Reginald Burton - Railway of Hell

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First published in 1963 by Macdonalds
under the title The Road to Three Pagodas

Republished in this revised and extended edition by
LEO COOPER
an imprint of Pen & Swords Books
47 Church Street, Barnsley
S. Yorkshire S70 2AS

Copyright by Reginald Burton 2002

ISBN 0 85052 872 0

ISBN 9781783400492 (epub)

ISBN 9781783400232 (prc)

A catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library

Typeset in 11/13pt Sabon by
Phoenix Typesetting, Ilkley, West Yorkshire

Printed in England by CPI UK

ARMA VIRUMQUE CANO

Virgil, Aeneid

To my fellow prisoners-of-war of all nationalities who suffered captivity in Malaya, Thailand and Burma. To the survivors, especially to my friend John Hayne, and to the memory of those who died, including Alan Woodbridge, my batman.

To the officers and men of the 4th Battalion, the Royal Norfolk Regiment, and in particular to those of D Compnay, this book is also dedicated.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am indebted to Ronald Searle for allowing his drawings to be reproduced in this book, and a brief note of explanation would be appropriate. During captivity, he somehow managed to conjure up drawing and colouring materials. His art and ingenuity made it possible to put on concert parties and shows, providing posters, programmes, sets and backdrops for the stage. His success on his return to civilian life is well deserved. I have still the originals which hang in pride of place on my study walls. I would also like to thank Professor Sears Eldredge of Macalester College, St Paul, U.S.A. for his gift of photos which he took while on a visit, after the war, to the Railway and the River Kwai. Finally I am grateful to Jane Flower, (the official Historian of Japanese Captivity) for all the help and advice she gave me in the preparation of my manuscripts.

FOREWORD

When I originally wrote this book, which then appeared under the title The Road to Three Pagodas, I was a serving officer. I therefore had to submit my manuscript to the War Office for scrutiny and approval. Unfortunately, some of the grimmer aspects of Japanese brutality and atrocity had to be diluted in the original edition. The Staff Officer who interviewed me explained that it was not advisable, in the prevailing spirit of reconciliation, that the book be published as I had written it, since under the circumstances it might be construed as official British Army policy. He mentioned the help that the Japanese had given us in the Korean War. He also mentioned the amount of trade we did with them and how important it was that this should not be adversely affected.

Nevertheless, now that I have retired, I am at liberty to present the truth as it unfolded, without any embellishment or constraint, hence this new edition. I was very grateful to Captain B. H. Liddell Hart for writing to me and giving me encouragement. He was one of our foremost military historians and his history of World War I is still required reading at Sandhurst.

I have made no criticism of the tactical and strategic handling, by Higher Command, of the Battle of Malaya culminating in the Fall of Singapore, except to try to alter the general belief that we outnumbered the Japanese. This may well have been the case on paper, but in terms of actual numbers engaged in fighting we were outnumbered.

When General Percival, our Commander-in-Chief, surrendered to General Yamashita, the Japanese Commander-in-Chief, the latter was completely amazed at the number of non-combatant troops handed over. As Singapore was General Headquarters Far East, there was an enormous establishment of Ancillary Troops, namely Administrative Units, which took no part in the actual fighting. The Japanese Army, by contrast, dispensed with the luxury of large medical supply and maintenance units, and was trained to live off the land and fend for itself.

It was not surprising that the Japanese, who glorified death in battle, were at a complete loss as to how to handle such large numbers of prisoners. This may have accounted in some measure for their contempt, and brutal handling, as it subsequently turned out. This, of course, is no excuse for their behaviour and their continual violation of International Law and the Geneva Convention. I know from my own experience that the British Infantry Regiments fought extremely well. My own D Company of the 4th Battalion The Royal Norfolk Regiment had, at the time of the surrender lost nearly all its officers: three platoon commanders, the company commander and the second-in-command of the company were all battle casualties.

It would seem that when the Japanese forced prisoners to sign forms saying that they would not escape, this culminated in the horrible Selerang Incident. Furthermore, their use of prisoners in war factories, especially for forced labour in building a railway through the dense Thai jungles to Burma to sustain their campaign there, must be always remembered. I feel it is my duty to record these matters faithfully in this new edition, to point out that the brutalization of men incapable of standing up for themselves is hardly in keeping with Bushido, the accepted Japanese code of honour. Those few who retaliated did so in certain knowledge of death by decapitation or torture.

Chapter 1

THE OUTBREAK OF WORLD WAR II 19391941

At the outbreak of war in September 1939 I was a Junior Officer serving with my Regiment, the 1st Battalion The Royal Norfolk Regiment, in Bangalore, Southern India. Known as the Garden City of India, it was situated in Mysore State where the Maharajah was a beneficent autocrat, very loyal to the British Raj. The general atmosphere of the place was most congenial, as was the attitude of its people.

The war in Europe seemed a very long way off, and we read of the Fall of France and the Dunkirk Evacuation with a feeling of foreboding. At that time we were mostly engaged in Platoon, Company, and Battalion Training and exercises. As the British Battalion in the Mysore State we were primarily responsible for internal security and crowd control when necessary. This was put to the test whenever we were visited by the political dignitaries of the Indian Congress Party. They included such VIPs as Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and Bose, to name but a few. It was a difficult time, as they were demanding Home Rule (Swah Raj), which we agreed must come eventually, but at the time it would have been impossible since we were in the shadow of a global war. This was brought home to most when Japan entered the conflict and subsequently arrived at the gateways to India.

Eventually the invasion of Britain became a very strong possibility. It was in the summer of 1940 that we, along with eight other Infantry Regiments, left India for England to bolster up the meagre resources. Although the miracle of Dunkirk had extricated most of our men we had lost all our heavy equipment, vehicles, artillery and armour.

Upon our arrival in England the Battalion was posted to the 20th Independent Guards Brigade, consisting of ourselves, the 2nd Irish Guards and the 2nd Welsh Guards. Our job was to defend most of the outer boundary of South London in the area of Croydon, and the operation was code-named Brown Line.

One evening in September 1940 I was Orderly Officer on duty when I received the code-word CROMWELL from Brigade Headquarters, which meant that invasion was imminent. We immediately rushed to our prepared positions and stood to for seventy-six hours. Apparently, as we were to learn afterwards, the Germans were rehearsing for the invasion in barges in the Calais area and the RAF had rather hindered their exercises.

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