A Royal Artillery Prisoner of the Japanese - Help needed.

The following are a couple of bits that belonged to my Sister-in-laws Grandfather. We believe he was a member of 137 Field Regiment, Royal Artillery. In lieu of the long wait for his Service Records are there any details that could be added to our knowledge of him? Would there be anything held at the NA on individual POW's?

Any help at all would, as ever, be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

 

Record Details
Surname: GRUNDY
First Name(s): Walter
Rank: Gnr.
Service No: 944577
Service: A
Date of Capture: 15/02/1942

Record Details

 

Well that's the date of capture sorted. Thanks Phil

 

VERY brief history :
.
History of the Regiment


Or read from here for a longer history:
.
Orders to Sail

 

Jonathan, a couple of things that could be at the National Archives would be a liberation questionnaire and the POW card file. I can certainly take a look for you to see if either are there.

Lee

 

VERY brief history :
.
History of the Regiment


Or read from here for a longer history:
.
Orders to Sail

I've been reading through the same website over the last hour or so but thanks for taking the time to add the link. It's appreciated.

 

Jonathan, a couple of things that could be at the National Archives would be a liberation questionnaire and the POW card file. I can certainly take a look for you to see if either are there.

Lee

Yes please, Lee. What information is contained within the questionnaire?

 

Microfilm at WO356/14 is a list of witnesses in Far East War Crimes cases which may contain the name of the person you are searching for plus a "JC" code. If asked to give an affidavit a narrative will be given on the card about letters sent from the Judge Advocate General about an interview. Always worth a look although no statement will be found there or in any discrete series of papers, but only on War Crimes case files. JC stands for Japanese Camp. There will be a number afterwards. For example, JC27 is Wanyei, north of Tarsao ( mentioned in the manuscript list of burials). Could be a JM file "Japanese Massacre." Worth a look.

WO361/2095 is the Nominal Roll prepared by the Changi prison based POW organisation known as the Bureau of Record and Enquiry for his regiment.. This should give the date of his movement away from Changi, by train or by sea, and his next of kin and home address.

He could be referred to in any of the following files at TNA:

WO 361/232 Malaya: 137th Field Regiment and 155th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery; missing personnel 1942 Jan 01 - 1946 Dec 31
WO 361/233 Malaya: 137th Field Regiment and 155th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery; missing personnel 1945 Jan 01 - 1946 Dec 31
WO 361/1195 Far East: Malaya; 137th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery; deaths 1945 Nov 17 - 1945 Nov 20
WO 361/1257 Far East: Malaya and Borneo;137th (Army) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery 1945 Nov 28 - 1946 Feb 05
WO 361/1266 Far East: Malaya, Thailand, Singapore and Burma; 137th (Army) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery; casualties 1945 Nov 15 - 1945 Nov 25
WO 361/1388 Far East: 137th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery; dead and missing personnel 1946 Jan 25 - 1946 Jun 11
WO 361/1702 Far East: correspondence from Major Gill, Royal Artillery; includes casualty returns for 137th (Army) Field Regiment 1946 May 30 - 1946 Jun 25
WO 361/2095 Prisoners of war, Far East: 137th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery; nominal roll 1942 Jan 01 - 1945 Dec 31

I would ask any kind person offering to take a look to go for WO361/2095 as almost certain to contain a reference.

 

Yes please, Lee. What information is contained within the questionnaire?

Jonathan, the liberation questionnaire is a two sided document.

The first part asks:
Name, number, decorations, ship/unit/div/squadron, date of birth, date of enlistment, private address and telephone, place and date of original capture, list of camps or hospitals held in.

The first part is usually fully filled in.

The next questions in many cases are not completed:
Details of Escapes or Escape attempts made by the individual;
Details of any Escape committees known about;
Details of any attempts of sabotage known about;
Did you witness any courageous acts performed by allied personnel.

Lee

 

It goes without saying that escape from a camp in mainland europe was not subject to the same difficulties as Far East POWs encountered in that POWs stood out rather from the crowd.

Examples of completed Liberation questionnaires can be found on the Cofepow database. Search for a name beginning with an A and click on the search return to see if volunteers at Cofepow have posted a photograph of a completed form.

The point about MI 9 forms was that they were printed with unique numbers and ferried out to the Far East with operatives. The Research Guide published by the TNA entitled " British Prisoners of the Second World War" gives a guide to the form and the more specific "follow-up" form.

Here are two examples of other forms.

First a form used in the Far East which asks different questions from those given in the above post.



CONFIDENTIAL M.I/9/Jap/ No. 44444 A

WRITE IN BLOCK CAPITALS IN PENCIL

No.................. Rank............................... Surname ..................................................................

Christian Names.............................................. Decorations...............................................................

Ship ( R.N., U.S.N. Unit & Div
or Merchant Navy............................................. (Army).......................................................................

Squadron and Command ( R.A.F., A.A.F.).............................................................................................

Date of Birth..................................................... Date of Enlistment....................................................

Private Address and Telephone No.......................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................................

Place and Date of Original Capture......................................................................................................
( Aircrew R.A.F. to give place
and date of a/c crash).

1. What camps, detachments or hospitals were you in? Give dates and names of the British Camp Leaders, Detachment
(or Block) Leaders or, in the case of hospitals, the Senior British Medical Officers.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Camp or Hospital Dates Camp Leader Detachment or Block
Leader (if any)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________






______________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. ESCAPES OR ATTEMPTED ESCAPES. ( Additional paper will be supplied on request if required).

(a) Give full description and approx. date of each attempt you made to escape, showing how you left the camp, and
from which camp each attempt was made. State whether there was an air-raid in progress at the time or not. If an
escape was made from a train or vehicle the approx. speed and how it was guarded should be included.




(b) Were you physically fit when you made these escapes ?




(c) Give Regimental particulars of anyone who accompanied you on each attempt.



What happened to them ?



(d) Give briefly your experiences during periods of freedom.



The next form was used by Australians in the Middle East.


To: ALL REPATRIATED PERSONNEL

Subject:- SECURITY

It is most important that information which you may have obtained while
in enemy territory should be safe guarded as it may be of considerable use
to the war effort.

All ranks are hereby warned that they are forbidden to publish in any
form whatsoever, or communicate, either directly or indirectly, to the Press
any account of their experiences prior to repatriation and that they will be held responsible for all statements subsequently be published in the Press or elsewhere.

This warning applies equally to Broadcasts, Scripts prepared for Private Circulation, LOOSE TALK publication in Regimental Journals and, in fact, anything likely to make known to unauthorised persons details of experiences.

You gain nothing but a cheap notoriety by talking, AND you endanger the lives of others.

The Allied Interrogating Organization, G.H.Q., is authorised to obtain all information from you and will direct it into the proper channels. In order to assist, and to reduce unnecessary interrogation to a minimum you are asked to answer the questions below.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To:- ALLIED INTERROGATING ORGANIZATION, G.H.Q., M.E.F.


I have read through the above notice. I fully understand its meaning and am aware that I am bound by these regulations.

Date Signed

Full name ( block letters)

Rank and Number

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

QUESTIONNAIRE

Please answer as many of the following questions as possible on the back of this form:-

A. 1. When were you captured?
2. Where were you captured?
3. Give brief account of how you were captured.

B. What prison camps or hospitals have you been in, with approximate dates?

C. Operational Intelligence:-

Please give details of any Naval, Military or R.A.F. Intelligence which you have obtained from observation or from other P.O.W., such as coastal defences, shipping movements, troop locations and movements, identifications, aerodromes, aircraft concentrations, bomb damage, etc.

D. Non-Operational Intelligence:-

1. Have you been able to acquire any details of enemy factories, processes, rations, clothing, fuel supplies, etc. If so, please give details.

2. Were you employed at any time on work outside the P.O.W. Camp.

E. Escape Methods:-

Did you hear of any Escape Organization in your P.O.W. Camp? If so, please give details. Are many trying to escape, and what chance of a final get away have they? Is it easy to escape or not? Give details of guards, restrictions, etc. Do you know if any intelligence of Military value was passed out of your camp while you were there? How strict is the searching of parcels? What is the nature of the surrounding country and the camp defence? Is the guard provided by the Divisional troops from the area? If so, from what Division. If not, by whom?

F. Interrogation Methods:-

1. Did you pass through any special interrogation centre?
2. Were you interrogated, if so, where?
3. Do you know of any stool pigeons or enemy personnel masquerading as Allied prisoners of war?
4. Did you personally experience the use of microphone in any camp?
5. Was any force or threat used or were you put to any hardship to make you answer interrogation?
6. Do you know of anybody having been handcuffed ( Yes or No ).

Any information on the above lines will be of the highest value.

REG/DAP

( see Australian Archives 474378 page 452 )

 

Would recommend COFEPOW COFEPOW - Children of Far East Prisoners of War and the Java Club The Java FEPOW Club > Home for info on Far East POWs.

The Java Club is now open to people with an interest in all Japanese POWs. It's a very friendly organisation and helped me when researching a POWs diaries for publication.

 

First a form used in the Far East which asks different questions from those given in the above post.




Papiermâché, I was summarising the questions in order to give an idea of the contents of the liberation questionnaire.

But thank you for posting the full transcript.

Lee

 

Lee,

I have not seen a form asking about courageous acts or sabotage, and your summary made the point perfectly well in a tenth of the space, whereas I specialise in boring blather, as has been noted on many occasions. Just carry on regardless. More pedantics than papiermache ( thank you for the upmarket typography, I am definitely lower-case.)

As a general rule the Australian forms and their "Q" form were better designed than the MI 9 versions.

Returning POWs were subjected to many forms but the standard, and true, response often seen on "Q" forms was " Not Enough Room." There were too many questions, too many legal niceties, on such forms.

The passage I like is from " White Coolie " by Ronald Hastain ( usual acknowledgements and omissions) about his journey home:

" At Debert in New Brunswick, the first fluttering end of red tape cast out from England threatened to ensnare us. But we were too good-humoured and tolerant to do other than listen politely to the War Office delegate in Bond Street battle-dress, who spoke ( if such sounds could be termed intelligible ) to us with the aid of a microphone to amplify his "ahems", of all the things we must not do or say. The forms we had filled in - and we had filled in many for the Americans, Australians, Canadians and for our own people in Manila - were the wrong forms actually, entirely and indubitably. Therefore, said the Beautiful Moustache, we must now fill in Form No. XXX/X/XXX, which was the only form that the War Office in Whitehall would recognise. The ambiguous but underlying threat of "consequences" for failure to comply cast the first shadow and doubt across our recently and gloriously achieved liberty. How ugly and clumsy is the Caliban of officialdom."

John

 

Hi Jonathan,

You were correct in that Gunner W Grundy served with 137 Field Regt, RA. Captured Singapore 15 Feb 1942.

Nothing listed on the back of the form, but he lists the camps he was in.

 

I'd just like to thank everyone for their contributions to the thread. The posts will hopefully be of assistance to others in the future when it comes to discovering what information is included within a POW questionnaire.

Rob - The above is excellent and very much appreciated. Thanks for going to the trouble of looking Walter's questionnaire up. I hope I might be able to repay the favour sometime in the future?

 

This is a very informative Liberation form because it gives the names of leaders and NCOs.

Lt/Col. Gill's party departed overland from Changi on 20th June 1942, according to a schedule in David Nelson's book " The Story of Changi" and the 137th Field Regiment travelled with him. The nominal roll file in WO361 should state the same date. Men were jam-packed into railway trucks and travelled for at least five days until they arrived at Ban Pong.

The IJA card ( POW card ) should show that Gnr Grundy was with 1 Group. He was in Thailand, not moving into Burma. The railway was "completed" in mid October 1943 but maintenance parties stayed on.

He was to the east of Ban Pong at Nong Pladuk for 14 months, then to Kanburi or Kanchanaburi at 50 kilos west from Ban Pong, Conquita at 257 kilo west from Ban Pong , and Hindato at 198 kilo west from Ban Pong, before returning to Nong Pladuk to the east of Ban Pong.

The Judge Advocate General's code for Nong Pladuk was JC32. In the nickname card index on microfilm at W0356/23 and 24 the nicknames of Japanese at this camp ( they moved about ) at some point were: Nagar, Banana Lips, The Blacksmith, Bolts, Bull's Bollocks, Busty, Dinkie, Efficiency, The Gangster, The Get, Goggles, Jingo, Joe Penny, Johnny, Joseph, Little Willy, Mad Harry, Mousey, Muscle Bound, Petrol Joe, The Pig, Piggy, The Rat, Rubber Lips, The Singing Fool, Snakes Eyes, and Spider.

River Valley Road Camp is in Singapore. The journey to Saigon in July 1944 was probably by sea and was at one of the most dangerous times to travel because of attacks by Allied aircraft and submarines.

 

Thanks John. The information you have provided is once again quite brilliant. I've been told tonight that Walter worked on the railway and hated the film The Bridge on the River Kwai. He said it favoured a picnic.

Walter is on this photo, he sat on the far left of the second row from the front, the man with the long leg sticking out!

 

Jonathan,

Thanks for the pm. Thanks for the big build-up, so now watch the fall from grace.

You asked what you can find at the National Archives, and the answer is a few small pieces of information, especially since the major release of files in WO361 in April 2011, but sometimes the War Crimes process throws up a lot of information. This is why I go on about it, because it threw a lot of light on the ss. Hofuku Maru.

Anyhow, I will see what else I can find sparked off by the Liberation Questionnaire which was kindly supplied by Ramacal.

 

The camp code for Kanburi or Kanchanaburi was JC/1 and on the cards in WO356/23 and 24 the nicknames for the guards, Japanese or Korean, to be found include the following. (These lists are not complete and a lot of nicknames were repeated throughout the Far East for different individuals)

At some point the following were used, appeared in a POW's "Q" form, and found their way on to a card index held in Westminster, London, England in 1945 onwards:

At Kanburi under code JC/1 were: Baby Face, Beardy aka The Beard aka Blacksmith, Beautiful, Cat's Eyes, Ceasar ( so spelt), Mr. Charlie, Charlie Carpenter, The Christian, Daigo Joe, Goggles, Haw-Haw, Jeeves, Jungle Bred, Kim, Kolynos, Mad Harry aka Blacksmith, Micky, Mickey Mouse, Old Sergeant Major, Oscar, The Panther, The Pig, Puss in Boots, Scarhead, Scorpion, The Spitter, Tabend, The Undertaker, The Yank.

At Conquita under code JC/122 were Giglamps and Scarface.

At Hindato under code JC/118 were Scarface, Dancing Master, The Frog, and under the same code but under the name "East Jidato" were Pighead and Queeney.

At Saigon Docks specifically under that name were Herman, Storm Trooper, Bull Frog. The Docks shared the same code with other Saigon camps, which was JC/37.

At River Valley Road under code JC/51 were Basher, Johnnie, Speedo. Under code JC/57 ( could be a mistranscription) for the same place was The Yank.

Under no code but at River Valley Road were Erasma Wigbasher, Scarface, and Storm Trooper.

In the microfilm boxes in one drawer at TNA lie the names of UK witnesses, and Japanese and Koreans under their true names, and nicknames of those whose true name was not known to the POWs, all of whom took part in a terrible nightmare.

Very rarely there does appear a name of a Japanese or Korean who was regarded as behaving well towards the POWs.

Apart from their comradeship virtually the only thing that was not taken from the POWs during the war or by misrepresentation was their sense of humour. In a small part the nicknames help to record the humour, never forgetting that there was precious little to laugh about in the dreadful history of the railway and the hell-ships.

 

Very interesting information there John. Thanks for sharing.

Lee