TO HELLFIRE PASS & BACK
Stranger’s 10-year journey to relive the lost tales of a Gold Coast war hero
WHEN Jason Tuffley (above) felt pain and loneliness while serving in Afghanistan he turned to the raw, unread pages of a Gold Coast Digger reliving the hell of a world at war.
What he found was both heartbreaking and inspiring.
Over a decade, Mr Tuffley would transcribe 59 pages of faded cursive handwriting recounting Corporal Arthur Dean’s days during World War II. They had met by chance in a Southport nursing home.
Mr Dean, who died in 2009, tells of his guilt of “failing” when the Japanese stormed Singapore in February 1942, the long march to Hellfire Pass as a prisoner of war to build the infamous Burma Railway (right), having to burn dozens of mates who had succumbed to disease, and living off just a tablespoon of rice every day.
There are no photos of Mr Dean.
It is not known where he is buried.
Mr Tuffley, now the officer-in-charge at Surfers Paradise Police Station, cannot even find Mr Dean’s family.
But like thousands of others today on Anzac Day, he will share the memories and lay a wreath to ensure a previously unknown hero is never forgotten.
Southport Digger Arthur Dean lived the horrors of World War II for five years, first in Singapore and then Burma as a prisoner of war. A decade after his death, his recollections of his service reveal an incredible journey ...
WHY I JOINED UP (1940)
I JOINED the Army in midforty (1940). It was not patriotism, it was plainly a case of The Depression, no money and no prospects. I joined up with a few Southport boys (and) went to Enoggera and then to Grovely which was a new camp.
THE WAR IN SINGAPORE (1941)
IN September and November (1941) we were put on alert with no leave as Japan was starting to stir things up. At 3am on the morning of the eighth of (December) we were awakened by a lot of (aircraft) noise and aeroplane engines and bomb blasts. We all said “the Poms are putting on a really good practice this time” and it all quietened down after about half an hour. We all went back to our cots only to realise a few hours later that the war in the Far East had sneaked up on us.
THE FALL OF SINGAPORE (1942)
PEOPLE talk about remorse. Just imagine how we felt. We had a job to do (stop the Japanese) and we failed. Of course you go on (thinking) “what we should have done”. How stupid we were to be fooled so easy. Then on Sunday the 15th of February 1942 the sirens gave a short and long blast at 8.30pm and we knew it was over. The three of us – Bill Ross, George Croft and Arthur Dean – sat down in the gutter and said “what do we do now?”.
George Croft said: “I know” and he brought out a full bottle of Johnny Walker whisky out of his pack. The three of us knocked it off and lay down in the gutter and slept.
We had had no food for three days and no sleep for more than that, so you can guess the state we were in (the next morning).
LIFE AS POW IN THAILAND AND BURMA (1942-45)
THE march from Bampong ... if you could call it a march ... was a long walk. (The Japanese) were concerned about the planes as (Allied planes) used to fly over regular, they have had photos of every part of the country. Overall it took sixteen nights and missed a lot of meals every day. It was approximately 300km along jungle tracks, you could hear a tiger roar now and again which gave you added incentive to keep moving and the natives often attacked stragglers and stole their packs.
IMPACT ON SOLDIERS
WE were put to work immediately, first making a road and bridge. It was raining a lot of the time but it never got cold. But all the different tropical diseases made up for that. People soon started to lose weight and get very sick and a lot was to blame for lack of food and malaria.
I had malaria thirty-two times while I was a PoW and every known tropical disease except cholera and small pox of which a lot of the boys died.
Another chap and I were detailed to work on the fire, burning the bodies of our boys who died from cholera. We burned forty-five boys in three days and were then replaced by two more to do the job. People talk about stress but they don’t know the meaning of the word, it was hard on the nerves and all the time you were aware of how contagious it was.
And at the time we’re down to a tablespoon of cooked rice a day for ten days due to a lack of transport, the state of the track and the monsoons.
THE HORRORS OF WAR
THE most terrible thing I ever saw in my life happened when we were digging the road up to the shrine at Buket Timah.
As you no doubt understand it was a very bad crime to speak to the natives or any other nationality as you may be making plans for escape or something of such. There was a Malay girl trying to sell us slices of pineapple. She was about eighteen or nineteen and had only a sarong around her and a jap officer rushed up and pulled out his samurai sword and chopped her across the stomach. She collapsed in the dirt and her entrails fell out in the dirt and she died trying to put everything back in, plus dirt, sticks and leaves and a lot of blood.
How any living person could be as cruel, ignorant and without any remorse I’ll never know. I saw a lot of things but this left us dumb-founded and this bastard thought it was funny.
MEETING MOUNTBATTEN (1945)
LORD and Lady Mountbatten arrived at Changi, a day or two later he ran up the British flag and pulled down the (Japanese) flag. He was in the back of a jeep telling us all of the
campaign in Burma. His language was very rough in places, quite a few people were trying to catch his eye and he eventually caught on and he tapped her on the head and said “you must try to understand she has not been with me all the time” which caused a laugh.
GOING HOME (1946)
THE war ended Aug 15 (1945) and we waited ’til October but the extra food and medication worked wonders for us. We were given a bit of exercise and entertainment which helped to put up with the waiting. We eventually were told we were sailing the next day on the Duntroon and it came to be true. It was not as good as travelling the way we left Aust by the way of the Queen Mary but very welcome.
LIFE AFTER WAR
FOR a while you get itchy feet but time slowly gets rid of that and you start to get back to the old way of life. You wonder how you ever survived the bugle calls, the parades and most of all the regimentation, but even now it is amazing how you get memories when you hear noises like bugle calls and crackers, some things you never forget.