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5953948
Private
William Sidney Brown
Known as Billy
1916/12/19 - Born Norwich, Norfolk
Son of William Sidney Brown
Occupation Warehouseman
1940 - Married Alice L.M. Cooper in Norwich, Norfolk
1940/04/03 - Enlisted Aged 24
Next of kin:- Wife, Mrs Alice Nora May Brown
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment
5th Battalion
HQ-6 Plt-M.T.
This brief history is compiled from Private William Brown’s notes
by Michael Brown and Martyn Fryer
Billy was called up and with his friend Reggie Herrell, enlisted at Colgate, Norwich, into the 6th Battalion Bedford and Hertfordshire Regiment on the 3rd April 1940. Two weeks later he was ordered to Romford, then to Woodbridge in Suffolk where he was attached to A Company as a storeman. Here he commenced basic training, fitted out with his uniform and kit and billeted in a bungalow opposite the grammar school.
Courtesy of Michael Brown
From here Billy was posted to Northumberland where the 6th Battalion were involved in guard duty at local RAF aerodromes and the coal port at Blyth. Billy had his first seven days home leave in October of 1940 and returned to Norwich.
Upon return from leave, Billy was posted to Toddington in Glostershire where he put on a charge almost at once due to his comments about the state of the billet! It was following this within 24 hours that Billy received his transfer papers to the 5th Battalion, HQ Company (HQ 6 Platoon).
His next move took him to Galashiels in Scotland where the 5th Battalion were on exercise combat training in the snow. When he arrived, no one had been aware of his transfer and he was given odd jobs cleaning weapons.
The next move was to Uttoxeter in Staffordshire where the entire battalion were all billeted in the main street of the town. After two weeks a driver came to the camp and asked “is your name Brown”? “Get your gear and get in the car”. Billy was taken to a camp on the outskirts of town and told to report to Captain Corner, who asked when he arrived, “where have you been for the past two weeks?”, following which he was given the job as technical storeman attached to headquarters looking after petrol dumps.
Under canvas at Merrivale Park, Courtesy of Roy Housden
Rumours of mobilisation were now being circulated as the battalion was moved to Merrivale Park at Atherstone where they camped under canvas, before transferring to Whittington barracks to await embarkation orders. Embarkation leave commenced in October 1941 before the battalion moved to Birkenhead on 29 October to Embark the SS Reina Del Pacifico, bound for Halifax Nova Scotia. Here they met with the Convoy William Sail and transferred to the troop ship, the USS West Point. They sailed down the east coast of the USA to Trinidad before crossing the Atlantic to South Africa and India. When crossing the equator, the first timers got a dunking and hot cross bun haircuts from the American sailors if caught!
At South Africa all the men were met at the port by local families and taken to see the sights that Cape Town could offer, Table Mountain etc. With the Japanese surprise attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbour and the threat of the looming invasion down the Malayan peninsular, the convoy originally destined for Basra in the Persian Gulf is diverted to Bombay in India. The West Point disembarked at Bombay and the troops were put on trains and taken to Ahmednagar for two to three weeks where they acclimatised and commenced training for Jungle warfare. They returned to Bombay and embarked the awaiting West Point to take them to Singapore arriving on 29January.
Christmas day on the West Point was at sea in the Indian Ocean and Billy recalls his Christmas Lunch as being special with, Turkey and trimmings, fruit and second helpings as the ship rolled badly and full of Christmas cheer, it was difficult returning to their cabins.
The battalion disembarked at Singapore and were hastily transported away to Birdwood camp where they remained for three days, before being moved to the Northern sector and the defence of Seletar aerodrome. Billy recalled the aerodrome was deserted when they arrived and the only aircraft left was a one engined Catalina. As they entered the buildings, they came across the mess hall which had been hastily abandoned, with food still on the plates as if they had left in an emergency.
Northern Sector (18 Division)
From Seletar the Battalion was moved to take up positions at Hills 80 and 105 at MacRitchie Reservoir, where Billy described the following:
The first incident Billy recalled was when in a convoy of transports involving the men, Pte Ernest Rackley, Signals and L/Cpl John Phillips, MT. The convoy was under way when it came under enemy mortar fire; the location of the attack is unknown. Billy was travelling in an adjacent lorry, when the lorry driven by Rackley and Phillips took a direct hit from a bomb that exploded beneath their transport, causing devastating injury. Phillips sustained a compound fracture to his left femur and right arm. Rackley was less fortunate; he received fatal injuries, and died in the ambulance on the way to the Civil General Hospital.
When the MT section arrived at MacRitchie Reservoir, it took a rear battalion area that was also subjected to a heavy bombardment of shelling and mortar fire. Billy was in company with Pte Edmund Billing, HQ 6 Platoon, and Pte Alexander Sutherland. Sutherland was a Scotsman (RAOC) who had become attached to the Beds and Herts, and he and Billy teamed up together and fought out the remainder of the battle together. A degree of luck and quick decision-making was now critical in sealing a man’s fate, especially since command was scarce with troops from all units falling back through the lines to seek cover. Billy was faced with one such decision when, in company with Billing, they came under intense mortar fire. Billing said, “Let’s take cover in one of these godowns” to which Billy replied, “No, I’m not going in there, I’ll stay out here and watch these things coming over”. Billing went off alone to seek cover within the godown, so Billy and Sutherland climbed into a nearby drainage ditch and observed the mortar fire filling the sky above; this was all well and good until the shells started dropping close to the ditch. After a close call, with a burst of machine gun fire passing between them as they rose up out of the drain, they took cover in a nearby air-raid shelter full of Chinese. Within moments of this, the godown where Billing had gone received a direct hit and burst into flames. Captain Wormleighton arrived shortly after the incident when the mortaring had eased, and asked the question “Is anyone in that godown?” Billy replied, “Yes sir, Billing”. “Get in there and collect his dog tags”, ordered Wormleighton, but it was too late; the godown was already a blazing inferno and it was impossible to enter safely. Billy and Sutherland were then ordered to load the Chinese from the shelter on to transports and take them into the city. Billing’s body is recorded as having been collected by the unit and buried at Hill 105.
Final line of defence at MacRitchie Reservoir and Hill 105
Billing was not the only casualty of the attack. Driver Pte Joseph Ginn, former driver for Lt Col Thomas during training in England, was struck in the face by mortar shrapnel, which pierced through his cheek leaving a gaping wound. He was given crude field first aid with rag dressings made from what was available in order to stem the bleeding. Ginn later made a remarkable recovery from his ordeal, mainly due to the care and attention administered by Billy in Changi. Billy cleaned and prepared the rag dressing at regular intervals with a solution of permanganate of potash until the wound was completely healed, to the point where you could hardly see it.
At capitulation, Billy made the long march to Changi and found the area to be close to ruins upon arrival and the battalion was given tents at the old prison. Here they had to clear a plantation for the Japanese to occupy and stacks of books and furniture was destroyed. Over the coming weeks a roster was put in place where a POW’s went out with Japanese on day jobs. Billy was sent into Singapore as a labourer with a friendly Japanese soldier trying to learn a little English from the prisoners. He was described by Billy as, “he was filthy and stank to high heavens and on top of which, was a terrible driver”!
Japanese Index Card - Side One
Japanese Index Card - Side Two
During April Billy was sent to the Sime Road camp, often referred to as “Bukit Timah”. Here 550 of the Beds and Herts were set to work on the construction of the Japanese Shinto Shrine in the MacRitchie water catchment. Billy can remember working on the steps leading up to the shrine with Australian POW’s.
In October of 1942, Billy was sent to Thailand with a group of 64 Beds and Herts, led by Lt Cyril Kimsey. The party left Singapore on the 17th October, confirmed in the War Dairy and Billy’s Index card and was known as the “1st Bukit Timah Party”, led by Lt Col Baker of the 5th Suffolk’s. On arrival at Ban Pong, the Beds and Herts party was sent on to Chungkai, however, due to illness; Lt Kimsey remained at Ban Pong and in Group 1.
Their first stop was at Aerodrome Camp in Kanchanaburi, before being marched to Chungkai camp where they worked on camp construction and the Chungkai cutting, which was just one metre deep at this time. Billy remembers working on bore holes for the explosives and hammer and tap, as well as when the camp flooded.
From this point Billy’s recollections of his time in Thailand becomes vague and he did not list any of his camps on his Liberation Questionnaire, apart from his camp leader as being Lt Col Johnson from October 43 to July 44. The Beds and Herts in Group 2 at Chungkai were formed into No.1 Work Battalion under Major Dobbs. No.1 Battalion mostly were at Chungkai, Wang Takhian, Ban Khao, Wang Pho North, Lower Tha Khanun, Tha Khanun base camp and Dobbs camp. Billy recalls looking after Major Woods when he had Dysentery, but cannot remember where, collecting orchids for Lt Col Johnson and gave blood for Johnny Wilderink at Chungkai, which is confirmed to have been on 10 September 1943.
Billy’s blood transfusion donation, 10 September 1943
Billy’s notes also include, putting ballast under sleepers, working on tree felling at Wang Pho and remembers a water fall near Lin thin! The POW camps Billy listed post-war include, Tha Sao, Lin Thin, Tha Khanun and Ni Thea, but are not confirmed.
Throughout Billy’s captivity he has not appeared in any of the hospital records. Due to his good health he was selected for the Japan Parties and was transported back to Singapore and embarked the Asaka Maru with Japan Party 2 (J28). The Asaka Maru met with typhoons enroute and was forced aground, following which the prisoners were transferred to life boats and on to a frigate, then the Hakusan Maru to complete their Journey to Mogi, Japan. It was cold and wet when they arrived and were put on trains for transport to Osaka # 13B, Tsumori where Billy worked in the machine shop. On the train journey they were not allowed to look out of the windows and had to sit on the floor.
Tsumori POW Camp
Billy’s experience at Tsumori was work in the machine shop where his Japanese guard would slip out daily and disappear until about 4pm, returning when the day’s work was nearly done. During the bombing of Osaka, Billy was sent out on working parties to help clean away the debris and the making good of local infrastructure. Billy’s final camp in Japan was Hiroshima POW Camp #3-B Tamano, following which, he was liberated and made passage home on the USS Sanctuary, HMAS Glory via Hawaii and the USA, with his final leg home across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary.
Liberation Questionnaire
1945/10/23 - WO417/98, Casualty List No. 1891. Previously shown on Casualty List No. 1349 as reported Prisoner of War now Not Prisoner of War. Previous Theatre of War, Malaya
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Pacific Star
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War Medal
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1939-1945 Star
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Died
Age 105
June 2022
Information
Martyn Fryer - Author of ‘From the Woodlands to the Jungle’
Michael Brown - Son
Andrew Snow - Thailand Burma Railway Centre
Liberation Questionnaire - COFEPOW
KEW Records:- WO 345/7, WO 361/2005, WO 361/1960, WO 361/1982, WO 361/1977, WO 392/23, WO 361/1367, WO 361/2058, WO 361/2167, WO 361/2167, WO 361/2176, WO 361/1963,
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