RNZAF Prisoner of War under Japanese Stories

[Dave Homewood]

PRISONER IN CAVE

AIRMAN'S ORDEAL

JAPANESE INHUMANITY

(R.N.Z.A F. Official War Correspondent) BOUGAINVILLE, Sept. 10

Imprisonment in a small black cave for two months with no one to talk to and no medical attention was the lot of Warrant Officer Ronald Charles Warren, R.N.Z.A.F., of Christchurch, the only New Zealand prisoner of war to come out of Rabaul. Warrant Officer Warren was the pilot of a fighter aeroplane which crashed on operations on June 31, and he was subsequently classified missing, believed killed in action.

It was a miracle the prisoner survived the inhuman treatment to which the Japanese subjected him, especially since he had a broken leg which he had put into splints himself with the help of two natives whom the Japanese had instructed to guard him. Only when the Japanese wanted to interrogate him was he dragged out through the small iron-barred door, only 21 inches high by 18 inches wide, which enclosed the cave.

Long Stretches of Isolation 
At times the airman was left alone for ten days at a stretch. He did not know one day from another or even the day of the month. He tried to keep a calendar, but had to give it up as hopeless. He did not even know the day on which he crashed. His Corsair dived between two palm trees, throwing him unconscious from the cockpit and he remembered nothing further until he awoke in Japanese hands.

When Warrant Officer Warren was interviewed at Bougainville today he said the loneliness of the cave nearly drove him mad. The two natives guarding him spoke pigdin English, but had been ordered not to talk. He was given half a pint of water daily and rice three times a day. Although he consistently refused to answer questions, the Japanese at Rabaul did not strike him, but in the barge bringing him from the Duke of York Islands, where he crashed, the airman was slapped fiercely on the face for no apparent reason while tied helpless on a stretcher.

Refusal to Give Information
Warrant Officer Warren was threatened with death if he failed to give information about aircraft and guns, but in spite of his refusal nothing happened. After peace had been declared the Japanese took the airman to a house where he met six Americans and one Australian, all prisoners of war. Two of the Americans in particular were pitiful sights. One who had formerly weighed 220 pounds then weighed 105 pounds. He was a tall man, six feet two inches high, and his condition was absolutely appalling. In spite of his ordeal Warrant Officer Warren looked well when he was visited by Air Commodore C. N. Roberts in an R.N.Z.A.F. hospital today. He smiled cheerfully when the medical officer granted his request for one or two glasses of beer, Since his broken leg did not set properly the airman is receiving special medical attention and will probably leave for New Zealand by air on Friday. His mother is Mrs I. Warren, of Christchurch.

[Dave Homewood]

SLENDER RATIONS

CHANGI PRISON CONDITIONS

PIGSKIN AS FOOD

(R.N.Z.A.F. Official War Correspondent) SINGAPORE. Sept. 10

One of the first prisoners found when Changi camp was entered was Warrant Officer John G. Vibert, of Auckland, who was captured in Java. He was one of six pilots of No. 258 Squadron who volunteered to stay behind in Java as aircrew to No. 605 Squadron, whose ground crew arrived from Britain without aircrew. This was a last desperate effort to hold off the Japanese. "Soon after we were captured," said Warrant Officer Vibert, "we were transported to Palembang, Sumatra, to build an airfield. This meant 19 months of pure hell.

The daily task allotted each man was one and a-half cubic metres of earth, which involved working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. in broiling heat, with the men so weak from sickness and starvation that it was an effort to move. The Japanese flogged them on with poles.

The prisoners' diet consisted chiefly of maize. For the meat ration half a dried pigskin was the usual issue for 1500 men, Warrant Officer Vibert said. He often saw men chasing pigs from refuse pits and scavenging possible scraps of food. The prisoners were so famished that in order to keep alive volunteers undertook the desperate venture of creeping out at night and negotiating with villagers for eggs, vegetables and fruit. Once there was a whole pig, once a goat — anything that could be bought with their slender pay. These luxuries, which were few and far between, were used to keep alive the sick in the camp hospital. In spite of the miserable conditions all prisoners of war were amazingly cheerful. Warrant Officer Vibert was transferred to Changi last May. He found it a paradise compared to Palembang.

[Dave Homewood]

This one is a little different but not entirely unrelated, plus it's very interesting...


AIRMEN IN SIAM

GOOD CONDITIONS

PROTECTED FROM JAPANESE

How he was protected from the Japanese by the Siamese from the time he and his companions bailed out from their burning bomber over Northern Siam until he was released from an internment camp a year later was related by an Auckland airman, Warrant Officer L. A. Barr, son of Mr T. Barr, of Princess Street, Onehunga, shortly after his arrival in Auckland by Tasman flying-boat on Saturday afternoon. Warrant Officer Barr left New Zealand in October, 1942, and went to England, from where he was transferred to India, flying Liberator bombers of the Royal Air Force. While engaged on a low-level attack on a railway line in Northern Siam his machine was caught by anti-aircraft fire, became enveloped in flames and the crew were forced to take to their parachutes.

Two Days in Jungle
"We wandered around in the jungle for two days," said Warrant Officer Barr. "then we found a Siamese village, the inhabitants of which protected us from the Japanese for a further 12 days until we reached Bankok, where we were placed in a prisoner ot war camp in an internment area in the Siamese-controlled half of the city."

Conditions in the camp were unexpectedly good, continued Warrant Officer Barr. On arrival the prisoners were given a good meal and issued with new mattresses, blankets and mosquito nets from the civilian internees' store. Being prisoners of war, the captives were not at first allowed to mix with the civilian internees, who were mostly business people of Bankok, but after a time this rule was relaxed.

"We were given quarters in the Hall of Music and Fine Arts, next to the internment camp." said Warrant Officer Barr. "We used to go into the camp for our meals, which were good. The civilian internees had Chinese cooks, and, as we had the same meals as they did, we had plenty of eggs, puffed rice and all the fresh fruit we wanted. I believe that the good conditions were the result of much agitation on the part of the civilians, as they had a pretty rough time for the first two years."

Secret Radio Sets
The airman said that the prisoners of war did not have to work. They were never without news of how the war was progressing. Until the two power plants at Bankok were bombed by the Royal Air Force last May they had secret radio sets in the camp from which the news was taken in shorthand. These notes were later compiled into a news sheet which was circulated among the prisoners. After the raid they made small radio sets with the aid of torch batteries.

During Allied raids on the Bankok Noir railway station the prisoners of war quarters were damaged. ''No one was very badly hurt," said the airman, "because the guards left the gates open and we were able to take refuge in a near-by park. Still, the quarters suffered and we were moved again to the Vhajaiwood College."

Excellent medical care was also reported by Warrant Officer Barr. On arrival at Bankok all the prisoners were innoculated and vaccinated and throughout the period of internment they were regularly innoculated against typhus and cholera.

He left Bankok in a Siamese aircraft on August 26. He was flown to Rangoon and then to Calcutta and Colombo. From Colombo he travelled by air to Perth and flew overland to Sydney.

NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 24 SEPTEMBER 1945

[chinapilot]

Interesting as usual Dave.

Ronald Warren was I suspect fortunate that he was captured towards the end - prior to this unless you were an officer ( or perceived to be one) and transported to Japan the chances were that you would be executed ( after they had had a bit of fun of course).
Very few POWs survived Rabaul.

The Thais had a bet both ways and towards the end of 1944 onwards there were even regular flights into Northern Thailand airstrips to drop off OSS and SOE personnel.

[Dave Homewood]

ESCAPE FROM HONG KONG

N.Z. AIRMAN'S TREK

(By Telegraph.—Press Association —Copyright.) NEW DELHI, May 2.

A New Zealand officer of the Royal Air Force, after swimming through a hail of bullets to escape from Hong Kong, has arrived in India. He staggered into Chungking with a companion 60 days after the escape from the island. They had trekked 1200 miles and were exhausted and half-starved.

The New Zealander said: "After the Japanese captured our aerodrome we fought in the Allied line as machine-gunners till Hong Kong surrendered. We were taken prisoner and, with 6000 men, were marched to a camp.

"Some of the prisoners were so weak they had to jettison their belongings. A British officer tried to get a rickshaw for a sick man, and a Japanese officer struck the Briton in the face.

"The conditions in the camp were appalling. There was no bedding, or utensils in which to cook the daily ration of two bowls of rice; and there were 170 cases of dysentery at the time of our escape.

"We swam to the mainland and hid in hills in which Japanese troop's were operating. Bandits twice attacked us on the way to Chungking, stealing our money and watches, but leaving us our maps, with which we worked our way through 600 miles of Japanese-occupied territory.

"We then fell in with Chinese guerrillas, who dressed us in Chinese clothes and guided us through dangerous hills, passing us from one guerrilla band to another."


EVENING POST,  4 MAY 1942

(This has to be Eddy Crossley, who was an RNZAF pilot that escaped with Major Tony Hewitt and Army doctor Douglas Scriven. There's a thread here about them, and the book Bridge With Three Men is really amazing rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/15296/bridge-men )