Bill Flowers' Burma Railway War Story

one of the great reasons it probably worked is because when Bill came home he was what 21 21 22 and I just left school and I was 15 and a half a much older man he grew down and I grew up [Music] as I said he was not long home from the war I was just out of school so with that had been in 1945 or 46 45 so he literally he was off the just off the boat yep dead so Dad enlisted he started with the second 30th Battalion of the eighth eighth division from what I understand that division was originally planned to be deployed in the Middle East but as war with Japan was it was looming the eighth division was deployed in to Singapore um and December 1941 I think war war was declared with with Japan um but the eighth division had already been deployed to Singapore before that in in August 1941. so dad was in Singapore from August August 1941 I think um we know that he managed to make a number of uh friends with the locals including some uh fairly senior figures the salt the Sultan of Johor I think was what someone God knows how he met how he met the Sultan of Johor but but Dad always had a way of making friends with people indeed very true they had a great job they did I don't think they thought anything was going to happen well he just he'll just said they were looking for them to come the way they did nobody could you know nobody kind of believed it was going to happen [Music] in December 1941 Japan strikes suddenly and without warning in a great Arc from Pearl Harbor to Malaya Dawn on December 8th the invasion of Malaya begins the Japanese had landed at singora and patani in Thailand and kotobaru in Malaya only two roads LED South to Singapore the Japanese Advanced 700 miles in 55 days and the Defenders fell back before them this is like an article from a prescription probably the youngest Australian soldier who operated as a gorilla to hold the Japanese lines in Malaya his private William flowers of Kensington Sydney dad and this group Rose Force which had been constituted by volunteers from from a number of units in in Malaya we're actually behind many Enemy Lines at the end of 41 from about the 23rd 22nd of December two volunteers were sent back on bicycles to try and get through to the Loyals with the information we had gained that was Sergeant Donaldson and private flowers WR the work that these two men did was very noteworthy as they had to negotiate eight to nine miles of Road along which the enemy was expected at any moment in fact the historic thing about about Rose forces that they were deployed into Malaya and they were the first Australian forces to be in action with with the Japanese and in fact but managed to then Ambush a pretty significant Japanese Convoy with some Feeling High rating Japanese Japanese officers and I think they they came under fairly heavy fire once they were discovered dad so Dad he was transferred to the second 29th and that Battalion was made up of a guys out of out of Victoria [Music] the end is near it wasn't very long that the Allied Forces surrendered Singapore that surrender was this most significant surrender in British military history the surrender of Singapore and that's at that time then dad officially became a prisoner or a prisoner of war wasn't Australians a long night of a brutal captivity Falls they were herded into Changi barracks on Singapore Island at first the rations weren't too bad the time came when the only food they got each day was less than eight ounces of rice and four ounces of vegetables they became weak and emaciated yet Changi wasn't the worst thousands of Australians beaten tortured starved were forced to work on the Burma Siam death Railway and 2 900 died in building it dad he was interned in Changi in Changi prison with thousands of both Australian and British military dad did write back I think three letters and we've got those letters you couldn't really call them a letter like dear mum and dad doing well don't worry uh see you soon flowers w-r-n-x37701 private second of July 1942. dearest mother health food and conditions good unwounded still with Lloyd so don't worry tell all my friends your loving son Bill flowers but then unfortunately the Japanese in order to sustain their troops throughout Asia were building a railway uh between um Thailand and Burma and they they decided to utilize labor from the from Changi prison in April 1943 a group known as Air Force was put together which was basically a number of thousands of money British and Australian prisons of War turned onto a train and they traveled over five days from from Singapore to a place called band Paul I heard they were very crammed very hot I don't think they got much food and I don't think sanitary Arrangements were all that good they were going to somewhere better they were told was going to be better than being in chain and they took five days heard it in like cattle into these into these Railway trailers and when they arrived they then uh were taken off off the train and um uh were marched head to March 180 miles to then be placed in various camps along along the railway line where they would proceed to construct the railway line they marched at 180 miles in 10 days but they had to March at night it was um it was the wet season there was torrential rain um I had to carry all their own supplies I had to carry this people that were sick they had limited limited food rations you know the conditions are obviously horrific yeah so it's pretty tough pretty tough environment and um yeah and I and from what I understand they deployed various numbers of the troops at various camps along the way probably unfortunately for Dad the Air Force was allocated the furthest away the furthest North up towards the border with Burma which meant they had to track the furthest 3 600 Australians left changing with Air Force and 1438 did not return dad worked with the ponds Party named after Lieutenant Colonel Pond who commanded the 29th which detached from Air Force to work on Bridges and Road constructions at various locations in the region of coita and far Canon the survivors joined Air Force at soccer eye later in the in the year but a particularly a rough time actually now those camps don't exist any any more they haven't created a lake um but yeah from all from all the descriptions of what they had to endure it was pretty uh pretty horrific it was very very tough conditions there very tough I mean they were were shoveling dirt and rock and with almost no tools and made to work very very long shifts on very very poor rations of only rice as far as I can get that was starving I mean horrible horrible no big weight at night and they'd never get dry because of the tropical rain and they didn't have any decent clothes they didn't have any decent shoes I think it's a miracle he survived with his mind as as bright as it was in the Railway Museum at kanchan Buri there's an inscription which recognizes the fact that the Air Force had by far the most terrific set of circumstances of all the people that worked on that Railway because the conditions that they had to had to put up with in getting and getting to the camps and then once they're in the camps because they were furthest away they had the least access to medical supplies [Music] heartless day [Music] God is he did have ulcers in his legs yeah well he did suffer from malaria at home yeah it had a distant bug him at night there was hookworm too I know yeah he never told me of any torture that that had happened to him no never I've heard of beatings and Bill never said that he was beaten but he he spoke a bit disparagingly about the Koreans uh well then he said you know well but they were probably under orders too but he thought they were um quite quite cruel yeah it was clearly a very horrific experience the railway was that was then completed um was about 415 kilometers in in length and I think of that Air Force there were approximately nine thousand um uh Paws that constituted Air Force and over two and a half thousand of those nine thousand I I didn't make it and of course there's a particular stretch of of that Railway which is commemorated now is known as Hellfire pass which was particularly difficult difficult terrain which is also horrific circumstances and I think the thing that struck me the most were the two things that struck me firstly when I walked in the interpretive Center along all the way with just um names of all the people that had passed away it was pretty uh it's pretty um emotional experience and likewise at the uh at the War Cemetery to see uh just thousands of people who just have guys young age who gave their lives to their country and yeah never made it back [Music] Stan O'Neill arrived back at Changi in a truck on the 21st of December 1943. I can still hear the squeal of the brakes as the trucks lined up and the people from Cheney had come over to see us they knew we were coming and looked for new friends our friends and see how we were and we've got out of the trucks a couple of days [Music] Underground and we lined up now or you are not ashamed because we were soldiers and we wanted to look like soldiers the paper from Cherry still back aghast and Johnson was I will have left Jack Gilligan I said oh it's second 30th all president correct a relevant said aware of the wrist he said there is a black joke it was incredible scene where you wanted to show them so we were soldiers [Music] WR flowers private the second 29th Battalion 21st of December 1943. dear Mom I'm well don't worry still with Lloyd love to Jeanette and all at home hope all are well received seven letters built it would have been really tough for his family back here I can't believe how tough it must have been for me I mean not not knowing what was going on but yeah and so he he didn't really talk about it but obviously the experience was there were would have been traumatic and now at last after the terrible years their own loved land their homeless they're Australia they are welcomed with putting relief with effect and with pride too well they had faced with honor a Sterner test of manhood than any other Australian soldiers were called on to meet [Music] [Music] it's good to be in uniform again along with a heart-wrenching anxieties are ended now there's a future to look forward to again [Music] when bill came home I think he weighed Seven Stone which is not much he spent quite a deal of time in in Concord Hospital when he first came home quite a deal of time there he was a gunshot I wounded him but he was he was his mind was wounded I think you can't see what that's sort of thing and you can't work like he would have worked on that Railway you can't live amongst all that uh torture evil uh bastardry and not not be touched by it you can't I think it's a miracle he survived with his mind as as bright as it was he seemed to be able to sometimes forget it I think and just get on and try not to think about it and I don't think Bill never went to Anzac Day do you know that never ever he do he'd just say I wish it was over so now every April I [ __ ] on me watch the parade and I see me I'll come rest yeah and they all men March slowly all bones different soil tired all heroes from a forgotten War the young people love you and I imagine [Music] but the band plays Waltzing Matilda and the old man will answer the call but his year follows you for all them disappeared [Music] don't seem to you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you

Channel: Theo Clark Media

Views: 8,504

Keywords: Changi, World War Two, Pacific War, Prisoners of War, POW, Burma Railway, Australians in WW2, Gary Flowers, Rose Force, Burma-Thai Railway, Shimo Songkurai, WW2, Second World War, Australia at War, PTSD

Id: fchbRY5qsZw

Length: 18min 45sec (1125 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 22 2023