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Burma-Thailand railway

Japan had rapidly conquered Malaya and Burma, but such rapid expansion gave it problems with its supply chain. To get weapons, food etc from Japan to support its efforts in Burma the only way was to take it by sea around the Malay peninsula, which was still vulnerable to British submarines. In May 1942 they decided to cut the time at sea by joining existing railways in Burma to those in Malaya and Bankok by building 419 km of new railway using POW and forced Asian labour.

Map c/o Wikipedia

W.wolny - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=167762

Edwin and Arthur both worked on these parts of the railway. Click on the map to see the original at www.cofepow.org.uk

18 June 1942 Edwin Charles 813 #038 was moved to Ban Pong in a party of 600. 3000 were moved at that time from Changi to Ban Pong.

2 August 1942 Arthur William 4194 #038 was moved to Nong Pladuck and stayed there until 28 April 1945.

From Singapore 1000km to the south, they were packed into metal boxcar trains with little food and no sanitation, so their journeys would have been terrible. Even more POWs especially Australians, were taken to Burma and worked from that end coming south.

Edwin moved camps 9 times. This table shows the details from his post-war interview. The Summary is a link to the ‘Britain At War’ website which gives you a better understanding of life for each camp.

Sources:

WW2 POWs - Burma Railway

Next page Next page

Camp or Hospital	From - To	Summary
Changi	17/2/42 -14/3/42	Main POW camp
River Valley Road Singapore	25/6/42 -16/9/42	Small outpost of Changi
Changi	12/5/42 -25/6/42
Ban Pong	25/6/42 -16/9/42	First point on Burma Railway
Chunkai	16/9/42 -12/11/42	057km Work camp inc hospital
Wang Lan	12/11/42-20/12/42	069km
Wun Tha Kilen	30/12/42-12/2/43	098km
Tamakan	12/2/43 -23/11/43	055km River Kwai bridge
Chunkai	23/11/43-10/5/44
Nakom Pathom	10/5/44-14/8/45	Near Ban Pong, Hospital camp

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World War 2 Records WW2 POWs Other Gottses who served in WW2 POWs in Malaya Leslie George 4214 #034 Edwin Charles 813 #038 Burma Railway Arthur William 4194 #038 Stanley Herbert 511 #022 POW Singapore Singapore POW research notes Alfred 3267 Fought in Crete, captured in Tobruk #083 Eric William 2281 #022 Dieppe James A 414 Gotts RAMC James A 373 Gotts RN #040 HMS Electra John 1739 #024 (London) & Robert George C 217 #040 Gt Yarmouth John Thomas 1708 RN #077 Sydney 600 #022 in Home Guard Eric Aubrey 2890 #022 Bougainville d 1945 Hilton Kenneth 2891 #022 d PNG 1943 Rex Alfred 1246 #040 Australian Pilot Howard F Gotts USAAF #040 Radio operator