From The Royal Artillery Charitable Fund. In August this year the RA plan to send a team of 14 Gunners to North Borneo to re-trace the 164 mile Sandakan Death March in the jungle,this is to commemorate the deaths of over 400 Gunners who died (this was the most deaths ever inflicted on RA personnel and their attached arms during WW2) during the series of forced marches the Japanese enforced on their captors. This will be the first time the British Military have retraced this murderous route. Rob
That would be a very emotional and haunting hike, and a wonderful gesture to the 400+ RA men and the other unfortunates Some basic information about the Death Marches. From the www.diggerhistory site Sandakan Death March; Japanese inhumanity On 28 January, 1945, 470 prisoners set off, with only 313 arriving in Ranau. On the second march, 570 started from Sandakan, but only 118 reached Ranau. The third march which comprised the last of the prisoners from the Sandakan camp contained 537 prisoners. Prisoners who were unable to walk were shot. The march route was through virgin jungle infested with crocodiles, snakes and wild pigs, and some of the prisoners had no boots. Rations were less than minimal. The march took nearly a year to complete. Once the surviving prisoners arrived in Ranau, they were put to work carrying 20 kg sacks of flour over very hilly terrain to Paginatan, over 40 km away. By the end of July, 1945, there were no prisoners left in Ranau. This is a site run by a group that take hikers over the track. The Sandakan Track - Sandakan-Ranau Death March (1942 - 1945) Why were the POWs in Sandakan ? All were members of a 2700-strong Allied contingent transferred to Sandakan by the Japanese in 1942-43, following Singapore’s fall. Their task? To construct a military airfield, using not much more than their bare hands. For the first twelve months or so, conditions at Sandakan were tolerable. However, in mid 1943 the Japanese discovered that the POWs not only had a radio but were in league with a local resistance organisation. Why were they marching to Ranau? As the war ground on, conditions deteriorated. In late January 1945 the Japanese decided to move 455 of the fittest prisoners to Jesselton (Kota Kinabalu) to act as coolie labourers – only to halt them at Ranau, owing to Allied air activity on the west coast. At the end of May, there was a second march from Sandakan and in mid-June a third, comprised of only 75 men. As both sea and air were under the complete control of the Allies, a track had been cut through the mountains, linking existing bridle-trails. Unaware that it was to be used by POWs, the local headmen given the task of creating this track had deliberately routed it away from any habitation, across the most inhospitable and difficult terrain possible. There was no medical assistance and little food. Anyone who could not keep up was ‘disposed of’. Despite this, about half the prisoners completed the march, only to die at Ranau from illness, malnutrition and ill-treatment by their captors. Two Australians managed to escape in the early stages of the second march with the help of villagers, and four more successfully escaped from Ranau into the jungle, where they were cared for by local people. What happened to the rest of Sandakan’s prisoners? Back at Sandakan, 200 prisoners unable undertake the second and third marches also died, bringing the death toll there to about 1400. Of the 1000-odd prisoners who left on the death marches, about half died in the attempt. The rest died at their destination. Notice the different figures each site has.
Australian prisoners were sent to Sandakan in 1942 to build an airstrip. At first they were treated reasonably well. Gradually, however, rations were reduced and bashings increased. Australian War Memorial - Stolen Years: Australian prisoners of war
Thought I would post in this link where Sandakan has been mentioned before on the forum, http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/book-reviews/25214-project-kingfisher.html
Serving WWII justice by Blair Corless Veteran John Hook recently went to Sandakan in East Malaysia (formerly Borneo) for Anzac Day, a place he hadn't been to since the end of the war. RICHARD SERONG N48HB100 BY ALL accounts, John Hook was lucky his service with the army during World War II didn’t put him on the front line. But the then 18-year-old had to experience a horror of a different kind, witnessing the war crime trials of Japanese officers and soldiers involved in the cold-blooded murder of Australian and Allied PoWs. As a member of the Allied Translator and Interpreter Service, Mr Hook, who learned Japanese at Melbourne University, was in the humid courtrooms serving as a translator while Australian justice sought retribution for the thousands of Australians executed in the camps and on the three Sandakan death marches. Last month, the 83-year-old from Macleod was invited to attend a service in Borneo, site of the death marches, and to read the ode of remembrance on Anzac Day. The stark facts of the marches - massacres actually - are confronting. Of the 2434 mostly Australian PoWs, only six survived - a death rate of 99.4 per cent. For Mr Hook, visiting the site of the worst massacre of Australian troops brought back dark memories. “My first experience of the trials dealt with a Japanese Navy Lt-Cdr and the death of all the natives of Ocean Island,” Mr Hook said. “They were all tied up on the edge of a cliff and with one volley they were all killed except one person, who played possum and survived to tell what happened. “The officer admitted he did it but said he was just following orders. At this stage I wasn’t aware that during the trials in Germany, they (the accused) were using the ‘following orders’ excuse. I was just shocked that he had admitted it. “It was very hard to really accept it all.” After being transferred to the then Borneo, Mr Hook was involved with the trials of the Japanese responsible for the Sandakan death marches. He sat in on the preliminary trials, working with the “Nesis”, a Japanese term for those American-born translators who served the American units. “Our job was also to read out the proclamation of sentence,” Mr Hook said. “Everything was sent to Melbourne because it was the legal headquarters and when the reply came back, and 99 times out of 100 it was for execution, or it was commuted to life imprisonment, there was always a big parade and one of us would accompany the brigadier, who would read out the sentence of execution. “There was never any emotion from the Japs. It was tough. I was just a kid of 18 or 19 but I got used to it. We knew the Japs were never going to rise again.” The trip back to Sandakan was emotional, but one Mr Hook said he was glad he made. “It gave me a whole new understanding of the death marches,” he said. “We actually walked for a mile along the route, and it was very hard going. I was with the relatives of those who had died and at certain spots we would hold a little service.” Mr Hook sees it as his duty to tell people about the Sandakan death marches. “I do talks around the Probus clubs and other groups ... the story needs to be told.” Heidelberg Leader newspapers Melbourne news, sport, events, blogs, competitions - whereilive
See Middlesbrough-born soldier takes on Borneo trek in memory of POWs - Local News - News - Gazette Live RESPECT :GroupHug: PZULBA - Out of Africa (Retired)
Six from Borneo project The Year 9 and 10 Drama students have recently been involved in recording an updated version of the play Six from Borneo, which was originally broadcast on ABC radio in 1947. The play tells the story of over 2000 prisoners of war, held by the Japanese in Sandakan, North Borneo during World War II. The play tells the story of the Sandakan Death Marches that the prisoners were taken on, and how only six POW's, all of whom were Australian, survived by escaping. The story is relevant to Toodyay, as three brothers from the town were killed on the death marches. The play commenced recording in May 2011 with the help of local radio station Toodyay Community Radio, and is due to be broadcast in late 2011.
Does this image show the ghosts of WWII prisoners on their death march? Former Army Officer takes haunting image along route they took | Mail Online
I am a brand new member to WW2 Talk and so I was interested to see the various emails on the subject of the RA Tribute in 2011 and the photograph. Firstly I was the initiator and organiser of SABAH SALUTE. It was my brain child and it took me several years of punching cotton wool to get the agreement and support in the UK to run it. Eventually the DRA agreed. The vital ground was the Unveiling and the Dedication of the RA Memorial at the Kundasang War Memorial on 27 Aug 11. The other part was the march by 14 members of the RA. Combined together it would be a powerful Act of Remembrance. The RA contingent led by Maj Claire Currie RA, she ran the march, left after the Sandakan Day Service on 15 Aug 11 and traced the march route arriving at Jungle Camp No 2 (the last camp) on 25 Aug 11. The marching contingent was composed of 3 (incl 1 RAMC) women and 11 (incl 1 AGC TA) men. The guides and logistics were provided by Tham Yau Kong and his team; they were quite excellent. The date of the service on the 27 Aug 11 was deliberately chosen as that was the day, on 27 Aug 45, when the last 15 surviving POWs were massacred by the Japanese. The service was taken by Archdeacon Moses Chin, the VIPs were Datuk Yee Moh Chai (Deputy Chief Minister Sabah), the late British High Commissioner HE Simon Featherstone and Maj Gen CC Wilson (late RA). 150 attended including people who flew over from Perth, Sarawak and West Malaysia. It was the RA Act of Remembrance. Sabah Tourism Board provided breakfast after the service. As to the photo; I took it. I was on a recce for SABAH SALUTE and the march route and taking loads of photos through the windscreen in the 4 x 4 as we were moving along. It was only 3 months later that I realised what I had taken when I was sorting out the photos for a Ppt presentation. I was taken aback but knew how it occurred hence I called it 'The Reflections of a Death March.' When I showed it to my driver and guide, Jerome Robel, on my next visit to Sabah he realised instantly but made a couple of interesting observations. 1. The towel with the figurines on had only eight figures (in the picture there are 21, with one crouching on the right hand side of the road which looks like a guard with a weapon). 2. The reflections of the POWs should be up side down (ie POWs on their head) as the towel was laid that way on the top of the dash board. This was not a posed or digital enhanced photo. There are two official copies. One I presented to Sabah Tourism Board in Kota Kinabalu and it resides in the GM's office on display and the other was presented to the Kundasang War Memorial by Maj Gen Wilson on 26 Aug 11 where it resides. A bit of a tome I fear, but that is the précis history of SABAH SALUTE and the photo.
