SINGAPORE AND THE THAI RAILWAY EXPERIENCES OF ...

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Now we go on to May 1943
* We were at Wampo, which lies on the Minam (?Menam) Kah Wei river about 50 miles
North West of Kanchanaburi in Thailand. We had arrived on Oct. 27th '42 and the 1,700 in
camp had completed the track of railway for 7 kilometres North and South, including 2 very
long stretches around precipitous cliffs 300 feet high in a sheer drop to the river. I had
worked on both track and bridges and kept well except for a slight attack of malaria in April.
The Nips provided quinine and
18.
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and I very soon recovered. We had a difficult march up to Tarso from Ban Phong, a distance
of 86 kilometres, which took us 5 days. We carried most of our kit, what we left behind was
largely stolen and looted by the POWs that came afterwards - in particular the Argylls, the 9th
Coast Regt. and some Australians. This stealing of our kit placed men in a very difficult
position and it is impossible to forego the contention that the lack of their blankets and those
few tins of Red Cross food we brought from Singapore contributed largely to the heavy death
rate in Thailand. The thieves stole the clothes, mosquito nets, etc., and sold them for high
prices to the Thais. Prices at first were about $10 or rather 10 ticals for a pair of trousers,
about 20 ticals for a blanket. As large quantities
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of clothes were offered for sale the prices of course dropped. The most fortunate of the
POWs to go to Thailand were the Australians. The Nips had told them that as Australia was
taken they would soon be sent back to their homes and it was not till April '43 that they were
brought to Thailand, although 4,000 had gone in May '42 to Burma. Whilst in Singapore they
had the full benefit of the Red Cross supplies from South Africa including, of course, our
share, which was not sent to Thailand. When they arrived in April '43 they were very fit, and
found the British in poor condition as they had already been in the jungle for 6 months. Our
first 6 months at Wampo from Oct. 27th till April '43 were spent in good weather. After the
wet monsoon ended in early Nov., the weather became dry and for six months there was
barely a wet day.
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The nights were cold and the mornings clear and invigorating. In better times with good food
and plenty of clothing and adequate medical supplies the place would have been positively a
health resort. The camp was on the banks of the river and we soon cleared the site of trees
and small bushes and erected attap and bamboo huts. Attap is a thatch of palm leaves, which
was brought up the river in barges. We slept on platforms of crushed bamboo. Mosquitoes
were not common and we slept well. For the first 3 weeks we had very poor food. There was
a small supply of poor quality rice, a little salt and a few snake gourds ( a type of vegetable
marrow). Breakfast was 1 pint of boiled rice pap and plain tea (1 pint). Dinner was 1 pint
boiled rice and marrow stew with salt about 1/2 a pint very thin with 3 or 4 small cubes of
marrow and plain tea. Supper was the same as