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Sheet Two that we had to stay in our tents, but the Japs themselves were away like frightened rabbits to the jungle and did not return until the raid had finished, we were, however, lucky as no bombs were drooped. in our vicinity that night. It was the following morning that we were again ordered to be ready to leave, the Jap made a rough inspection and picked out some of the worst cases suffering from Dysentry, Beri Berl, etc., as being unfit to travel, of these there were 82, I being one of them. The remaining party of 517 men left KOCOPO in the early afternoon, our party being ordered out to salute our men as they left we saw them go aboard a ship in the harbour, that was approximately November 13th. 1942. Capt. Dance R.A. 3rd R.A. Regt. R.A., Capt. H.M. Oxley R.A. and Capt. McCoubrey R.A. were the three senior officers that remained. with our party, we were minus a Medical Officer but L/Bdr. Blythe 35th L.A.A. Regt. who was a medical orderly did wonderful work for the sick. Supplies of medical, kit were practically non existent but nevertheless he was on his feet day and night caring for the sick and yet he was very often told by the Japs that he would have his head cut off if they did not get more men for a working party because although we were left behind as unfit to travel with the main party we had to still find 50 men to work daily on unloading ships. It was more than flesh and blood could stand especially when all were suffering from disease and malnutrition consequently our men began to die off and by December 30th 1942 we had lost 6 men but still this made no impression on the Japanese, their treatment continued the same, as cold blooded as ever and no attempt was made to increase the scanty allowance of medical supplies which were now totally inadequate to the extreme. They were, however, like scavengers feeding off the dead, always ready to exchange watches, rings, fountain pens and the like for quinine and food. We battle on against heavy odds, the brutality of the guards, who were of a very sadistic temperament, proving more, at times, than it seems now that human nature can stand and still survive. Only one of them could. speak English, and he very gutturally, coupled also with the fact that he was of very low medical capacity. On March 13th 1943 we had to move our camp about a mile and the day chosen for the move was anything but ideal, it rained heavily, and this move in the downpour hastened on the death of four of our men. We were told to pitch our tents on the sodden wet ground, these tents, having almost useless when we had received them months before, offered little or no protection against the downpour, which meant that in the rain we had to sit up with our ground sheets over our only blanket however, in one respect we were fortunate, our guards were changed and the new wards proved more human than their predecessors, one being a Christian whose English was almost perfect. By this time we were all so weak and helpless that they did not ask us to walk, but this respite was short lived. In May we had again to provide working parties, but this time the work was not so strenuous nor the hours so long. Nevertheless the strain was beginning to tell. A change of guards again in October 1943 brought conditions back as bad as they had ever been. A continual source of strife being the fact that the guard who termed himself interpreter was hopelessly incompetent. His knowledge of English was very poor with the result that many of our men were misunderstood and received a beating up, often for no reason at all. Daily we went in dread of our lives. It re as early in October that we blotted our copy book. Three of our men, L/Bdr. Aherne and Gnr. Fowler (7th Coast Regt R.A.) with Gun Garbett of the 3rd A.A. Regt. went outside the perimeter wire to try to find some food. They were successful in their attempt, and arrived, back with 86 1 lb. tins of fish, which they had borrowed from a Jap food dump while the Jap guards were having their afternoon siesta. They naturally repeated the trip a little later on and again were successful, but, possibly due to the fact that they got a little over confident, this resulted in one of them getting caught, who, under duress, gave away the names of his two confederates. The punishment meted out to them was a brutal beating, and they were forced to stand to attention outside the Jap guard room for 48 hours. During the whole of this time they were beaten at intervals by the Jap Orderly Officer, Orderly Sergeant and Orderly N.C.O.
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