The Burma Railway (Death Railway) was built from 1942-1943 in order to supply the Japanese army in Burma when it was thought the sea path was too dangerous as the Allies recovered from Pearl Harbor and started the Pacific campaign. Over 60,000 troops; 6300 Brits, 2800 Aussies and 2500 Dutch and Americans worked on the RR and over 12,000 lost their lives. Forty-four Aussie MD’s employed tropical medicine learned from the Dutch physicians who had grown up in the East Indies and improvised. Bamboo IV’s, splints and crutches. They used homemade charcoal for dysentery and cholera plus maggots to clean ulcers to prolong lives.
The most deadly portion of the Railway construction was dubbed “Hellfire Pass” because condition of the POW’s resembled a scene straight from hell.
From a survivor:
MATE
Me mind goes back to 43,
To slavery and ‘ate,
When man’s one chance to stay alive
Depended on ‘is mate.
With bamboo for a billie-can
An’ bamboo for a plate,
A bamboo paradise for bugs,
Was bed for me and me mate.
You’d slip and slither through the mud
An’ curse your rotten fate
But then you’d hear a quiet word:
“Don’t drop your bundle mate.”
An’ though it’s all so long ago
This truth I ‘ave to state:
A man don’t know what lonely means,
Til ‘e has lost his mate.
Also in this province of Kanchanaburi stands the rebuilt bridge over the Mae Khlong (River Kwai) profiled in the movie of the same name and Kanchanaburi Cemetery of Commonwealth soldiers which is definitely worth a visit.
HINTUK RIVER CAMP
We glamped at the Hintuk River Camp above the River Kwai Noi for two nights and enjoyed the service and the scenery and the boat ride.
