thaipics1

The Burma- Thai "Death" Railway

One of perhaps the most tragic events in Australia's relatively short history is World War Two. For nearly three years a group of Allied soldiers were held prisoner in the countries of Thailand, Burma, Malaysia and Singapore. Many of these soldiers had never seen combat before; being shipped to Singapore and Malaya and told to defend the area with primative weapons and no tanks. Obviously Singapore and the surrounding area fell rather quickly to the Japanese army. The Allied Soldiers then became prisoners of war. For a while they were kept in prisons such as Changi, then the Japanese decided that the easiest way for them to transport supplies to Burma would be to build a large railway to link Singapore and Burma. Their labour force became the Allied prisoners and some native labourers. The total workforce included some 30 000 British, 18 000 Dutch, 700 Americans and of course 13 000 Australians.

There is one man who most Australian's associate with this railway, he is Weary Dunlop. But there were so many other men there too. Some of the Western Australian men who worked on the railway now run a tour every year to pass on to today's generation the story of their suffering. This Tour is called The Quiet Lion Tour. In April of 2002 I was lucky enough to set off on this trip to learn about a little piece of Australia's history.

Following are some stories and pictures from my trip, I hope you enjoy them and learn something about the railway, if you would like any information on the trip or anything else feel free to email me at [email protected] I would love to pass on what ever you wish. enjoy

this is a picture of all of the Ex- POW's that went on our trip from l- r, Gordon Roberts, Milton "Snowy" Fairclough, Bill Haskell, Neil MacPherson, John Parker, Ernie Redman, Owen Heron and Walter Holding at Nong Pla Duk Station, one of the stations they went through on their trip up to their worksites

Them again, this time at Ban Pong the beginning of the "Death Railway".