VP 70: Townsville POWs remember how ‘mateship’ kept them alive
In August 1946, Townsville ex-prisoners of war met to celebrate their first year of freedom. Here are some of their stories.
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SIXTY Townsville ex-prisoners of war met on the first anniversary of the Victory in the Pacific, in August 1946, to celebrate their first year of freedom.
“With little thought of the past, they recaptured that valuable spirit of camaraderie which stood them in such good stead in their worst moments,” the Townsville Daily Bulletin reported on August 17, 1946.
Now 70 years since their ordeal, the Townsville Bulletin remembers their hearts, minds and pride for a nation they defended.
Roderick Anderson
WWII veteran Roderick Anderson knows all too well the trauma of being held in a POW camp after being held in Changi.
He was a Major in the AIF Eighth Division’s 2/30 Battalion.
To him it was mateship that gave the Australian POWs an edge in Singapore and on the Thai-Burma Railway.
“The outstanding thing about Australian prisoners was that they were cleaner. They had more hygiene than other prisoners,” he said.
“The biggest thing was that each man had a mate and you and your mate did everything together.
“I’ve seen fellows come back from a work party.
“They might get three spoonfuls of rice and two of beans and they would go straight to the sick bay and give it to a mate and try to make them eat.
“Even today they tell you when you join the army, the way to get through is with a mate. “When you were a POW, if you lost your mate, it was the worst possible thing that could happen.”
Sidney King
WWII veteran Sidney King was just 22 when he was captured by the Japanese in Malaya while serving with the 2/20th Battalion brass band.
During his time in captivity, Mr King spent a short time in the infamous Changi prison camp and unloaded freighters in the Great World Amusement Park in Singapore.
He was later sent to a camp along the Burma/Thailand Railway and was also a POW in Japan.
After surviving cholera and dysentery he was finally released at the end of the war after three-and-a-half years in captivity. He weighed just 40kg.
After the war, Mr King retuned to Sydney, began a carpentry apprenticeship and met his future wife, Ellen, originally from Charters Towers.
The family moved to Bowen in the 1960s and Townsville in the 1990s.
Mr King died in late 2013, age 93.
Jeff Caddies
JEFF Caddies was one of 135 men out of an initial 1500 to survive a string of the most notorious POW camps in the Pacific theatre of war.
He was in Singapore when the Japanese captured him and was marched into Changi for two years.
That was followed by a year-and-a-half of marching through Hellfire Gap where he was working on the Myanmar railway before being put on a barge and taken to Japan to work in a mine and steel factory.
The factory was only across a bay from Hiroshima and Mr Caddies and his comrades witnessed, eventually, the historic bombing.
During his dark times, Mr Caddies won eternal gratitude from his mates for keeping his spirits high with a handmade ukulele.
Herbert ‘Bert’ Parnell
WARRANT Officer Class One, Herbert ‘Bert’ Parnell survived a bullet wound to the chest then three years as a prisoner of war on the Thai-Burma Railway.
He went on to live a long and fruitful life as a teacher and mentor to students at Garbutt State School.
Bert was 29 when he enlisted to fight for his country during WWII.
He was taken prisoner after being shot by a Japanese sniper while riding in the cap of a truck in Singapore.
When the Japanese army descended on the hospital, the patients were evacuated but Bert was too ill to be moved. He was left with only a sheet covering his head for protection.
He spent the next three years suffering horrendous conditions on the railway.
He was allowed to send one postcard home each year.
Bert told his wife Vera he was still alive with the words, “Chin up, fondest love.”
Later, Bert joined 800 non-commissioned British soldiers on a gruelling 600km march from Nakom Nyok to Pitsanloke on Japanese orders.
As a detachment leader he was responsible for the safety of hundreds of men.
His heroic leadership was credited for ensuring only three prisoners died in the face of rampant malaria, exhaustion and injury.
The Japanese surrendered when the group reached Pitsanloke and one of Bert’s captors gave his samurai sword and pistol to the Australian soldier.
David Lang
THE thrilling tale of war hero David Lang has been immortalised at the North Queensland Army Museum where his medals are on display.
Lang was the first Australian Prisoner of War to escape from the Germans, by hanging underneath a moving train for more than 13 hours.
The young forward scout was serving with 2nd/8th Infantry Battalion 6th Division when he was captured by the Germans.
He was transferred to a POW camp in Bavaria and after being assigned to work on the railways, hatched a daring escape plan which involved saving up the rope which the Red Cross packages were tied up with to make hammocks to sling underneath carriages.
While two others pulled out at the last minute due to fear of freezing in the blizzard which had blown in, together with a British soldier, Mr Lang made it to Switzerland.
He was helped to get back to England by the renowned freedom fighters the French Resistance even meeting legendary Australian Nancy Wake, known as the White Mouse.
Mr Lang was so desperate to get home he even declined the invitation to have his Distinguished Conduct Medal personally presented to him by King George VI and sailed for home arriving in Melbourne just after his 21st birthday.
Despite his ordeal, Mr Lang still went on to serve a further 13 months in Papua New Guinea as a gunner.
Originally published as VP 70: Townsville POWs remember how ‘mateship’ kept them alive
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