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Killed in Action

287 Field Company

Royal Engineers

History

Compiled by Ron Taylor

Thailand-Burma Railway

From Fred Taylor (Private 5776807)

Working parties had increased, and on the 18th June my turn came, I was now feeling a lot better but the food and conditions at Changi were very bleak, rice and green leaves were our diet, the water had to be boiled and the sanitary conditions were terrible, so I was glad to get away. With a party of 600 others under the command of Major P.D. Weir of the 118 Field Regiment, RA, and Major M.T. Read, 196 Field Ambulance, R.A.M.C. both of the 18th Division. We were herded into cattle trucks and driven up Malaya and into Thailand.

Cattle trucks to Thailand

by Charles Thrale

After five days in those cattle trucks, which were very cold at night and stiflingly hot during the day, we were very grateful to arrive at Non Pladuk and were treated very well, the food was a lot better then at Changi. Our first job was to clear a large area of trees and put up our atapi shelters, we were told a Japanese workshop was to be built there, then word got around that it was to be the start of a railway line to go 415kms to Burma.

By October the now infamous Death Railway was under way and the guards now arriving were Koreans and Sikhs, they were a lot more sadistic then the Japs, being held under by the Japs for a long time, it was now their turn to serve out the punishment and this they did with gusto. A large bamboo cane was carried by the guards, this was nicknamed the 'bamboo interpreter', if they wanted to get the message across, you would feel it on the most sensitive parts of your body.

By October the now infamous Death Railway was under way and the guards now arriving were Koreans and Sikhs, they were a lot more sadistic then the Japs, being held under by the Japs for a long time, it was now their turn to serve out the punishment and this they did with gusto. A large bamboo cane was carried by the guards, this was nicknamed the 'bamboo interpreter', if they wanted to get the message across, you would feel it on the most sensitive parts of your body.

The Japanese Railway Engineers had a time deadline as the Japanese wanted their troops supplied in Burma for an assault on India and deaths had been very high, therefore limiting the workforce, so in April 1943 the many sick from Changi were also forced on trains to Thailand, this group was known as ‘F’ Force.

After the long five day route to Thailand in the cattle trucks, the PoWs were ordered off and had a nearly a mile walk to a transit camp where they were then informed they would be marching North West along the railway route in 14 mile stages. Many of the PoWs tried to sell their possessions to the Thais but not at a good price as the Thais knew the the PoWs from ‘F’ Force were already in bad shape and could not carry their baggage for long.

After two days of walking through the night, as it was too hot in the daylight sun, they reached the small town of Kanchanaburi. Many who tried to carry their possessions left them at this staging camp.

Walking at night caused many problems as the track was uneven with bamboo shots cutting into their feet, in time tropical ulcers would form.

After one month in these appalling conditions they reached Songkurai, with many of the PoWs dropping out along the almost 300km route.

‘F’ Force had the most deaths on the Thailand Burma Railway and when Cholera hit Songkurai in June 1943, an escape was planned.

Taken from ‘Towards the Setting Sun’ by James Bradeyl, (287 Field Coy.)

On the evening of 5th June the cholera patients at were ordered to move out of the camp immediately and to form an isolation camp on the opposite side of the railway trace, near the hospital hut, about five or six hundred yards away. The move took place in torrential rain and many died that night, the ground was littered with the bodies of partly burned coolies, as this had been a cremation area.

The day was spent building pyres as death came quickly, as we no longer worked on the railway the Japanese saw no reason to supply them with food, they were kept alive by rice the working men let them have from their meagre rations.

The commanding officer Lt-Col. M.T.L. Wilkinson, 287 Field Company would  often go across at night to see Bradley, despite the cholera risk and the threat from the Japanese. Wilkinson felt strongly that an escape should be attempted, in order to let the outside world know how prisoners were forced to work at tasks well beyond their human capacity, and the conditions under which they lived and died, Bradley agreed to join the escape.

From a map drawn on a silk handkerchief the distance to Ye, on the Burma coast, was estimated at about 80 km. The party included:

Lt-Col. M.T.L. (Wilkie) Wilkinson, 287 Field Company, 18th Division (Died)

Capt.W.H. Anker, RASC, 18th Division

Capt. J.H Feathers, 18th Division (Died)

Lt. J.E. Robinson, 18th Division (Died)

Lt. J. (Jim) Bradley (to become an MBE),  287 Field Company, 18th Division

Lt. I.M. Moffat, Queen Victoria’s Own Madras Sappers and Miners, 9th Indian Div.

Lt. G. Machado, Straits Settlement Volunteer Force

Lt. T.P.D. Jones, Malay Regiment (Died)

Cpl. Brown, SSVF (Died)

Nur Mahommed, Indian fisherman.

They all agreed that if any one got injured they would have to be abandoned. On 5th July the ten men set out on a track through the jungle that Bradley had prepared near the crematorium in the cholera area, an area avoided by the Japanese.

Making 4 km a day through dense undergrowth with a very basic compass as a guide. Capt. Anker had saved some rice from the cookhouse to give them a meal throughout their calculated, three week journey.

By the 25th July the rice was nearly gone and Brown was the first casualty, he could not be found one morning, he had been suffering from septic ulcers and become delirious, they rest moved on after a search. On 2nd August, Jack Feathers died during the night, then three days later Wilkie died, believed heart failure. Robbie died from Septiceamia and dysentery and then Jones asked to be left behind after suffering for the last few days.

On the 14th August they reached the River Ye nearly to the point on their map they had aimed for. They made a raft to cross the river but lost everything when it capsized. On the 17th August, two Burmese hunters took them to their hut and on the next day to a kampong (village) where they were treated kindly.

On 21st August they were arrested when Japanese troops arrived and took them by boat to the Japanese HQ at Ye.

On the 5th September they were taken to Moulmein by train and spent the night at the Kempeitai (Military Police) headquarters, Nur Mahommed being taken from the group. The four remaining were handcuffed in pairs and taken to various places along the railway to show them off as a deterrent to escape. They were taken to Kami Songkurai where they stayed for two weeks and then were returned to Songkurai where they were brutally interrogated. Cyril Wild was told the four were to be executed but then they were taken to Singapore for a court-martial. They were then given eight to nine years hard labour.

Five had died in the escape attempt.

‘F’ Force Summery

 The railway tracks from Burma and Thailand were joined at Konkoita in October 1943.

The price paid 12,614 Allied deaths

Plus an estimated 80,000 Romusha (Native Labour) deaths.

 The railway tracks from Burma and Thailand were joined at Konkoita in October 1943.

The price paid 12,614 Allied deaths

Plus an estimated 80,000 Romusha (Native Labour) deaths.

Death Roll

Thailand-Burma Railway

Please click on the next to each date below to extend information

Died Name Service/No 1943/05/28 Waring, Alec Edmund 2040755 1943/05/29 Moore, Percival Albert 5931853 1943/05/30 Cooper, Stanley 2091259 1943/05/30 Spivey, Albert John 2077673 1943/06/02 Heath, Graham Gerald Lancelot 2091186 1943/06/05 Horne, Joseph 1888704 1943/06/10 Wallman, Ronald Thomas 2069162 1943/06/12 King, Donald Sidney 2070126 1943/06/12 Scott, Frederick John 1947425 1943/06/12 Bullock, Charles William 2090352 1943/06/14 Arber, Stanley Edward 2070850 1943/06/15 Cattermole, Cyril William 2069981 1943/06/15 Swann, George Leonard 2091757 1943/06/18 Clay, Leslie George 1890127 1943/06/18 Simpole, Jack William 2092136 1943/06/24 Green, Owen Robert Vincent 2091250 1943/07/01 Tolliday, Frederick Stanley 2117168 1943/07/04 Hudson, Edward 2013227 1943/07/05 Stoddart, Bertram James 2120205 1943/07/08 Beech, Victor Wallace 1888803 1943/07/12 Hunt, Harry Ronald 2075269 1943/07/13 Weston, Edward Douglas 1922615 1943/07/13 Bavister, Robert 2069996 1943/07/15 Hart, Cecil Kenneth 2090360 1943/07/22 Dant, William Albert 2069998 1943/07/24 Rooke, Frank Charles 2069997 1943/07/24 Broom, Herbert Edward 5828457 1943/07/24 Smith, Ronald George 2003424 1943/08/03 Huckle, Eric Holmes 2073568 1943/08/03-1943/08/05 Wilkinson, Michael Thomas Lean 31618 1943/08/06 Cole, John Horace 2091173 1943/08/06 Cook, Joseph 10630583 1943/08/06 Butcher, Alfred William 2090354 1943/08/09 Ives, Bertie John 1892414 1943/08/12 Cornwell, Percy Denis 2062104 1943/08/13 Mansfield, William John 2016081 1943/08/17 Kerr, Matthew 2001931 1943/08/17 Tromans, James Henry 1909661 1943/08/17 Roberts, Arthur 2091546 1943/08/18 Childs, Albert Edward 2068897 1943/08/18 Gautrey, Neville Claude 2073577 1943/08/20 Sherwin, Frederick Norman 2120396 1943/08/25 Abbott, Donald Luke 1991272 1943/08/27 Cleaver, Samuel Alexander 2090379 1943/08/28 Friend, Sydney Neville 2092130 1943/08/31 Barrett, Keith Cecil 2090349 1943/09/02 Franks, George William 2091248 1943/09/02 Reed, Fred 1922505 1943/09/02 Holland, Edward Roy 2090361 1943/09/04 Myers, John 2003414 1943/09/05 O'Rourke, Francis John Lawrence 2114649 1943/09/05 Baxter, Wallace Noel 2120306 1943/09/06 Stammers, Percy Vernon 2003425 1943/09/06 Taylor, Archie Frank 2092138 1943/09/08 Austin, John Henry 2002291 1943/09/16 Nicholls, Victor 2003415 1943/09/18 Butcher, Stephen Roy 2003401 1943/09/20 Toozer, William John 1906385 1943/09/21 Marsh, Bertie Charles 1903892 1943/09/22 Jefferson, Montie Louis 209334 1943/09/22 Rote, George Andrew 1906330 1943/09/25 Haylock, Herbert Armistice 2093005 1943/09/26 Salmons, Eric Arthur 2092137 1943/09/27 Bassett, Jack 2120404 1943/09/29 Barnes, John William 2092572 1943/09/30 Hotson, Thomas Harold 2090380 1943/10/01 Miller, Frederick John 2090365 1943/10/06 Ford, Frederick John 1915156 1943/10/06 Trundley, Alef Alfred 2073578 1943/10/07 Whisker, Thomas Harvey 2090376 1943/10/08 Mawdesley, George Ernest 2013232 1943/10/09 Pentelow, Bernard Raymond 2090367 1943/10/09 Truman, William Arthur 1922768 1943/10/10 Flaherty, Thomas Allen 2000515 1943/10/24 Pickersgill, Cecil Douglas 56815 1943/10/24 Ross, George 1907065 1943/11/02 Barber, Joseph 1893253 1943/11/03 Windmill, Ronald Osborn 2094285 1943/11/03 Manuel, Joseph Percy 1906635 1943/11/12 Jervis, George Ronald 2013581 1943/11/18 Lewis, Ronald William Vernon 2092134 1943/11/21 Large, George Henry 5823083 1943/11/21 Bairsto, Joseph Arthur 2145692 1943/11/26 Jones, Jack Joseph 2092133 1943/12/02 Dowsett, Dennis Cyril 6016722 1943/12/02 Read, Alfred Bernard 1907144 1943/12/12 Cooper, William Henry 2003402 1943/12/15 Fisk, Edwin William 2003407 1943/12/15 Sharman, Roland George 2002317 1944/01/06 Johnson, Douglas 2072955 1944/01/19 Rudkin, Victor Frederick 2003421 1944/02/26 Reilly, Patrick Joseph 2000602 1944/09/19 Painter, Denis Edward Benjamin 2003416 1944/11/20 Crilley, William 2013046

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