Anzac Day Address 2006

By Neil MacPherson

Two separate groups of prisoners worked on the Railway, I was one of 11,000 prisoners sent to Burma in Hell Ships, and another group of 50,000 were transported to Thailand by rail. The Burma Force worked through from Thanbyuzayat at the northern end to where the rails were joined on 23rd October 1943, some152 kilometres from where construction started

On the 26th October 1942 as we were commencing work in Burma, Colonel Toosey and his group arrived at Tamarkan from Singapore to commence work building the two bridges here over the River Kwai, one still in use today.

Much discussion surrounds the lower death rate of workers in Burma compared to Thailand, and this, despite the fact that most of the Burma prisoners worked for a longer period and were exposed to the same and in some cases worse conditions

It may be of interest to note that the Burma Force were generally made up of a much fitter, younger and more resilient force, the reason was their early selection before POW life took its toll. Most Burma prisoners were front line troops; their Force commanders were highly experienced, and all from front line units. Lt Colonels, Anderson VC, 2/19th, Lt Colonel Ramsay 2/30th, Major Green 2/4th Machine Gunners, and from Java, our Tobruk veteran, Lt Colonel Williams, 2/2nd Pioneers, and Lt Colonel Black of the 4th Reserve Motor Transport.

Dunlop Force from Java, the first Australians to go to Thailand were also an elite group of front line troops, in contrast by the time the main Thai force was selected in March and April 1943 the available pool had diminished. Many of the POWs sent to Thailand in this period were sick, elderly, head quarter staff, and non combatants, the 7000 in F. Force included 2000 sick men. To make up numbers one party was even made up solely of junior officers who had to work as labourers.

The Burma Force consisted of, 5000 Australians, 500 British, 650 Americans, and 4600 Dutch. Only 3000 of the Burma Force came from Singapore, the rest of us came from Java and Sumatra, most of these men laboured for 15 long months. Unlike the Thailand parties who mainly worked from static camps during the construction, the Burma parties were nomadic, moving from camp to camp along the 145 kilometres of railway.

On many occasions after working all day they were forced to carry their few possessions and march in the darkness to the next work camp. With little sleep they were back working on the railway next day, but despite these terrible times the Aussie pride, sense of humour and the inevitable chiackings between the services was always there. Taking the Mickey out of the Japanese Engineers and Guards was a daily challenge and resulted in moral lifting satisfaction

In Burma, Williams Force of 800 men was made up of 450 of us Pioneers from the Middle East, the rest mainly young sailors, survivors of HMAS Perth. Our officers had been in action in Syria and Java so they were held in high esteem by us Pioneers. Moral was high and a junior officer accompanied every work party and regularly interceded between the guards and the men and often paid the price.

In Burma we experienced different conditions to Thailand, mainly thick almost impenetrable jungle, no established roads, so supplies were erratic and unlike Thailand no native villages with which to trade. In the wet the only track became a quagmire, made worse by the thousands of Japanese troops moving up to the Indian front. Groups of 50 Japanese soldiers roped together like pack animals dragging their mountain guns along through the thick mud without a protest.

When the wet season broke, we had already been working for 9 months, conditions worsened, lack of adequate food, long hours of work, tropical diseases soon took hold, with no drugs what so ever, weakened men soon succumbed to the ravages of these diseases, deaths became a daily occurrence

Malaria, dysentery, beri beri, pellagra, tinea, tropical ulcers, smallpox and finally cholera took its toll, as the numbers fell so the work hours grew, driven by the ceaseless demands of Speedo, and the brutality of the Korean guards.

Finally in January 1944 us survivors, ragged skeletons, were finally evacuated from our jungle camps and transported to Thailand, most of us came here to Tamarkan, and Kanchanaburi.

Looking back on those years, us few remaining survivors, many of us still in our teens when captured, can see the positives that came from our experiences, we remember the bonds that were forged and the wonderful mateship that kept many of us alive during those terrible times. We remember with sadness and fondness the mates that did not survive; the Doctors and the Medical people that made the difference between survival and death.

“No prisoner on the railway survived who did not have a mate” I can best illustrate that special mate ship between Australian POWs by reciting a poem written many years later by an Australian ex POW, Duncan Butler 2/12th Field Ambulance.

Mates Poem

I’ve travelled down some lonely roads
Both crooked tracks and straight
An’ I’ve learned life’s noblest creed
Summed up in one word “Mate”

I’m thinking back across the years,
(A thing I do of late)
An’ this word sticks between my ears
You’ve got to have a mate

Someone who’ll take you as you are.
Regardless of your state
An’ stand as firm as Ayers Rock
Because “e” is your mate

Me mind goes back to 43,
To slavery an’ ate,
When man’s one chance to stay alive
Depended on ‘is mate.

With bamboo for a billie-can
An’ bamboo for a plate,
A bamboo paradise for bugs,
Was bed for me and me mate.

You’d slip and slither through the mud An’ curse your rotten fate:
But then you’d hear a quiet word:
“Don’t drop your bundle mate.

An’ though it’s all so long ago
This truth I ave to state:
A man don’t know what lonely means,
Til ‘e as lost is mate

If there’s a life that follers this,
If there’s a “Golden Gate”
The welcome that I want to hear
Is just: “Good on y mate”

An so to all who ask us why
We keep these special Dates
Like Anzac day, I answer: “Why”
We’re thinking of our mates”

An when I’ve left the drivers seat
An handed in my plates,
I’ll tell old Peter at the door:
“Ive come to join me MATES”