Re: Pat Ritter. Books
Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2016 9:40 pm
'His Life Worth Living' - Page 74:
WED JULY 7: Just work for the past ten days mostly carrying baskets of stone. No rest from Nips. When not working, all time taken by check & mess parades. 8 men escaped from next camp & Nips are holding strict check parades each day. The Army Auth check us out to work with the camp Authorities & then we are checked into the camp after work. Checked again after evening meal & then we have to supply net all night to see that no one goes through. Officers have been paid but Nips have taken most of their money from them in case they go through. We have to be paid soon. I don’t know how soon. Food very fair. Dysentery again this evening after work. Don’t know if they do anything about it when they have finished. There are 21 deaths in camp now. No Cholera but Cerebral Malaria seems to be dangerous. 4 cases & 4 deaths all very sudden. First 2/10 chap died of Jaundice after Cholera. Name G. Cuckson.
WED JULY 14: Have just had 4 days in camp with sore feet. The boots are falling to pieces & the mud & granite chafe the soles of the feet & take all the skin off. We are in a very bad way for footwear & in a month’s time most of us will be bare foot. The rain is almost continuous & work is always in mud & water. We are keeping the road through to Burma from Niki open just enough to feed ourselves. 1 truck only has come through from Bampong end & that took 5 weeks to do the 100 miles journey. More Nips have been going up to Burma. They evidently drag their 2lb guns as far as Niki & then they are loaded on the ration trucks & taken as far as the next camp. Our chaps are driving which is of course contrary to the P.O.W. Laws. I have counted 8 sections of M.G. going up & seems very good material. We have had a complete change of guard here & things have tightened up considerably. We are now fenced in & a guard is on continuously with also an armed moving picket. The new guard are about 30 in number. Each morning & evening they go through a religious ceremony facing the Imperial Palace & chant what we term their Hymn of Hate. It seems to be some sort of prayer to Buddha. There are not so many sick in hospital now but men are more sick on job. They are getting very weary & all of us are praying for a speedy end to the war. There are the most horrible ulcers in the hosp & the bad flesh smells very bad. There is talk of taking them in carables away but do not place much faith in it. Nothing heard of the men who escaped 2 weeks ago. Nips very strict with us now. We are double checked out to work & in. Armed guard to each party & usual check parade after evening meal. Number of deaths 22.
WED JULY 21: Admitted to hosp. sore feet. Boots worn out & gravel & dirt has taken skin off soles of feet. Very sore indeed. Boots are a problem & although the Jap keeps promising them nothing is ever done about them. Well over half have no suitable footwear now. Hosp on much lower scale of rations & will be hungry for while. Scale has improved for workers only. Think that last few days we have done better in quality. Little more beans very little more meat, dried. Tea each night & once we had coffee. Japs have tightened up considerably on checking of numbers & we are counted at least 6 times each day. Only small party on road now. All rest working on railway. Hours have been increased to 10 hours each day & a demand of 100 men each day. Very hard to place 100 fit men & large number unfit. Things must get worse. Lot of stealing going on in lines & I have had my woollen pull over taken. Will miss it badly especially on the job for rain is almost continuous & it does keep me warm. Most of work on railway putting up bridges & wet through & in mud & water all day. Conditions of work very bad now. Officer made trip to Niki to see what they could buy for us. I managed to get 2$ Malacca but am finding it hard to get him to go with it. Lot of men got tobacco but money getting scarce & only Thai money any good so many will get nothing. Nips have not come along with pay yet although they promise each day.
Chapter 19
WED JULY 28: Back in hosp again after 4 days on railway. Feet trouble – boots not being able to keep sand & water out result being skinned with danger of infection. Quite an eventful week. Did work on pile driver for 3 days & 1 day on survey party which were looking for new way for track. So now all work on railway we have done since we have been here has been abandoned. New track although it has the advantages of being higher & dryer & missing all the swamp country seems quite crazy being just a series of hair pin bends & steep graduations. A large number of men moved into camp today. Kappe in charge. Supposed to be all Con men. They certainly seem to have had a very bad time & are very thin indeed. Noticed some of the lads I travelled up with among them & will be pleased to speak to them again. Afraid camp will become very hard now with so many coming in. Numbers not available yet but think will be about 1000. Sick men who are supposed to be going away to Tan Besar have not left yet. There are 50 leaving here some of them very bad cases indeed. Many ulcers here look frightful & to look at them one would think that it would be a relief to cut the limb off. Japs supposed to have said that railway must be finished by Aug 31. They say that Japs are giving their lives for Country & Prisoners must be prepared to do same. The increase in hours per day has been in force & the working day seems endless. We start at 7.30 & finish at 7 pm. We were paid on the 25th July for period from June 21 – July 20 & I got 5$.85. No pay while off work sick. Pay is 25c per day & 10 cents for camp duties. Sergeants & Corps get 40 & 30. The hospital staff who look the only fit men in the camp on account of food they are able to obtain are paid by Red Cross about 9 – 10$ a month. The Sergeant in Charge draws 60$ a month. I feel very bitter on this point for most of them are only parasites.
FRI JULY 30: Still in hosp with bad feet. Coming along good. Large hosp now with new arrivals & will be much bigger when rest of new crowd come. Lot of them suffering from anaemia due to starvation. Parties passed camp this evening evidently bound for next hosp at Tan Besar. Mostly cooks, hosp staff etc. to get things ready. New work going on just at back of camp on railway & is not 100 yds from away from where I lie. They have been grabbing trees which fall anywhere & we have had 2 alarms. The Nips are very careless of danger of life especially in that type of work & blasting in the quarry nearby. We have often been treated to showers of rock & it is marvellous that no one has been killed. The only accident thank goodness was a Nip who had his leg blown off. Since then they have been blasting with battery. Food has suffered badly since the new arrival & we are in a perpetual state of hunger. We have less than half rations of the workers. Japs do not believe in feeding sick men. According to them we should not be sick.
SAT JULY 31: Japs disinfected hosp & Cholera ward today & let the patients all out except 1 who was neg. They sprayed the place fairly well. It is good to see the last of the Choleras & this can be put down to the needle & our own personal cleanliness. Our dead total 27 now & this is a very high percentage out of 400. Work going on the railway apace & we are supposed, so rumour has it, that we will have to finish it by the end of Aug when we will go back to Changi which is just so much bullshit. The weather has eased up past two days & it is very delightful to bask in sunshine again.
TO DOWNLOAD THIS BOOK: CLICK HERE: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/591980.
WED JULY 7: Just work for the past ten days mostly carrying baskets of stone. No rest from Nips. When not working, all time taken by check & mess parades. 8 men escaped from next camp & Nips are holding strict check parades each day. The Army Auth check us out to work with the camp Authorities & then we are checked into the camp after work. Checked again after evening meal & then we have to supply net all night to see that no one goes through. Officers have been paid but Nips have taken most of their money from them in case they go through. We have to be paid soon. I don’t know how soon. Food very fair. Dysentery again this evening after work. Don’t know if they do anything about it when they have finished. There are 21 deaths in camp now. No Cholera but Cerebral Malaria seems to be dangerous. 4 cases & 4 deaths all very sudden. First 2/10 chap died of Jaundice after Cholera. Name G. Cuckson.
WED JULY 14: Have just had 4 days in camp with sore feet. The boots are falling to pieces & the mud & granite chafe the soles of the feet & take all the skin off. We are in a very bad way for footwear & in a month’s time most of us will be bare foot. The rain is almost continuous & work is always in mud & water. We are keeping the road through to Burma from Niki open just enough to feed ourselves. 1 truck only has come through from Bampong end & that took 5 weeks to do the 100 miles journey. More Nips have been going up to Burma. They evidently drag their 2lb guns as far as Niki & then they are loaded on the ration trucks & taken as far as the next camp. Our chaps are driving which is of course contrary to the P.O.W. Laws. I have counted 8 sections of M.G. going up & seems very good material. We have had a complete change of guard here & things have tightened up considerably. We are now fenced in & a guard is on continuously with also an armed moving picket. The new guard are about 30 in number. Each morning & evening they go through a religious ceremony facing the Imperial Palace & chant what we term their Hymn of Hate. It seems to be some sort of prayer to Buddha. There are not so many sick in hospital now but men are more sick on job. They are getting very weary & all of us are praying for a speedy end to the war. There are the most horrible ulcers in the hosp & the bad flesh smells very bad. There is talk of taking them in carables away but do not place much faith in it. Nothing heard of the men who escaped 2 weeks ago. Nips very strict with us now. We are double checked out to work & in. Armed guard to each party & usual check parade after evening meal. Number of deaths 22.
WED JULY 21: Admitted to hosp. sore feet. Boots worn out & gravel & dirt has taken skin off soles of feet. Very sore indeed. Boots are a problem & although the Jap keeps promising them nothing is ever done about them. Well over half have no suitable footwear now. Hosp on much lower scale of rations & will be hungry for while. Scale has improved for workers only. Think that last few days we have done better in quality. Little more beans very little more meat, dried. Tea each night & once we had coffee. Japs have tightened up considerably on checking of numbers & we are counted at least 6 times each day. Only small party on road now. All rest working on railway. Hours have been increased to 10 hours each day & a demand of 100 men each day. Very hard to place 100 fit men & large number unfit. Things must get worse. Lot of stealing going on in lines & I have had my woollen pull over taken. Will miss it badly especially on the job for rain is almost continuous & it does keep me warm. Most of work on railway putting up bridges & wet through & in mud & water all day. Conditions of work very bad now. Officer made trip to Niki to see what they could buy for us. I managed to get 2$ Malacca but am finding it hard to get him to go with it. Lot of men got tobacco but money getting scarce & only Thai money any good so many will get nothing. Nips have not come along with pay yet although they promise each day.
Chapter 19
WED JULY 28: Back in hosp again after 4 days on railway. Feet trouble – boots not being able to keep sand & water out result being skinned with danger of infection. Quite an eventful week. Did work on pile driver for 3 days & 1 day on survey party which were looking for new way for track. So now all work on railway we have done since we have been here has been abandoned. New track although it has the advantages of being higher & dryer & missing all the swamp country seems quite crazy being just a series of hair pin bends & steep graduations. A large number of men moved into camp today. Kappe in charge. Supposed to be all Con men. They certainly seem to have had a very bad time & are very thin indeed. Noticed some of the lads I travelled up with among them & will be pleased to speak to them again. Afraid camp will become very hard now with so many coming in. Numbers not available yet but think will be about 1000. Sick men who are supposed to be going away to Tan Besar have not left yet. There are 50 leaving here some of them very bad cases indeed. Many ulcers here look frightful & to look at them one would think that it would be a relief to cut the limb off. Japs supposed to have said that railway must be finished by Aug 31. They say that Japs are giving their lives for Country & Prisoners must be prepared to do same. The increase in hours per day has been in force & the working day seems endless. We start at 7.30 & finish at 7 pm. We were paid on the 25th July for period from June 21 – July 20 & I got 5$.85. No pay while off work sick. Pay is 25c per day & 10 cents for camp duties. Sergeants & Corps get 40 & 30. The hospital staff who look the only fit men in the camp on account of food they are able to obtain are paid by Red Cross about 9 – 10$ a month. The Sergeant in Charge draws 60$ a month. I feel very bitter on this point for most of them are only parasites.
FRI JULY 30: Still in hosp with bad feet. Coming along good. Large hosp now with new arrivals & will be much bigger when rest of new crowd come. Lot of them suffering from anaemia due to starvation. Parties passed camp this evening evidently bound for next hosp at Tan Besar. Mostly cooks, hosp staff etc. to get things ready. New work going on just at back of camp on railway & is not 100 yds from away from where I lie. They have been grabbing trees which fall anywhere & we have had 2 alarms. The Nips are very careless of danger of life especially in that type of work & blasting in the quarry nearby. We have often been treated to showers of rock & it is marvellous that no one has been killed. The only accident thank goodness was a Nip who had his leg blown off. Since then they have been blasting with battery. Food has suffered badly since the new arrival & we are in a perpetual state of hunger. We have less than half rations of the workers. Japs do not believe in feeding sick men. According to them we should not be sick.
SAT JULY 31: Japs disinfected hosp & Cholera ward today & let the patients all out except 1 who was neg. They sprayed the place fairly well. It is good to see the last of the Choleras & this can be put down to the needle & our own personal cleanliness. Our dead total 27 now & this is a very high percentage out of 400. Work going on the railway apace & we are supposed, so rumour has it, that we will have to finish it by the end of Aug when we will go back to Changi which is just so much bullshit. The weather has eased up past two days & it is very delightful to bask in sunshine again.
TO DOWNLOAD THIS BOOK: CLICK HERE: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/591980.