Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 1, 2007 20:42:32 GMT 12
I am halfway through reading Into The Sun, by a chap called Claude Thompson who was an RNZAF pilot who straight out of training at Woodbourne was sent to Singapore and flew Vildebeests with No. 100 Squadron.
After the fall of Singapore the remnants of the squadron escaped to Java, but then the Japanese invaded that island, and from then on Thompson spent several weeks evading the Japs by going from village to village and living in the jungles, etc.
Eventually he gave himself up due to illness, and most of the book is about his four year captivity in various camps.
I have seen so little written about what happened to the Allied troops and airmen in Indonesia during the war, and to read a first hand account from an RNZAF pilot is really quite a privilege. Sadly he didn't write a lot about the operational side flying Vildes and bombing the Japs, but his account of the rest is detailed and really fascinating.
As mentioned I'm halfway through but I had to mention it here because it's a really different book, not the usual RNZAF pilot account.
There are some shocking parts, and some surprisingly nice parts of his captivity.
The food alone is interesting to hear about, In some camps it was great, others, well, read this
(Warning - do not eat anything whilst reading this!!)
He's talking about the local Indonesian dishes they ate.
"Tempi was a soya bean dish. The natives soaked soya beans, then left them out in trays until they were covered with mould and flies. When the mould had broken down the hard cellulose skins of the beans, the mess was cut into squares and fried in peanut or coconut oil. It was delicisous, as some of my friends know today without being prisoners. (glad I'm not his friend!)
"Another native food that was used in most of the stews we had was "Trassie" or, as it was known in Singapore, "blatchen". The smell of a piece of blatchen the size of a finger nail was very strong. It was made from small fish and shrimps which had been caught and then left to rot in great heaps. Willages where trassie was made could be smelt miles away. After the fish had been in these heaps for a time, all the small bones were disolved, the water gradually oozed out and the rest was then compressed by tramping until it was a solid greyish paste. This too was something we came to enjoy very much. It was like a good Stilton cheese."
After the fall of Singapore the remnants of the squadron escaped to Java, but then the Japanese invaded that island, and from then on Thompson spent several weeks evading the Japs by going from village to village and living in the jungles, etc.
Eventually he gave himself up due to illness, and most of the book is about his four year captivity in various camps.
I have seen so little written about what happened to the Allied troops and airmen in Indonesia during the war, and to read a first hand account from an RNZAF pilot is really quite a privilege. Sadly he didn't write a lot about the operational side flying Vildes and bombing the Japs, but his account of the rest is detailed and really fascinating.
As mentioned I'm halfway through but I had to mention it here because it's a really different book, not the usual RNZAF pilot account.
There are some shocking parts, and some surprisingly nice parts of his captivity.
The food alone is interesting to hear about, In some camps it was great, others, well, read this
(Warning - do not eat anything whilst reading this!!)
He's talking about the local Indonesian dishes they ate.
"Tempi was a soya bean dish. The natives soaked soya beans, then left them out in trays until they were covered with mould and flies. When the mould had broken down the hard cellulose skins of the beans, the mess was cut into squares and fried in peanut or coconut oil. It was delicisous, as some of my friends know today without being prisoners. (glad I'm not his friend!)
"Another native food that was used in most of the stews we had was "Trassie" or, as it was known in Singapore, "blatchen". The smell of a piece of blatchen the size of a finger nail was very strong. It was made from small fish and shrimps which had been caught and then left to rot in great heaps. Willages where trassie was made could be smelt miles away. After the fish had been in these heaps for a time, all the small bones were disolved, the water gradually oozed out and the rest was then compressed by tramping until it was a solid greyish paste. This too was something we came to enjoy very much. It was like a good Stilton cheese."
