Robert Percy Edmunds was my father. During the Second World War he was a prisoner of the Japanese. In his own words, this is his experience:
I Was There
The War Time Experiences of a Prisoner of War
By Bob Edmunds
Part One
In January 1941 to avoid conscription and the Army I volunteered, with two others, for the R.A.F. One chap was ex-Grammar school, the other a Baker, both were accepted at the interview. When I entered I was asked at once "What education have you had?" The interviewer had not heard of "Donhead High", so pressing a bell, he said "The army for you". After I objected to his hasty method of selection he gave me a spelling test, changed his mind and I joined the R.A.F!
I arrived In Blackpool in May 1941, they gave me my uniform and dressed to kill, I soon found out there was already 30,000 others in the town with the same feeling of importance, after all, the posters said "Your Country Needs You". It didn't take me long to learn a few lessons, the first night in billets I left my small change in the bedside cabinet. Next morning after breakfast it was gone! Lesson no. 1 - be careful who you trust!
During our training we had to march past Lord Derby, great coats and rolled capes were the order of the day to be worn. The said gentleman was 2 and a half hours late, can you imagine standing in thick great-coats in a heatwave on Blackpool promenade? Lesson no. 2 - there were plenty of other idiots, not I might add, "country swedes"!
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| Dad is on the right |
After mid-June I spent a month at Cranwell learning how to operate Britain's latest secret weapon, Radar. In August it was down to real work, tracking aircraft in Devon. On returning from leave early in September I was put on Overseas draft to take the place of someone who they could not contact, so after 4 months I was supposedly trained and ready to defend some faraway place! Lesson no. 3 - experience didn't count, anyone would do to make up the numbers.
From then on I did nothing until December 8th when we sailed down the Clyde on the "Atlantic Castle" a large liner used for trade to South Africa. This was the day after the attack on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese.
We sailed north-west, the sea full of ships as far as the eye could see, a wonderful sight. After some days we turned South parallel with the American coast, then East, finding ourselves in Freetown, W. Africa on Christmas Day
Our kit suggested we were going to the Middle East, but at Durban we changed ships. This time it was the "City of Canterbury", in a filthy condition after carrying Italian prisoners. This change brought trouble and about 180 of our ranks were arrested and charged with mutiny!
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City of Canterbury, the ship on which
my father sailed to war |
Our next destination was Rangoon, and by this time the Japs were on the Burmese border and all was not well in Malaya. At this time the Australian Government had complained that Britain was not doing enough to defend Singapore, in fact they suggested that Churchill had already decided to give it up, so in an effort to placate the Australians we were diverted to Singapore.
Every morning at around 10 a.m. the sun would be in line with the entrance to the harbour and it was a good shield for the Japanese aircraft who came every day at that time to bomb anything and everything. There was in our convey three ships with about 4,000 men, the cruiser "Exeter", light cruiser "Emerald" and one other naval ship to protect us. Needless to say we arrived off Singapore about 10 a.m., and out of the sun came the Japs. Every ship had casualties, the "Empress of Asia" sank, but around 2,000 were rescued. When all was quiet the Harbour Master came out to meet us, saying "Who sent you here?" - not his exact words! - "we have too many to feed and water already".
We unloaded from the holds a large gun base, badly needed. eveything the Services required was piled high on the docks, next day the Japs destroyed it all. the gun base was too heavy to be lifted as the dock workers were on strike at the time - what a waste!
From it all I gathered that the left hand of those in control didn't know what the right hand was doing. The party had gone on too long, the good life had ended, and when they opened their eyes they found the jungle planned to be their defense had helped the Japanese, who were at the gates across the Causeway ...
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Empress of Asia sinking after being attacked by
Japanese dive bombers on 5th February 1942 |
Part Two
It was the 5th February 1942 that I found myself in Keppel Harbour, Singapore with 4,000 or more other servicemen who, as we surveyed the chaos all around, knew at once our position was far from good, in fact, hopeless. I had always understood Singapore was a fortress able to withstand any attack. How the picture had changed, the British Forces had withdrawn from the mainland some six days before, so with the water supply in enemy hands and the oil tanks ablaze, all hope had gone and it showed on the faces of everyone we met on the docks.
After we had unloaded the ship we did an about-turn and sailed back down the Straits, toward what we all hoped would be Australia. We had been joined by about 200 Australian soldiers who could see the danger of the Japanese advance and wanted to return to defend their homeland. We eventually arrived in the port of Batavaria (now Jakarta) in Java, then a Dutch colony. I had heard of it in my school days, rich in oil, coffee, rubber, sugar, tea, quinine, to name just a few of its exports; it had a variation in climate, was near the Equator - all this I remembered, but I was soon to learn much more over the next four weeks.
When we pulled alongside the dock our officer called us together, a Radar draft of about 40 men. He said "You are now in Java and quite safe from attack for some time to come". We came ashore with our kit, lined on the dock ready to march off. Within minutes we were diving for cover from Japanese aircraft! - so much for our officer's observations.
We spent some time moving around Java, the scenery I shall always remember. Eventually twelve of us were sent to Sitoebondoe, where we were joined by three Aussies, (two radar meachanics and an Officer). We were to set up an American mobile unit advised by two Americans, who then left in a hurry, hoping to get away from Java aboard a submarine. On starting operations we found the barrel of fuel given to us by the Dutch Army contained tar as well as diesel fuel so we were u/s. The equipment was cleared, more fuel obtained, and at last we had information to pass on to H.Q. We failed to get an answer and after many attempts a Dutchman came on the line and said everyone had gone, General Wavell had left some days earlier, and it was now every man for himself.
Our first job was to destroy our equipment and prepare to join the local army group and move to the mountains to "fight in the hills". As yet we had not seen a single rifle, we were given an old Buick tourer, a van with solid tyres, and another old car. We arrived at what was to be our camp in the mountains, a coffee plantation, my bed being on the griddle that selected the beans. Next day, as it was necessary to keep fit, we were ordered on a route march, (we were now under Dutch command). We led the march, still with no weapons, and as we could see a road above us we decided we were sitting targets. When we returned we heard all Allied troops had surrendered and that the Japanese had taken the island.
After some discussion twelve of us told the officers we were going to make for the coast, we were joined by two Dutchmen and given a lorry with some supplies, the old Buick and 20,000 guilders. We also had two machine-guns and set off for the coast, an exciting journey speeding through the night, not knowing where the enemy was now!
On arriving at a coastal town we found an 18-foot sailing boat, we purchased an outboard motor and a small boat to hold our supplies; we hoped to reach Australia across the Timor Sea. At this point we were told that an Australian business man had left his yacht at a port some 200 miles down the coast, in sight of Bali, so once more we moved on. We came to Banjawangi in the early morning and discovered a Cable and Wireless booster station, where the Manager made us very welcome.We found the boat, the diesel engine needed some attention. Meanwhile the Japanese had made all Allied Commanding Officers responsible - on their lives - for handing over all troops in their area, so an armed guard was placed to stop us leaving. It was now the middle of March, we had been joined by two soldiers, and after talking over the situation it was decided eight should return to the the sailing boat, the maximum we thought it would take. Two friends and I said we would stay, the others cast lots who should go, they left with the motor transport at once ...
Part Three
After the eight men had left us to go back to the sailing boat our host at the Cable & Wireless station, knowing that time was short, had called on two coffee planters to come and advise us. They were willing to help us, but as the natives would have sold us out for the smallest reward, we thought it unfair to also put them in danger.
Our next move was to the quayside where we offered a Javanese fisherman 1000 guilders to take us to Australia. As this was a fortune to him he found it hard to say "No" - but in the end that was his answer, so we were back to "square 1".
The next morning we were awakened by excitement and commotion outside, and quite early we were called upon to parade by the local Dutch officer in charge. We soon found that the Japanese had arrived when they took charge and lined us up with our backs to the wall in front of an armed guard. We all thought our time was up, but after standing for a couple of hours we were put in the back of a lorry, joining a convoy on our way through the mountains to a prison camp. It was late on the second day when we arrived at Malang, a large town in Central Java, where we parked in a large open area with army vehicles as far as the eye could see, a sad sight. The Japanese troops had used bicycles for transport when they landed and moved quickly under all conditions. Our prison camp was in an Army barracks surrounded by mountains, some volcanic, and although near the Equator, the heat of the day was similar to a hot June day, due to the height above sea level.
At first things went along quite quietly but gradually they "turned the screw" and made it difficult for us. First the British were interrogated, I was accompanied by the Dutch C.O. When the Jap. Officer said "if you don't tell me the truth I will shoot you", the C.O. said, "take no notice of the silly so-and-so, tell him anything that comes into your head". We were then given a form to fill in, mostly questions, one being "what would you like to do now?" We all answered "Go home". One morning early we had to parade on the football ground for an inspection by a Japanese General. The word went around that they were taking our clothes away, leaving only what we stood in, so we paraded dressed in two each of whatever we possessed. The General was late, the sun was very hot and I think we lost pounds that day! At last he arrived, "knee-high to a duck, the seat of his trousers wiped out his foot marks, his sword tickled his armpit, and the peak of his cap rested on his nose." How ever could they have come so far so fast - it didn't do a lot for our morale.
On the first morning of working parades while the Jap. sergeant was using his bead-board to count, my friend and I slipped away from the end of the row and back into camp. It meant we spent the day avoiding patrols, it was never worth it, so after that we would have to use other methods to avoid helping with the war effort.
As time passed we were joined by other British soldiers as they left the local hospital. Before the Japs. landed a troop train carrying the 77th A.A. Reg. (mostly Territorials from S. Wales) was in a collision with a train pulling oil tanks on a single track, resulting in at least 50 killed and many injured, the latter now gradually increasing our numbers.
During the next months we lived o a knife edge, four Dutchmen were executed, first having to dig their own graves, the penalty for escaping. We had to patrol inside the wire fence to prevent others from getting away. Many prisoners were punished by the "Dripping Tap", - shut in a cell with nothing to drink, but in earshot of a dripping water-tap; and there were many other similar tortures.
At the beginning of 1943 we were moved to Batavia, a camp occupied by all British Army and Air Force, as well as Royal Naval survivors from the Battle of the Java Sea. It was good to be with our own again, as here we could hold church services, around an altar built by our troops. At this time the Jap. C.O. was a Christian, - he soon moved on, probably because of his religion.
By this time we were getting to know what to expect from our captors, but little did we know why we had been brought here and what they had in store for us. The road ahead was that which no other British troops had trod before ...
To Be Continued
