A K Berrecloth

Ts memoir (301 pp written in 1985) describing : his pre-war life and work in England as a radio engineer, service as a wireless/radar mechanic with the RAF in the UK (1939 until December 1941), voyage to Java in the troopships Athlone Castle and the City of Canterbury (including a dock-side mutiny at Durban, South Africa) and experiences as a prisoner of war on Java (March 1942-April 1943 and December 1944-September 1945) and Haroekoe/Ambon/Liang in the Moluccas (April 1943-September 1944). It contains good descriptions of Japanese air attacks off Singapore, the horrors of a voyage to Java in the Maros Maru (September-December 1944), Japanese brutality, appalling medical conditions in the camps, individual Japanese guards (especially 'Gunso' Mori), stealing/trading by prisoners, his court martial by British officers in camp in 1945, the sense of incomprehension after the surrender and the mental problems of re-adjustment after release.