literature, ballarat rsl, ballarat

Booknon-fictionA memoir of life and death on the Burma-Thailand Railway.

Ill, p.391.non-fictionThe bestselling memoir of life as an Australian POW on the notorious Thai-Burma railway. Rohan Rivett was a journalist in Singapore when it fell to the Japanese in 1942. He escaped south - across the treacherous Bangka Strait - to Indonesia, but was soon captured and became just one of thousands of POWs struggling for existence in a Japanese camp. The struggle was to last for more than three years. Behind Bamboo is unflinching in its honesty and haunting in its realism. It is a vivid, compelling testament to the Australians' will to survive and their unassailable spirit in the face of the most callous inhumanity. world war 1939-1945 - prisoners of war - japan, burma railway

Index, ill, maps, p.682.non-fictionStory of the 8th Division in the campaigns in Malaya, Singapore, Rabaul, Ambon and Timor where most of the Division was captured by the Japanese in 1942. Also the story of the Australian Prisoners of the Japanese, including Changi and the Burma-Thailand Railway. world war 1939-1945 - australia, world war 1939-1945 - prisoners of war - japan

Index, ill, maps, p.682.non-fictionStory of the 8th Division in the campaigns in Malaya, Singapore, Rabaul, Ambon and Timor where most of the Division was captured by the Japanese in 1942. Also the story of the Australian Prisoners of the Japanese, including Changi and the Burma-Thailand Railway. world war 1939-1945 - australia, world war 1939-1945 - prisoners of war - japan

This hat was sent home to Laanecoorie, from Malaya, in 1941 by Driver Cyril John Johnson VX36298, 1 Coy A.A.S.C whilst a POW. Cyril enlisted in the 2nd AIF on 17.6.1940 age 22 years 2 months. Posted to 8th Div Petrol Coy Seymour 25.7.1940, hospital 12.8.1940 with Mumps, rejoin unit 31.8.1940, embark for overseas 2.2.1941, disembark Singapore 19.2.1941. He is listed as missing on 16.2.1942 and later listed as POW in a Thai Camp no date. (He was on the Burma Railway) Last entry on his records states Presumed to be dead 12.9.1944 SWPA. (South West Pacific Area) He with hundreds of others were on the Japanese prison ship Rakuyo Maru to Japan when it was sunk by an American submarine. The hand written signatures on the hat include high ranking AIF Officers, major local Officials and dozens of 8th Division AIF soldiers. British pattern Pith Helmet, khaki coloured cotton cloth with brown leather strap over the top. Large quantity of hand written names on top. Inside rim has green felt lining. Dome section is plaited red silk with manufacturer's label at crest. Hat band is brown leather.On top written in pen & ink: Many army numbers & names of soldiers and some dignitaries.. On top written in ink: To Dad etc from Cyril.military equipment - army, costume - male headwear

The Battle of Sunda Strait was a naval battle which occurred during World War II in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java, and Sumatra. On the night of 28 February – 1 March 1942, the Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth and the American heavy cruiser USS Houston faced a major Imperial Japanese Navy task force. After a fierce battle of several hours duration, both Allied ships were sunk. The sinking of HMAS Perth at the Battle of Sunda Strait 28 February -1 March 1942 cost 357 Australian lives. A further 324 crewmen fell into enemy hands. Two and a half years of brutal captivity claimed the lives of 106 of these men - 53 on the Thai Burma Railway alone.Framed cuttings of newspaper articles,13 photographs and 7 flags As Portrayed to the Australian Public 1942-1945 BATTLE OF JAVA SEA & SUNDA STRAIT 27 FEB - 1 MAR 1942 The first and only battle fought by a combined American Australian British and Dutch Naval Force against the Japanesesunda strait, hmas perth

Ill, p.110.non-fictionExperiences of a prisoner on the Burma to Siam railwayjapanese prisoners of war - australia, world war 1939-1945 - prisoners and prisons - japan

Index, ill, maps, p.715.non-fictionStory of the 8th Division in the campaigns in Malaya, Singapore, Rabaul, Ambon and Timor where most of the Division was captured by the Japanese in 1942. Also the story of the Australian Prisoners of the Japanese, including Changi and the Burma-Thailand Railway.world war 1939-1945 - australian involvement, world war 1939-1945 - campaigns - south west pacific

Ill, p.224.non-fictionThe unit originally left Australia as a completely Victorian unit but returned with representatives from all Sates in the Commonwealth. The 2/29th Battalion was the fist Victorian unit into action in the Malauan campaign and has the distinction of two set of battle honours, one for the bloody Muar Road battle where the battlion initially and later in association with the 2/19th Battalion held the crack Japanese 5th Division, the Imperial Guards for six days to enable the whole British force to be withdrawn behind Yong Peng, and the second for their part in the battle for Singapore Island. It was during the intial battle with the Japanese Imperial Guards on Sunday, January 18, 1942 that the Battalion with the supporting anti-tank guns of the 2/4th Anti Tank Regiment accounted for 8 Japanese tanks in one morning. Two commanding officers were killed during the Muar Road battle and total casualties for the week were 13 officers and 296 O/R/'s. It was when Lt.-Col. S. A. F. Pond, who took command, set about re-forming the Battalion after Muar that reinforcements from all States joined the unit. The battalion spent 3 1/2 years as P.O.W.'s of the Japanese and a long period of this working on the infamous Burma-Thailand railway where 260 lost their livesworld war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – malaya, australian army - 8th division

Ill, p.60.non-fictionIllustrated story of the infamous death railway between Thailand and Burmaworld war 1939 – 1945 - prisons and prisoners - japanese, prisoners of war - japan - death railway

Ill, maps, index, p.654.non-fictionIn 1939, Ray Parkin was serving on the Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth. At first glance he looked every inch the archetypal petty officer that he was - tough, practical and a model of naval discipline. Yet Ray was no ordinary sailor. Despite a lack of formal education, he had the soul of an artist and a philosopher's enquiring mind. As HMAS Perth was embroiled in war - in the Mediterranean and then in South-East Asia - Ray became both a witness and a chronicler of the conflict through his meticulous diaries and his minutely observed watercolours and sketches. When Perth was sunk off the coast of Java, Ray was one of the survivors. After a valiant attempt to sail back to Australia in a lifeboat, he surrendered and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of the Japanese, first building the Thai-Burma Railway and then working as a slave labourer in a Japanese coalmine. The horrors and privations of those years saw some of his most memorable artwork - documenting both the beauty of the natural world and the savageries and humiliations of the POW ordealprisoners of war - japan - death railway, ex prisoners of war - biography

Index, ill, maps, p.802.non-fictionThe definitive story of the Australian campaign in Southeast Asia during World War II from a leading military writer. Impressive, compelling, and rich in human spirit, this is a scrupulously researched and groundbreaking account of one of the most traumatic calamities in Australian history-the Malayan Campaign, the fall of Singapore, and the subsequent horrors of the Thai-Burma Railway. world war 1939-1945 - australia - military history, world war 1939 – 1945 - prisons and prisoners – australia

Index, ill, maps, p.706.non-fictionOf all the Australians who fought in the Second World War, none saw more action nor endured so much of its hardship and horror as the crew of the cruiser HMAS Perth. Most were young - many were still teenagers - from cities and towns, villages and farms across the nation. In three tumultuous years they did battle with the forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Vichy French and, finally, the Imperial Japanese Navy. Off the coast of Java in March 1942 she met an overwhelming enemy naval force. Firing until her ammunition literally ran out, she was sunk with the loss of 353 of her crew, including her much-loved captain. Another 328 men were taken into Japanese captivity, most to become slave labourers in the infinite hell of the Burma-Thai railway. Many died there. Only 218 men, less than a third of her crew, survived to return home at war's end. This is their story. royal australia navy - history, hmss perth

Book with a red dustjacket, had a photograph of a seated older man on cover and white text on cover and spinenon-fiction'More than forty years ago Sir Edward Dunlop, then a lieutenant-colonel, began these diaries at the start of his imprisonment by the Japanese in Java and on the Burma-Thailand Railway. His meticulous observations of prison camp life were concealed all through the war; by the time peace cam in 1945, he carried with him a unique record of the lives of prisoners-of-war. As a commanding officer and a surgeon, 'Weary' became a hero and a legend to thousands of Australian and allied prisoners, whose lives were saved with meagre medical supplies and the instruments the medical officers carried on their backs through Java and Thai jungles. He says himself: 'Of some 22,000 who entered captivity, more than 7,000 died or were killed. Of their sufferings... only those who were present can fully comprehend the seeming hopelessness of it all as their bodies wasted and their friends died.' Sir Edward describes how the cmps were organised; he records deaths, cholera epidemics, operations, and torture; his own - rare - despair; the movement of prisoners up and down the line; and his constant struggle to protect the sick from being drafted into Japanese work parties. From February 1942 he was in the following Japanese prison camps; Bandoeng, Tjimahi, Makasura, Changi, Konyu, Hintok, Tarsau, Chungkai and Nakom Patom.' [From inside front dust jacket]australian nurses, world war two, wwii, ww2, prisoner of war, japan

Book with a red dustjacket, had a photograph of a seated older man on cover and white text on cover and spinenon-fiction'More than forty years ago Sir Edward Dunlop, then a lieutenant-colonel, began these diaries at the start of his imprisonment by the Japanese in Java and on the Burma-Thailand Railway. His meticulous observations of prison camp life were concealed all through the war; by the time peace cam in 1945, he carried with him a unique record of the lives of prisoners-of-war. As a commanding officer and a surgeon, 'Weary' became a hero and a legend to thousands of Australian and allied prisoners, whose lives were saved with meagre medical supplies and the instruments the medical officers carried on their backs through Java and Thai jungles. He says himself: 'Of some 22,000 who entered captivity, more than 7,000 died or were killed. Of their sufferings... only those who were present can fully comprehend the seeming hopelessness of it all as their bodies wasted and their friends died.' Sir Edward describes how the cmps were organised; he records deaths, cholera epidemics, operations, and torture; his own - rare - despair; the movement of prisoners up and down the line; and his constant struggle to protect the sick from being drafted into Japanese work parties. From February 1942 he was in the following Japanese prison camps; Bandoeng, Tjimahi, Makasura, Changi, Konyu, Hintok, Tarsau, Chungkai and Nakom Patom.' [From inside front dust jacket]australian nurses, world war two, wwii, ww2, prisoner of war, japan