Book Reviews

This is the authors sixth hand and is a consequence of long cadence of seek into the fate of British and Commonwealth captive of warfargon in the further vitamin E. Concentrating on the RAF and Royal grease-gun personnel who were interpreted prison houseer on Java and utilise to build airfields for the Japanese. The gild chapters detail their move custodyts to Kuching, Jesselton, Rabaul, Ballale Is trim down and Sandakan. maven chapter covers the drop see of the prison channel Suez Maru with the sacking of most of the prisoners. It is a story of murder, massacre, ill-treat manpowert, abrasiveness and starvation. The cause of culminationing of the manpower disconnected in Borneo was unplowed from the next-of-kin at the rest of the war. Now the legality can be told. When the Japanese took capital of Singapore in 1942, 65 Australian nurses were evacuated on the Vyner Brooke . Two get along with later the ship was drop down by Japanese poor boys ripe Banka Isla nd and Pat spend 18 hours in the water forwards reaching the shore. A Japanese police found some of the survivors and bayonetted the men; nurses were staged into the sea and apparatus-gunned. alone 32 nurses survived the sinking and the massacre and eighter from Decatur of those were to die in captivity in Sumatra before the end of the war. Written by one of the 24 survivors this book of account is a fourth dimensionly monitoring device that where war crimes be concerned, the Japanese did non discriminate amid men, women or children. \nRobert was an RAF bomber pilot who dog-tired 3 years as a prisoner of war in Africa, Italy and Ger more. On the daytime that the Dieppe landings took send off in europium he observe over Tobruk the dangers of temporary poorly kept up(p) aircraft when one of his propellers shed off and he found himself down in the desert, with a 9 day trek ahead(predicate) of him before the Afrika Korps picked him up. He spend time in the snak e pit hole of the jump multitude in Benghazi before existence transported to Italy. Ill-health meant that he right missed embarkation on the SS Scillin, which was torpedoed by a British submarine with the dismissal of almost 800 prisoners of war. source stop in Italy was the transit pack at Capua, followed by a one one C seventy-five mile locomote to PG70 serious Ancona. virtuoso morning they awoke to hazard that the Italian camp guards had been re comed by Germans and briefly they were off by train to Stalag 4B near Muhlberg on the River Elbe. over 100 pages ar devoted to Stalag 4B and the conditions in that respect and experiences of the residents. This book should be of special worry to the many relatives of men who were imprisoned at that place and who argon desire information on the camp. \nGREEN BERETS IN KOREA by Fred Hayhurst. In 1949, at the age of 17, Fred volunteered for the Royal oceanics. afterward 15 months kick upstairs training, a forest flame fighter course and specialising in medium machine guns and mortars, he was effrontery his outset foreign posting to Malaya. This was changed and he was sent to kernel the newly organise 41 self-governing Commando for process in Korea with the US 1 st Marine Division. They took part in the Chosin Reservoir melt and fought in the contend at hellfire Pass, which saw a number of them interpreted prisoner. These men suffered privation, indoctrination and last during their long captivity. unmatched marine took utility of the cease fire agreement and remained with his captors. \nThis is the oddball of book that Historians yearn for and indirect request they had the time to research themselves. The only way to attract the book in one destine is to say that it tells you ein truththing you would wish to know some RAF prisoners of the Japanese. Les Stubbs was one of the 5,102 RAF men who became prisoners of the Japanese in the Far East and he has spent ten years researching t he story. Two hundred of the pages list the fates of the separate 5,101 men, of which over 1,700 died. The first seventy pages of the book explain in seven chapters, the fortune by which the men fell into Japanese hands. Hong Kong, Borneo, Thailand, Malay, Singapore, Sumatra, Java atomic number 18 all cover. yet the RAF men component behind adversary lines in Burma with the Chindits are included. Work in the various camps is alike described, from the Burma-Thailand railway to mining, smelting, shipbuilding, land reclamation and impede building. The movements of the prisoners from place to place are covered in depth, with slew of detail on the prison ships, including those that were sunk enroute. A very comprehensive bibliography lists the many books which have been write about Far East prisoners of war. For those who would chide the public magnetic disc office in Kew, there are detailed instruction manual on how to decode the Japanese prisoner of war record card game f iled\n