Anzac Day: Bob Christie was a POW who survived the horrific conditions working on the infamous Thai Burma railway in WWII

WWII veteran Bob Christie recalls the horrible conditions of his time as a prisoner of war on the infamous Thai Burma railway where many of his mates died.

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FOR more than 3½ years, Bob Christie kept a diary of his time as a prisoner of war under the Japanese.

Like its owner, the small brown diary is now worn and ­battered, but survived a multitude of hardships and ­horrors.

A gunner with the Australian Imperial Force’s 2/10th Field Regiment, Mr Christie, of Wynnum West, was among the 22,000 Australians imprisoned by the Japanese when Singapore fell on February 15, 1942.

“It came as a shock when we were told to stop firing,” Mr Christie said.

On March 16, 1943, after time in Changi Prison camp, Mr Christie was sent north by train to work on the Thai- Burma rail, known as the “Death Railway”.

“There were 35 of us in a steel-box carriage with no ventilation or toilet – it was very cramped,” he said.

He arrived at what is now known as Hellfire Pass on April 25, 1943. Mr Christie said conditions in the camp were absolutely shocking.

“If you didn’t work, you didn’t get any food,” he said.

“We were treated terribly – bashings were the order of the day.”

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When the war ended in August 1945, Mr Christie’s weight had dropped from 60kg to 34kg after he suffered malnutrition, dysentery and malaria. He said he survived as a POW because of his mates, although he never contemplated the idea of dying.

“If you didn’t have a mate, you’d die,” he said. “But I always had a feeling some day we’d be released.”

Mr Christie said he did not harbour any resentment to young Japanese as they were not part of World War II.

A photo of WWII veteran Bob Christie soon after he joined the AIF at 19.

“But the older ones – I can’t forgive them for the tortures and what they did to the boys,” he said.

Mr Christie said he would like to see a peaceful world.

“But I don’t suppose we ever will,” he said.

Now 93, Mr Christie is the youngest of only nine out of 875 in his regiment who are still alive.

If you are a veteran with a story to tell or know someone who does, please phone news editor Judith Maizey on 3826 2619.

Originally published as Anzac Day: Bob Christie was a POW who survived the horrific conditions working on the infamous Thai Burma railway in WWII