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I ate it, but I've never been through so much pain in all my life. It was like pouring boiling water
down my throat. Otherwise, it was the usual rice and soup, once a day.
'We arrived at Bampong, which was a dreadful place, a dreadful camp. We had to clean it up.
It was filthy. There was excreta and God knows what all over the place. Some other working
parties had been living there, native working parties. All the British and Australian troops were
very strong on
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hygiene. There were areas put aside for latrines. Deep holes were dug, and they were filled in
when we left.
'I was in a hospital hut in Bampong -1 now had tonsilitis - and one of my friends came and said:
"We're going away the day after tomorrow and you're not on the list." So I streaked out of
hospital, went to the major and said: "I've got to go with the boys." He said: "You can't. You're
not well." And I said: "I don't care. Get me out. I want to go." I didn't want to be left behind. He
said: "It can't be done." And I said: "Well, ask somebody who wants to stay behind. I'll go in his
place." "No, no. I won't allow that either." I couldn't do anything about it -1 was left behind.
Actually, five of my unit had to stay behind.
Two or three days later we were sent up to Kanchanaburi [about half way up the railway line
between Bangkok and Konyu, and beside the River Kwai]. There we mainly worked on
shovelling gravel ballast from the side of the river into big open-topped railway trucks. Another
troop train had come up the line by this time, and our group now probably numbered about 300
men. The tonsilitis had gone - it cured itself. The medical orderlies said: "You'll be all right,
mate." They couldn't do much else. There was no point in being sorry for yourself. That didn't
do any good at all.
'We were at Kanchanaburi for about two months. We then entrained up the line, spiking the
sleepers - putting rails on the sleepers and then spiking them. Using big hammers. This was a
very tough job, particularly in the condition we were in by then. We hadn't been eating at all
well, and naturally, as your weight goes down you lose a lot of strength. Trains would bring up
these bogeys - which were just platforms with four wheels and had lines of rails laid on top of
them. The engines would push the bogeys - they'd be at the back. The rails would be run out
onto the sleepers and then spiked, and then they'd throw the bogey onto its side, push it off the
line. So that the next one could be brought up and the next lot of rails be laid. Some bogeys
might drop down a slope for 20 feet or so, and then we had to get them back up and onto the
rails, so that they could be sent back for more, or to bring up the next set of bogeys with rails on
them. There were about 10 pairs of bogeys with rails on them in a set. The sleepers were
usually brought up earlier on a separate train.
'While working on the railway line [which would connect Bangkok to Moulmein in Burma and
thus to Rangoon], we lived in tents. We'd build a sort of camp and work up the line, coming
back to the camp each night. When we'd gone about 15 or 20 km they'd move the tents up,
and so on. The working day varied. The minimum we worked would have been eight or nine
hours, and the maximum about 18. Soup was the basic meal, twice a day, with now and then a
bit of meat in it or some extra vegetables.
'I had hung on to my hat, my slouch hat, but it wore out around the top. So I tore a bit off the
bottom of one of the tents and patched it up. It was still patched when I got back to Singapore
at the end of the war. But I ran out of boots.
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