Charles Kappe - The Death Railway: The Personal Account of Lieutenant Colonel Kappe on the Thai-Burma Railroad

The Death Railway

The Personal Account of Lieutenant Colonel Kappe on the Thai-Burma Railroad

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Kappe OBE, PSC, AMICE

THE DEATH RAILWAY

The Personal Account of Lieutenant Colonel Kappe on the Thai-Burma Railroad

This edition published in 2021 by Frontline Books,

an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd,

47 Church Street, Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, S70 2AS,

The right of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Kappe to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved.

Text alterations and additions Frontline Books

ISBN: 978-1-39901-777-0

epub ISBN: 978-1-39901-778-7

Mobi ISBN: 978-1-39901-778-7

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Both Part I and Part II are reproduced in the form that they were originally written. Aside from correcting obvious spelling mistakes or typographical errors, we have strived to keep the edits and alterations to the absolute minimum.

T his report is designed to provide an authoritative account of the activities of 3,662 A.I.F. Prisoners of War, who, together with an almost similar number of British prisoners, were sent to Thailand by the Imperial Japanese Army in April 1943. It will be remembered that the Malayan Campaign had terminated on 16th February, 1942 with the capitulation of Singapore. From April of that year various groups of prisoners had been despatched to Burma, Borneo and Japan, but as none of these forces had returned to the prison camp in Singapore at the time of writing of this report a comparison with the treatment meted out to them is impracticable. Suffice it to say that to the best of the belief of the narrators the barbarism to which the force sent to Thailand was subjected has never been equalled in the history of any members of the Australian Imperial Forces.

The purposes to which this report may be put at a later date are not known, and to this extent the compilers are handicapped in that they may fail to place sufficient emphasis on aspects which may become of particular importance in the future. They have endeavoured, however, to record faithfully and accurately all the events, good or bad, which occurred during the eight months the Force was absent from Singapore. Both the compilers were members of the Force and were either in immediate contact with the commanders of the various groups and the

I.J.A. [Imperial Japanese Army] Guard, or witnessed the conditions and happenings recorded Lt-Col. C.H. Kappe, as Commander of the A.I.F. troops throughout the period, was in direct personal contact with the I.J.A. Commanders in practically all the camps and thus had personal experience of all phases of camp administration and control; while Capt. A.H. Curlewis, as a workman, daily accompanied the men to work and gained first-hand knowledge of working conditions on the road. This report is based on the personal experiences and first-hand knowledge of these Officers, reports furnished by Battalion Commanders