I requested of them. I said a prayer and my colleagues helped me with a rendering of ‘Rock of Ages’ and ‘Abide with Me’ before we covered him up. The Japanese soldiers applauded us.
We were then taken to the camp of the Rising Sun and they gave us enough food, in sacks, to supply all of us in that camp with many good meals.
After the five weeks we had to go to the main PoW Camp at Changi. I will say that up to that stage, the Japanese had treated us quite well and they broke camp to escort us to Changi. Just why we ever went to that camp we never knew but on our departure they chipped in to give us a fair quantity of tinned food.
We arrived at Changi to find a 'Shanty Town' where hygiene was absolutely non existent and a hard job to explain the disgusting conditions in that huge place. We set about gathering up everything we could possibly find that would go into making a home, wood, cardboard, anything at all.
How everyone in that camp did not die of disease was an absolute mystery to me, but every one of them had pulled together to make the best of the situation and slowly but surely things started to take shape. Our gear started to sparkle because we were Field Ambulance Medics and essentially it had to be the case of ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’.
Apart from trying to build a home for ourselves, we had to administer nursing aid to many thousands of patients, the horrific circumstances were pitiful to behold. Just how I saw my fellow soldiers suffer is something I have never come to terms with.
I have seen suffering, I have buried the sufferers, and tears have streamed down my face at the many terrible sights I had seen. I never ever dreamed how so many of my fellow men could have been so ill-treated. People say that we should bear no malice, but the torture and cruelty I saw has always made me wary of the Japanese race.
During all the time we were working on our dwellings, we were actually carrying out our nursing duties in a massive concrete building that had been converted into a hospital, it was the absolute extreme to our Shanty Town.
Dull moments were few and far between, we had hundreds, yes even thousands of people requiring our medical services, and so it was full steam ahead to try and save as many lives as possible.
Menus issued to the prisoners to boost moral.
The actual meals were:- Rice and Soup made from anything edible on the principle that if it crawled it could be eaten.
Food was now in great demand and our soul support was ‘Rice’ which was obviously not enough for our weak and dying patients. Dysentery, was something that I had previously heard little of, to see it was absolutely horrendous. What were we to do? We cured the dysentery and our patients then died of malnutrition because we had no food to give them, they needed food to build up their strength to recover and so they died in the hundreds.
I was to become very aware of the many faces of death during the months ahead. To cover a man’s face and say “God Bless You” made me wish I had been fighting in the military. I had nothing to offer my patients but love, kindness, and even a smile because they were even too weak to converse.
Into our hospital came many sailors from the bombing and sinking of the ships ‘Repulse’ and ‘Prince of Wales’’ on the 10th of December 1941. These sailors had dysentery and many were to die, they were just skin and bone, no flesh on any of them. It was a pitiful sight to behold, seeing ones fellow men die in such a state. Those poor men were just like bundles of sticks held together with skin, and the number of casualties was out of all comprehension.
Dysentery was by far the greatest killer and undernourishment was next, and so our battle was lost before it even started. We had these great big buildings, so spacious, but the most essential ingredient, food, was not available. Only the dedication of the nurses kept so many alive for so long.
Death Roll
Singapore PoWs
15th February 1942 - 15th August 1945
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Died
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Name
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Service/No
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1942/04/25
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Durward, Lawrence Chapman
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T/185044
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1942/12/26
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Woolnough, Ernest Robert James Read
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7372696
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1944/05/05
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Beaumont, Eric
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7374103
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