1000 Days On The River Kwai

Author : Cary Owtram
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
Page : 213 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2017-05-31
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781473897823

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1000 Days on the River Kwai by Cary Owtram Pdf

A British officer recounts his harrowing years as a POW in Thailand, including his time as the camp commandant, in this WWII memoir. Colonel Cary Owtram served with the 137th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, and the 11th Indian Infantry Division in Malaysia. After being captured by the Japanese in Singapore, he was transported to the infamous Burma railway. He went on to spend the next three and a half years in grueling captivity in Thailand, first in Ban Pong Camp and then Chungkai Camp—one of the largest POW camps in the region. Owtram was appointed the British Camp Commandant at Chungkai, making him responsible for his fellow prisoners—a heavy responsibility added to the general deprivation and hardship suffered by all. During that time, Owtram kept a secret diary in which he recorded the brutal experience of surviving day to day and attempting to deal with their harsh and unpredictable Japanese captors. It is not only the prisoners who suffered, but also their families at home. The postscript by Owtram’s daughters vividly demonstrates the agonies of doubt and worry that loved ones went through and the effect of the experience on all.

Author : Anne Sharp Wells
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 521 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2023-12-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9781538102565

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Historical Dictionary of World War II by Anne Sharp Wells Pdf

World War II was the largest and most costly conflict in history, the first true global war. Fought on land, on sea, and in the air, it involved numerous countries and killed, maimed, or displaced millions of people, both civilian and military, around the world. In spite of the alliances that bound many of the same participants, the war was essentially two separate but simultaneous conflicts: one involved Japan as the major antagonist and took place mostly in Asia and the Pacific; and the other, initiated by Germany and Italy, was contested mainly in Europe, North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic. This book focuses on the lesser known war, the war with Japan. It begins with Japan’s seizure of Manchuria from China in 1931 and covers Japan’s ambitious attacks on Pearl Harbor and other territories ten years later, the use of atomic bombs on Japan’s cities, and the end of the Allied occupation of Japan in 1952. Although Japan renounced war in its 1947 constitution, conflict continued across Asia, as former colonies fought for independence and civil war engulfed other areas. Historical Dictionary of World War II: The War Against Japan, Second Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 500 cross-referenced entries on the military, diplomatic, political, social, economic, and scientific aspects of the war, in addition to the lives of the people who participated in and directed the war. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the war against Japan during World War II.

Author : Martin King
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2022-09-06
Category : History
ISBN : 9781637583531

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Blood Is Thicker than War by Martin King Pdf

From the author of Triage and Searching for Augusta, comes a history of love, hate, jealousy, and revenge between brothers and sisters during times of war through the ages. Journey back through time to discover remarkable accounts of parents who waved off their sons and daughters, never knowing if they would ever see them again. One mother saw no less than ten of her sons between the ages of eighteen and thirty-seven, dispatched to the frontline in the First World War. The biggest “real” band of brothers that ever served their country, but to discover how many made it back and who this dear lady was, you will have to read the rest. War is completely indiscriminate when it comes to inflicting suffering and heartbreak on families, particularly when one’s own blood takes up arms to fight with, and in some cases against their own kin. These stories recount some of the prime examples of families divided and united in some of the direst conflict. When British police discovered the body of a dead woman, who locals knew as the “Crazy Cat Lady” they found a small bundle of possessions that revealed a truly incredible story of two amazing sisters who served behind enemy lines as elite Special Operations Agents (SOE) during World War II.

Author : Marina Mackay
Publisher : Oxford Mid-Century Studies
Page : 237 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2019-01-29
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780198824992

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Ian Watt by Marina Mackay Pdf

Before his masterpiece The Rise of the Novel made him one of the most influential post-war British literary critics, Ian Watt was a soldier, a prisoner of war of the Japanese, and a forced labourer on the notorious Burma-Thailand Railway. Both an intellectual biography and an intellectual history of the mid-century, this book reconstructs Watt's wartime world: these were harrowing years of mass death, deprivation, and terror, but also ones in which communities and institutions were improvised under the starkest of emergency conditions. Ian Watt: The Novel and the Wartime Critic argues that many of our foundational stories about the novelabout the novel's origins and development, and about the social, moral, and psychological work that the novel accomplishescan be traced to the crises of the Second World War and its aftermath.

Author : Cecil Lowry
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 186 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2018-10-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9781526736925

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Last Post over the River Kwai by Cecil Lowry Pdf

Last Post Over the River Kwai is the carefully researched account of the experiences of the officers and men of 2nd Battalion The East Surreys during the Second World War.Stationed in Shanghai in the early 1940s, the Battalion was deployed to Malaya and fought gallantly to slow the Japanese advance. After heavy losses the survivors found themselves POWs in Singapore in February 1942 after the humiliating surrender which Churchill described as Britains worst ever military disaster.The next three and a half years saw members of the Battalion suffering appalling hardship at the hands of their brutal Japanese captors, whether in Singapore, on the Death Railway, Malaya or Japan itself, as wells as on hellships. Many died but remarkably the majority survived to tell their story. Their prolonged captivity with unbelievable hardship, deprivation and cruelty makes for distressing but inspiring reading.

Author : Ian Roberts
Publisher : Pen and Sword Military
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2023-07-30
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781399049573

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Survival and Separation on the River Kwai by Ian Roberts Pdf

Eric Roberts was conscripted in 1939 into the 1/5 Sherwood Foresters. After service in France and evacuation from Brest in 1940, the Battalion were sent to the Far East arriving in Singapore three weeks before the surrender. Eric became a prisoner of the Japanese and was sent to the Burma-Thai Railway. His Commanding Officer was Lieutenant Colonel Lilly who was later to become the inspiration for Colonel Nicholson in the film Bridge on the River Kwai. Eric’s fiancée, Eunice Lowe, learnt of his capture by chance from a friend. Amidst speculation that Eric had escaped, Eunice began a campaign to learn the truth but it was not until 26 May 1943 that she received confirmation that he was a POW. From 1942 to 1945, while suffering extreme hardship and abuse from his captors, Eric was permitted to send just three postcards. Despite Eunice writing every week, only a handful were received by him in late 1944. After liberation, Eric returned home and married Eunice in 1946. Fortunately, Eric wrote a graphic memoir of his captivity in the post-war years and Eunice’s correspondence has been preserved. The two combined make for an unusual and moving record of a young couple’s testing yet very different experiences.

Author : Pierre Boulle
Publisher : Ishi Press
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2018-08-29
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 4871876489

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Bridge Over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle Pdf

The magnificent story of Colonel Nicholson, who built the perfect bridge - for the enemy. On its publication in France, this brilliant novel was awarded the Prix Ste. Beuve. Since its appearance in the USA and its presentation as a film, this compelling story has been awarded a succession of prizes in both the fields of entertainment and literature. This is a historical novel. It is based in part on factual events. It was made into the greatest movie ever made. Although hard to believe, the book is based on actual real historical events, except that vastly more people died building the real bridge and the railroad to the bridge than are shown in the movie. The book and movie have slightly different names. The book is "The Bridge Over the River Kwai." The movie is "The Bridge On the River Kwai." In Thailand, they call it the River Kwae.

Author : Reg Twigg
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2013-05-23
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780241965108

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Survivor on the River Kwai by Reg Twigg Pdf

Survivor on the River Kwai is the heartbreaking story of Reg Twigg, one of the last men standing from a forgotten war. Called up in 1940, Reg expected to be fighting Germans. Instead, he found himself caught up in the worst military defeat in modern British history - the fall of Singapore to the Japanese. What followed were three years of hell, moving from one camp to another along the Kwai river, building the infamous Burma railway for the all-conquering Japanese Imperial Army. Some prisoners coped with the endless brutality of the code of Bushido by turning to God; others clung to whatever was left of the regimental structure. Reg made the deadly jungle, with its malaria, cholera, swollen rivers, lethal snakes and exhausting heat, work for him. With an ingenuity that is astonishing, he trapped and ate lizards, harvested pumpkins from the canteen rubbish heap and with his homemade razor became camp barber. That Reg survived is testimony to his own courage and determination, his will to beat the alien brutality of camp guards who had nothing but contempt for him and his fellow POWs. He was a risk taker whose survival strategies sometimes bordered on genius. Reg's story is unique. Reg Twigg was born at Wigston (Leicester) barracks on 16 December 1913. He was called up to the Leicestershire Regiment in 1940 but instead of fighting Hitler he was sent to the Far East, stationed at Singapore. When captured by the Japanese, he decided he would do everything to survive. After his repatriation from the Far East, Reg returned to Leicester. With his family he returned to Thailand in 2006, and revisited the sites of the POW camps. Reg died in 2013, at the age of ninety-nine, two weeks before the publication of this book.

Author : Peter Davies
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2013-12-17
Category : History
ISBN : 9781780939629

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The Man Behind the Bridge by Peter Davies Pdf

Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey was the senior British officer concerned with the building of the notorious "Bridge over the River Kwai". Toosey understood from the very beginning that the only real issue was how to ensure that as many of his men as possible should survive their captivity. Many thousands who knew how Toosey stood up to their oppressors at great personal risk were incensed by Alec Guinness's brilliant portrayal of 'Colonel Nicholson' in the film version of Boulle's book. This book provides an accurate historical account of the terrible events during which more than 16,000 PoWs died while building the Thai-Burma railway, of which "the bridge" formed an essential part. A memorial to Toosey, this book is also a definitive history of the building of the railway in the context of the Far Eastern theatre of World War II. First published in 1991, this title is part of the Bloomsbury Academic Collections series.

Author : Tony Bridgland
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 271 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2001-03-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9780850528220

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Waves of Hate by Tony Bridgland Pdf

Whilst researching his earlier book Sea Killers in Disguise, the author unearthed a rich stem of incidents at sea which happened during the two World Wars that shocked and surprised him. This book is the result of further in-depth study covering the Second World War. It reveals a long catalogue of atrocities perpetrated not just by Germany and Japan but, sensationally, by the British and her Allies.Thanks to Tony Bridgland's meticulous research, into a wide variety of incidents at sea, makes for vivid and compelling, if uneasy, reading

Author : Jerry Hopkins
Publisher : Tuttle Publishing
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2013-03-26
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781462911875

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Romancing the East by Jerry Hopkins Pdf

Profiling individual, legendary authors, best-selling author Jerry Hopkins combines his research and his own experiences as a longtime expatriate with an intimate knowledge of Asia and offers us a unique perspective on the impact of Eastern culture in Western literature. From the time of Marco Polo's trek across the Central Asian desert to the empire of the mighty Kahn, no other place on earth, not the languid South Pacific or even deepest, darkest Africa has so challenged and enchanted the Western imagination as have the fabled lands of the East! However soaked in blood its history and no matter how unsettling its social conditions and poverty, Asia has never lost its irresistible attraction or mystic. It has long been an inspiration for Western novelists, so much so that more than 5000 novels have been set in Asia in the English language alone. Storied names like Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad, Pearl S. Buck, George Orwell, Graham Greene, E.M. Forster and many more have used their experiences in Asia as a vibrant backdrop for some of the world's most famous works of literature.

Author : Loet Velmans
Publisher : Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
Page : 114 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2011-09
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781611451856

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Long Way Back to the River Kwai by Loet Velmans Pdf

The astounding memoir of a World War II veteran who spent three and a half years in the slave labor camps made famous by The Bridge on the River Kwai.

Author : United States. Congress. House. Committee on Post Office and Civil Service
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 990 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 1969
Category : Civil service
ISBN : UCAL:B3606014

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Hearings, Reports and Prints of the House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Post Office and Civil Service Pdf

Author : United States. Congress. House. Committee on Post Office and Civil Service. Subcommittee on Postal Operations
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 562 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 1969
Category : City planning and redevelopment law
ISBN : STANFORD:36105119640717

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Obscenity in the Mails by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Post Office and Civil Service. Subcommittee on Postal Operations Pdf

Author : H. Robert Charles
Publisher : Motorbooks
Page : 250 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Burma-Siam Railway
ISBN : 076032820X

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Last Man Out by H. Robert Charles Pdf

From June 1942 to October 1943, more than 100,000 Allied POWs who had been forced into slave labor by the Japanese died building the infamous Burma-Thailand Death Railway, an undertaking immortalized in the film "The Bridge on the River Kwai." One of the few who survived was American Marine H. Robert Charles, who describes the ordeal in vivid and harrowing detail in Last Man Out. The story mixes the unimaginable brutality of the camps with the inspiring courage of the men, including a Dutch Colonial Army doctor whose skill and knowledge of the medicinal value of wild jungle herbs saved the lives of hundreds of his fellow POWs, including the author.