THE SUFFOLK REGIMENT
O.C.A. STOWMARKET
Roley Baker
If you have any memories you could tell us about I would be pleased to add them to
our web site and a photograph to go with your memories would be appreciated
our web site and a photograph to go with your memories would be appreciated
This is an account in Roley Baker’s own words of his experience as a
Japanese prisoner of war.
Roley Baker from Bacton, near Stowmarket joined the T.A. on the 5th
May 1939. After a days work on the land for which he was paid 50p or
10/- in old money, per week, he would cycle to Finborough Road,
Stowmarket for training every Tuesday and Friday evening from
Wickham Skeith, a total of 19 miles per day.
On the 1St September 1939, he was called up and joined the 5th
Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment and was stationed in various places in
England.
On the 28th October 1941 he left Liverpool on the Reno del Pacifico,
sailing to Halifax, Nova Scotia, arriving in November after which troops
were transferred onto the S.S. Wakefield, a U.S. ship to Trinidad, Cape
Town and Bombay, arriving in Singapore 29th January 1942.
Roley was with H.Q. company attached to A company and became
Capt. G M Oliver’s driver.
In the battle for Singapore, 180 men of the 4th and 5th battalions of the Suffolk Regiment were killed in the colony’s
defence against the Japanese. Singapore fell to the Japanese on the 14th February 1942. General Percival passed the
5th battalion at a road block carrying a white flag on one side of the car and the Union flag on the other.
Now a prisoner of the Japanese, Roley was given several jobs until 31st October 1942 and then he and many others
left Singapore on a 4 day and 4 night journey on railway trucks. 30 men were cramped inside each truck and 10 placed
on top. Because the roof of each truck was curved and sparks flew from the engines, these men on top eventually
joined those inside. They travelled up country through the jungle and Roley was put to work to build the bridge over the
river Mae Khiuang, known to many as the river Kwia. The prisoners would have to cut trees down, carrying the trunks
on their bare shoulders until their shoulders poured with blood. They had to build the railway tracks and
bridges through the jungle. In order to get through rock, prisoners would use hammers, chisels and
bare hands to make holes a metre deep, after which the Japanese would put charges in the holes
and blow the rock. Prisoners could only protect themselves from falling rock with their bare hands.
They had no clothes, and no shoes issued and survived on rice and boiled water for 3 and a half
years. This area was known as Hell Fire Pass and the Kanyu Cutting. The railway track was 419.92
klm. long and had 60 bridges.
Beatings were inflicted on them every day and many died from disease and malnutrition. Those
who died from cholera had their bodies burnt further up the jungle. Others died from beri-beri; this
disease is caused by lack of nutrition and was writhe among the prisoners.
There would be 2 burial services a day, one at lunch time and one in the evening. The victims
would be burled in rice sacks and put in a communal grave, their names recorded on a tree. There
were several camps. One camp buried 30 in one day.
The Japanese would transport vegetables from Bampang, it was a 10 day journey and due to the
heat and humidity, the food was not fit for human consumption by the time it arrived. A pig was
transported on one occasion, but it had to feed a 1000 men. Any rats or snakes found would go into
the pot.
The prisoners lived in atap huts made from bamboo and palm leaves were used for the roof. A
surgeon called Marcovitch, believed to be a Canadian/Russian would amputate limbs with a saw used
for cutting trees down, on a table made from bamboo, outside. It would take him 11 minutes.
Remarkably many survived.
A tropical ulcer could start by a single scratch made from a bamboo cane and would eventually
spread. Treatment was a dab of permanganate of potash, a purple liquid. A small bowl of this liquid
would be used to treat a 100 people. Banana leaves were used as bandages.
Orders to the prisoners were always given in Japanese and so it was necessary to learn the language quickly.
Roley was based at Non Pladock in Thailand. Early on in the war the railway near the camp was bombed by U.S. planes killing
approximately 100 prisoners. The Japanese couldn’t understand why the surviving prisoners marched out singing ‘Land of Hope and Glory’.
Korean guards who ran from the bombing raids were later made to run around the camp until they dropped as a punishment.
Roley, still a prisoner, arrived back at Bangkok on the 24th February 1945 and on the 8th May left and arrived at Ubon after a 3 day truck
journey and then made to work on an air strip.
The Japanese surrendered on the 14th August 1945.
On the 22nd September Roley left Ubon and travelled to Bangkok and on the 24th September left Bangkok to Rangoon on a Dakota.
The final journey was sailing back home on the Duchess of Richmond.
180 Suffolks of the 4th and 5th Battalion were killed in the defence of Singapore in February 1942 and approximately 650 of the Suffolks,
4th and 5th battalion died while prisoners of war. These figures are approximate.
Roley suffered from tropical ulcers in his leg. After treatment he weighed just 5 stone. When he finally got back to England Roley was
demobbed on May 12th 1946 at Northampton.
