Len Baynes - The Will to Live : a japanese POWs Memoir of Captivity and The Railway.

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First published in Great Britain by
PEN AND SWORD MILITARY
an imprint of
Pen and Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire S70 2AS

Copyright Len Baynes, 2013

ISBN 978 1 78159 300 4
PDF ISBN: 978 1 47382 917 6
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 47382 831 5
PRC ISBN: 978 1 47382 874 2

The right of Len Baynes to be identified
as the author of this work has been asserted by him
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying,
recording or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Printed and bound in England by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

Typeset in Times by CHIC GRAPHICS

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of
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For a complete list of Pen and Sword titles please contact
Pen and Sword Books Limited
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Contents

Foreword

A terrifyingly authentic document that brought back much too vividly (for me) the miseries of those years of captivity under the Japanese. Len Baynes has added some fine detail to the memorial honouring those who were not so fortunate as we, and did not survive to tell the tale a tale of suffering, courage and soldierly cunning, in the face of medieval, oriental cruelty.

RONALD SEARLE

The author would like to thank
Dr John Hudson, Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge,
for editing this work

Chapter 1

How it Began

B ritain disarmed during the thirties, our pacific government deciding to rely on the League of Nations, with what was called Collective Security. Meanwhile, Germany was re-arming fast. Hitler and Mussolini joined forces, forming the Axis, and Hitler later made a non-aggression pact with Stalin. Too late, only a couple of years before war was declared, we decided to re-arm, but without putting the nation on a war footing.

After war broke out in late 1939 we sent all our available forces to help France defend her borders (the Maginot Line) against the anticipated German assault and began all-out re-arming. For several months Hitler consolidated his gains in Poland and Czechoslovakia during what was called the Phoney War. Then he quickly conquered the Low Countries, which left the Allies flank exposed. The French army rapidly collapsed, and after retreating, leaving our flank exposed, they capitulated. Later, in our weakened state, Japan was to take the opportunity to attack, and as we had disbanded our Far Eastern Fleet, we could no longer defend our Far Eastern empire. In France we were left with only one stratagem: to get out of the country as quickly as possible in order to be able to fight another day. This entailed a rearguard action against the quick-moving Panzer divisions across the whole of France, to Dunkirk.

As our troops in France neared the Channel, Britain called for every available ship and boat to assemble on the south coast, ready to cross over and evacuate our troops when they reached Dunkirk. They came in their thousands, from small launches to trawlers. When the day came for the rescue, the bad weather eased long enough for them to cross. Many were sunk by air attack, but the majority of our men were saved, although most of their equipment and weaponry was lost.

Collective Security had failed. Britain and its Commonwealth faced the world alone, its factories, towns and cities devastated by the overwhelming superiority of the Axis air forces. Ships bringing supplies of food and equipment were sunk by the enemy submarine fleet. Our forces in North Africa were being pushed back by Rommel and the Italians, as we could not supply them from the sea. That was when Churchill made his presence felt with his famous We shall fight them on the beaches speech.

After that Britain really got its nose to the grindstone. Our wooden Hurricane fighters parts were made in cottage workshops all over the country; metal Spitfire parts were made in every car factory and engineering works. Ford turned over its workshops to producing Rolls Royce Merlin engines, the finest aircraft engines in the world. A time came when in the Battle of Britain the Luftwaffe found it was losing its bombers to the Hurricanes and Spitfires faster than it could make them, and the worst of the Blitz was over.

However, it was then that Churchill decided to form an lite force of well armed and equipped men to raid German strong points on the French coast. Thus were the Independent Companies formed, and I was one of the first volunteers, bored by the Phoney War. We were No.11 Independent Company, stationed in the Dell football ground, Southampton, under canvas. The company was issued with Thompson sub-machine guns (tommy guns), compasses, and other more sophisticated equipment, but there were not enough to go round.

My officer, Captain Cannon (Bang Bang), was a wide boy, and after dark he sent me to pinch what we were missing from the next tent, for two or three nights. That company was run by Captain Hockey from my own town (a fine officer, later to be killed in battle by the Japanese). One night he was heard to shout, Pinched by Snowie Baynes [I have white hair] and his forty fing thieves!

We were being trained to row whaleboats by naval officers. The idea was to take us most of the way by ship, then drop us half a mile from the French coast, from where we were to row silently and land to surprise the enemy. One night we were loaded on to a warship, but just as we were about to leave, word came through that hundreds of German landing craft on the French coast had been observed removing their camouflage ready to invade. We disembarked, and amalgamated with other Independent Companies, to form No.1 Commando, and were rapidly moved to Cornwall, until then undefended; but that is another story.

*

Our bacon was of course saved by President Roosevelt, who instituted Lend Lease (buy now, pay later), under which he supplied us with armaments and food. The Japanese then (without declaring war) attacked Pearl Harbour. That finally brought the mighty USA completely into the war; then victory, in the long run, was no longer in doubt. Christians believe that the hand of God was behind our victory.

Chapter 2

A Very Important Job

H ere I digress, and return to the time when part of our Territorial company was mobilised a week before war was declared. Equipped with second-hand uniforms, rifles and ammo from the 1914 Great War, a part of A Company 1st Battalion the Cambridgeshire Regiment was mobilised and posted to RAF Duxford. I was one of that party, then twenty years of age and a part-time private soldier, having been in the Terriers for somewhat less than a year.

This all took place at very short notice. It appears that some brilliant researcher at the War Office had uncovered the fact that Duxford, a key RAF station, involved in the defence of the country and the training depot for Spitfire pilots, was without ground defence or ack-ack on the base. Had Jerry been aware of this, parachutists could have been dropped to take the drome, then thousands of troops could have landed to take the thinly defended whole of East Anglia.

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