Life on the Death Railway

Life on the Death Railway
Title Life on the Death Railway PDF eBook
Author Stuart Young
Publisher Casemate Publishers
Pages 308
Release 2013-08-30
Genre History
ISBN 1783469935

Download Life on the Death Railway Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

As a young man Stuart Young endured the horrors of the Japanese prisoner-of-war camps and survived. Later in life, in graphic detail, he recorded the experience the dreadful conditions, the brutal treatment, the sickness and starvation, the merciless routine of forced labour. Yet he also recorded the comradeship among the prisoners, their compassion and strength, and the pastimes and entertainments that helped them to come through an ordeal that is hard to imagine today. First he was held at the notorious Changi camp in Singapore Island, then in the camps in Thailand that accommodated POWs who were forced to work on the Death Railway. Perhaps the most revealing passages of his memoir recall the daily experience of captivity - the ceaseless battle to survive the backbreaking work, the cruelties of the guards and ever-present threat of disease. His account gives a harrowing insight into the daily reality of captivity and it shows why he was determined to document and make sense of what he and his fellow prisoners suffered.

Last Man Out

Last Man Out
Title Last Man Out PDF eBook
Author H. Robert Charles
Publisher Motorbooks
Pages 250
Release 2006
Genre Burma-Siam Railway
ISBN 9780760328200

Download Last Man Out Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

From June 1942 to October 1943, more than 100,000 Allied POWs who had been forced into slave labor by the Japanese died building the infamous Burma-Thailand Death Railway, an undertaking immortalized in the film "The Bridge on the River Kwai." One of the few who survived was American Marine H. Robert Charles, who describes the ordeal in vivid and harrowing detail in Last Man Out. The story mixes the unimaginable brutality of the camps with the inspiring courage of the men, including a Dutch Colonial Army doctor whose skill and knowledge of the medicinal value of wild jungle herbs saved the lives of hundreds of his fellow POWs, including the author.

Survivor on the River Kwai

Survivor on the River Kwai
Title Survivor on the River Kwai PDF eBook
Author Reg Twigg
Publisher Penguin UK
Pages 330
Release 2013-05-23
Genre History
ISBN 0241965101

Download Survivor on the River Kwai Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Survivor on the River Kwai is the heartbreaking story of Reg Twigg, one of the last men standing from a forgotten war. Called up in 1940, Reg expected to be fighting Germans. Instead, he found himself caught up in the worst military defeat in modern British history - the fall of Singapore to the Japanese. What followed were three years of hell, moving from one camp to another along the Kwai river, building the infamous Burma railway for the all-conquering Japanese Imperial Army. Some prisoners coped with the endless brutality of the code of Bushido by turning to God; others clung to whatever was left of the regimental structure. Reg made the deadly jungle, with its malaria, cholera, swollen rivers, lethal snakes and exhausting heat, work for him. With an ingenuity that is astonishing, he trapped and ate lizards, harvested pumpkins from the canteen rubbish heap and with his homemade razor became camp barber. That Reg survived is testimony to his own courage and determination, his will to beat the alien brutality of camp guards who had nothing but contempt for him and his fellow POWs. He was a risk taker whose survival strategies sometimes bordered on genius. Reg's story is unique. Reg Twigg was born at Wigston (Leicester) barracks on 16 December 1913. He was called up to the Leicestershire Regiment in 1940 but instead of fighting Hitler he was sent to the Far East, stationed at Singapore. When captured by the Japanese, he decided he would do everything to survive. After his repatriation from the Far East, Reg returned to Leicester. With his family he returned to Thailand in 2006, and revisited the sites of the POW camps. Reg died in 2013, at the age of ninety-nine, two weeks before the publication of this book.

Prisoner of Japan

Prisoner of Japan
Title Prisoner of Japan PDF eBook
Author Sir Harold Atcherley
Publisher Mereo Books
Pages 444
Release 2013-04-19
Genre Biography & Autobiography
ISBN 1909304557

Download Prisoner of Japan Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

In the course of the Second World War, more than a quarter of a million European and American soldiers were taken prisoner by the Japanese in Malaysia, the Dutch East Indies and the Pacific. They went on to suffer years of deprivation and brutality, most of them failing to survive at all. Harold Atcherley was fortunate enough to be one of the survivors. Throughout his time as a prisoner, from the fall of Singapore on 15th February 1942 until 14th September 1945, he kept a diary, which he was able to bring home with him. This book is based on that diary, along with other diaries and official documents. The original diary can now be viewed at The Imperial War Museum, London. He was fortunate enough to count among his friends and comrades the celebrated artist Ronald Searle, whose drawings have been used to illustrate his text; they give a far better impression of what life was like for a POW of the Japanese than mere words can, though neither words nor pictures could ever convey the appalling stench of disease and death on such a massive scale.

Railroad of Death

Railroad of Death
Title Railroad of Death PDF eBook
Author John Coast
Publisher
Pages 0
Release 2014-05-13
Genre Prisoners of war
ISBN 9781905802937

Download Railroad of Death Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The original, classic account of the "River Kwai" railway

The Thailand-Burma Railway, 1942-1946: Voluntary accounts

The Thailand-Burma Railway, 1942-1946: Voluntary accounts
Title The Thailand-Burma Railway, 1942-1946: Voluntary accounts PDF eBook
Author Paul H. Kratoska
Publisher Taylor & Francis
Pages 476
Release 2006
Genre History
ISBN 9780415309516

Download The Thailand-Burma Railway, 1942-1946: Voluntary accounts Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The Railway Man

The Railway Man
Title The Railway Man PDF eBook
Author Eric Lomax
Publisher Charnwood
Pages 352
Release 2014
Genre Large type books
ISBN 9781444819854

Download The Railway Man Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

During the Second World War, Eric Lomax was forced to work on the notorious Burma-Siam Railway, and was tortured by the Japanese for making a crude radio. Left emotionally scarred, and unable to form relationships, Lomax suffered for years - until, with the help of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, he came to terms with what had happened. Almost 50 years after the war his life was changed by the discovery that his interrogator, the Japanese interpreter, was still alive; their reconciliation is the culmination of this extraordinary story.