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Burma
Liberated Rangoon Jail
Interrogation and Treatment
Interrogation 5
A ball gunner, in a Liberator with all four engines out on 6th January 1945, mistook instructions and baled out. As he was going down he saw the aircraft holding its course with all four engines running again.
The gunner landed safely in the Jungle south east of Ananquin and started walking in a north-easterly direction, sleeping out at night, and continuing the next day and the followidg night. On the third day, having used some of his emergenoy rations he found himself on a track which appeared to lead to a vulage so he decided to ask for help.
The villagers appeared quite friendly and hid him in a cave because they said there were Japanese In the vicinity. During the same afternoon the village headman took him to his own house under an armed guard and cared for him until the arrival of the Japanese to whom he was handed over.
The Japanese Officer In charge of the party warned him that he was now a Prisoner of War and that if he behaved correctly he would be well treated.
Late the same night they arrived at Ananquin, some 12 miles distant. The PoW was given bed and blankets in the barracks, and the following morning he was taken to Thanbyuzayat and in the afternoon left in a truck for Moulmein.
Throughout this journey the treatment received by the PoW was strlctly correct and fair.
At Moulmein he was kept at the Missionary School which was being used as a barracks and during the night he was beaten up and kicked by an individual whom he thought to be the Orderly Sergeany.
The next mornlng an Officer produced a questionnaire which took, all day and part of the next day to answer. The questions weré mainly about aircraft on which the Japanese appeared to have a good deal of correct Information. The PoW managed to
convince them that he was unable to answer some of the technical questions as he was only an air gunner. In addition there were a number of general questions about the conditions in Service and civilian life in India and about the prisoner’s family.
The nextafternoon he was takep across the airfield which had been heavily blitzed and he noticed that the hangars and run-wayg were considerably damaged and were partly overgrown with grass. On the far side of the field he was again interrogated in a small building on exactly the same lines as before. After this he returned to Military Police H.Q. and left the following evening by train for Rangoon.
Interrogator's Note:
The above report is of particular interest as although the PoW landéd in the neighbourhood of Ananquin he was not taken eastwards down tho ranway as might have been expected but was returned to Moulmein. Having arrived at Moulmein Jail, instead of being placed in Moulmein Jail, the Japanese took the trouble of sending him North to Rangoon. It is possible that the explanation for this is that the Japanese inisist on all Air Force personnel being interrogated at J.A.F. HQ, which in this paticular case was situated at Judson College, Rangoon
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