Air Force Officers Undergo Terrible Ordeal In Escape

Taranaki Daily News, 22 August 1942, Page 2

Air Force Officers Undergo Terrible Ordeal In Escape

Long trek through China from Japanese captors. How two air force officers, the wife of one of whom lives at Hawera, escaped in separate parties from a Japanese prisoner of war camp in China and made a 60-day journey through 1200 miles of desolate country, finally arriving in India in an exhausted condition after encounters with bandits en route, is told in the Indian newspaper Statesmen, a copy of which has been received at Hawera. "When the aerodrome was evacuated we were told to proceed to the island of Hongkong, where we placed ourselves under the orders of the navy. We fought as machine-gunners until the island was eventually surrendered and we were taken prisoner. In the camp we were given two bowls of rice a day. At first we could not eat this, but later when we became ravenous we were only too thankful to partake of the rice to keep flesh and bone together: There was no bedding and the sanitary conditions were h«rrihle.

Unbelievable Sights. "Six thousand of us were marched to the camp in procession. Many of the men were so weak that they were compelled to diseard what baggage they pos6essed. When I endeavoured to obtain a rickshaw I was smacked across the face by a Japanese officer. Our camp was stripped of everything of value, including doors, window—frames, etc., and we had no utensils to cobk the rations of rice supplied to us. Every day I made a tour of the camp and the sights which met my eyes were unbelievable. Dead bodies were lying about in the mud or near the beaoh. When I escaped from the camp there were 170 cases of dysentery and the dead had been buried in a small corner of the 'prison.' "As conditions became unbearable three of us decided to plan an " escape— myself and two army officers. As we made a daring dash from the camp the Japanese spotted us. They opened fire. Their bullets missed us by inches. We were compelled to complete our journey to the mainland by swimming for it. Bullets were still whizzing close to us as we landed, so we lost no time in taking to the cover of the hills.

Adventurous Trek. 'Then our adveriturous trek through 1200 miles of country to Chungking began. After two days our troubles started. We were attacked by armed robbers numbering about eight. We tackled them and in the course of the fight one of us received two severe head wounds. The robbers were ultimately driven off. Two days later another band , of bandits — this time there were 60 of them— had another •go' at us. We were badly beaten and robbed of our money, watches and valuables. Fortunately the bandits did not steal our maps. "We persuaded the robbers to let us go. By this time we were rurining short of food, so one of us decided to approach some Chinese. They were very kind and brought food and clrthing to us to our hiding place. Proceeding on our journey again we were fortunate to run into a party of Chinese guerrillas. They assisted us by acting as our guides through the dangerous hills. They passed us on from one group of guerrillas to another and to prevent the enemy recognising us we dressed up as Chinese. Rousing Reception. "At last we reached that part of China which is still in the hands of the Chinese. We were given a rousing reception by the inhabitants, and after a rest and medical treatment we set out again with the intention of chntacting the regular Chinese armies. "After some hard travelling we arrived at our destination. Here a surprise awaited us as another party of British was at the Chinese headquarters. They had escaped from another camp and had travelled by a different route." "We foj-med up into one complete party and were driven in an old motortruck to a railway junction. Our journey after that was uneventful. We will never forget our experience. We realise how lucky we were in reaching the Chinese headquarters." The journey took more than two months to complete. during which time they had endured many hardships and sickness. But the will to win through was always there. .