Australian POWs in Thailand

Dunlop Force

Our emaciated, cadaverous bodies were covered in rags, we were all barefooted with bandages covering our ulcers and we were almost all rotten with malaria and beri beri. … our own Black Jack Galleghan, the Iron Commander of the A.I.F. at Changi … was shocked to the point of silence and tears.

[Stan Arneil, describing the return of F Force to Changi in December 1943, One Man's War, Sydney, Alterative Publishing, nd, p 154]

The first Australians to arrive in Thailand were Dunlop Force. Lieutenant Colonel Ernest 'Weary' Dunlop commanded nearly 900 troops.

They were part of a much larger force, including more than 8,000 Dutch troops. The force left Java in early January 1943. They travelled to Thailand via Changi in Singapore. They arrived by train in Ban Pong in late January. Then they were trucked about 130 km north-west to the Konyu region.

Here, half the force struggled down a steep mountainside on foot to Konyu River camp. A group of British prisoners, already established there, were in poor health.

Over the next 2 months, the Japanese organised the Australians into O and P Battalions. The Australians carved a new camp out of the jungle. The Japanese then ordered them to join the other half of Dunlop Force and part of D Force at Hintok Mountain camp, west towards Burma (now Myanmar).

The prisoners at Hintok Mountain camp were tasked with working on a section of the railway. This stretched from the 7 m embankment beyond Hellfire Pass (Konyu Cutting).

The worksite was some kilometres from the camp. The men had an exhausting walk at the end of each long working day. They had to climb steep hills made treacherous by the monsoonal conditions.

AWM ART91810

D Force

D Force had more than 2,220 Australians and some 2,800 British prisoners. It was sent from Singapore to Thailand in mid-to-late March 1943.

The Australians, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Cranston McEachern, were immediately split into 4 'battalion' workforces (S, T, U, V). These were then spread, and later regularly moved, across worksites stretching from Wampo and Tha Sao in the south to Kinsaiyok in the north.

McEachern's headquarters and S Battalion were based at Hintok Mountain camp. D Force never functioned as an integrated unit.

In late April 1943, 400 men of T Battalion moved from Wampo to the Konyu region to join a force of British prisoners and rōmusha (civilian labourers) working on the section of the railway stretching from present-day Tampi to the 7 m embankment.

It was these Australians, together with a group that soon joined them from H Force, who were involved in the excavation of Hellfire Pass.

F Force

F Force, with around 7,000 Australians and British, left Changi by train on 16 April 1943.

After arriving at Ban Pong, they were forced to march to sections of the railway nearly 300 km up country.

Conditions on the march were appalling. The Japanese had made little provision for accommodation, food and cooking facilities. Even water was in short supply.

At times, the staging posts were camps already occupied by Australians. They provided as much food as they could. But other staging posts already used by rōmusha were filthy. Cholera broke out at Konkoita only a few days after the Australians passed through.

To avoid the heat, which was at its most intense in April, the prisoners marched at night, for as much as 12 to 15 hours.

When the monsoonal rains began in May, the 'road' became impossibly slippery and treacherous. Many of the men, who had been unfit even before leaving Changi, collapsed and dropped out of the march. The Japanese objected violently, and some were executed or bashed and left to die. Some of the luckier ones were helped to camp by a mate. Eventually, the Japanese insisted that all officers and medical equipment be left at a rear headquarters beyond Tha Sao.

During the march, a group of 700 Australians under Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Pond were detached to work on bridges and road construction. This occurred at various locations in the region of Konkoita and Tha Khanun. The area was cholera-infested and working conditions were extremely difficult. The survivors of the group were consolidated with the rest of F Force at Songkurai later in the year.

The bulk of F Force arrived utterly exhausted in mid-May at Shimo (Lower) Ni Thea (Nieke). This became the local headquarters. Most of the Australians under Lieutenant Colonel Charles Kappe were then put to work at Shimo (Lower) Songkurai and Kami (Upper) Songkurai.

In these remote and primitive camps, the acute supply problems were aggravated. F Force was under the administration of the Imperial Japanese Army Malay Command. Most other POWs in the region were under Japan's Thai administration. The arrangements for these forces were inferior. The 2 administrations competed rather than cooperated in managing the workers under their control.

Profoundly malnourished, overworked and ravaged by diseases, including cholera, F Force suffered one of the highest death rates on the railway. Some 1,060 Australians and 2,036 British died.

Learn more about the camps of F Force

AWM P02569.192

H Force

H Force, comprising nearly 3,300 men, also had the disadvantage of being under Malay Command. The group included 600 Australians commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Roland Oakes.

Arriving at Ban Pong from Singapore in mid-May 1943, H Force then had to walk to various work sites along a 20 km stretch of the railway between Tonchan and Hintok.

Given the heat and the fact they were carrying too much equipment, men arrived at their destination in the last stage of exhaustion. They were staggering and swaying like drunks.

Most of Hintok H Force was located at Malay Hamlet (also sometimes called Konyu 2). From here, they were employed on the excavation of the railway cutting at Hellfire Pass (Konyu Cutting).

A group of H Force officers (known as H6 Officers Party) included 69 Australians. They were located at Tonchan South. Here, they were forced to undertake manual work, in breach of the Geneva convention. They protested that as officers they should do only administration. They were also forced to bury the rōmusha dead from the camps surrounding them.

H Force was the last major workforce sent from Changi. It included many prisoners who were older and already in poor health. They succumbed easily to the illnesses prevalent across the railway. This included cholera, which broke out in most camps in June.

In early July, the Japanese agreed to evacuate the most seriously ill to Kanchanaburi hospital. Later in 1943, the Tonchan South camp itself was abandoned. The remaining 'fit' of the H6 Party were dispersed to other locations. These included Hintok River camp, Hintok Mountain camp and Konkoita.

K Force and L Force

The last Australians to be sent to Thailand were members of 2 multinational medical groups. These were known as K and L Force.

By mid-1943, the Japanese could no longer ignore the appalling casualties among the rōmusha. The labourers had no medical officers to treat them.

Arriving in Thailand in June and August 1943, many of K and L force (which included nearly 130 Australians) were dispersed in small groups among the Asian labour camps. There was little they could do to stem the soaring death rate. Others stayed in the base hospital at Kanchanaburi, where they treated the sick of H and F Force.

After the railway

After the railway was completed in October 1943, some Australians remained in Thailand to do maintenance work on the railway and construct defence works.

Most of the Australians were moved to Singapore and Vietnam. Some were shipped from there to Japan. Tragically, some died on the sea voyage as a result of the Allied submarine attack. Japan refused to agree to mark ships carrying prisoners.

The death rate among POWs working in Thailand varied according to location. The death rate was:

• 29% in F Force
• 27% in H Force
• 18% in D Force

These statistics show that although Hellfire Pass (Konyu Cutting) has become synonymous with the suffering and maltreatment on the Burma-Thailand Railway, it was not in fact the worst experience of captivity in Thailand.

Commemoration of those who died

The Australian Government conducts a commemorative Anzac Day Dawn Service at Konyu Cutting in Thailand, also known as ‘Hellfire Pass’. Learn more about Anzac Day services in Thailand.

The dead from Thailand and Burma are buried at 3 locations maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission:

• Kanchanaburi War Cemetery (Thailand)
• Chungkai War Cemetery (Thailand)
• Thanbyzayat War Cemetery (Myanmar)

Visitors to Thailand can see the Hellfire Pass Interpretive Centre and Memorial Walking Trail.

People can also download the Hellfire Pass Interpretive Centre Audio Guide.