P02310.026 Accession Number: P02310.026

Description

Prachuap Kiri Khan, Thailand. c. October 1945. Left right: Lieutenant Jack H. Leemon (bare-chested), 26th Australian Graves Registration Unit (26 AGRU); Lieutenant Eldridge, British War Graves; and Major Wemyss, British Army (note the parachutists wings on his shirt and hat). Leemon and Eldridge were members of the War Graves Commission survey party responsible for locating and identifying the bodies of Allied prisoners of war (POW) who died during the construction of the Burma-Thailand railway. Behind them is a staff car previously used by General Sato, Imperial Japanese Army. In April 1945 a work party of 600 British, 120 Australian and 211 Dutch left Nakom Paton (fifty six kilometres west of Bangkok) for Prachuap Kiri Khan 313 kilometres south of Bangkok on the east coast of Thailand. Approximately fifty per cent were selected from the hospital patients by the Japanese medical officer, Neguchi, who showed no regard for their physical condition. The group was given the task of completing a road which had been under construction by Japanese and native labour working eastwards from Mergui on the Burmese coast. This was to be an escape route for the Japanese forces who anticipated a push by Allied forces down the coast from Rangoon. The POWs engaged in this task suffered many hardships over the four month period, resulting in the deaths of over 250 men.

Details

Conflicts

• Second World War, 1939-1945