Ens of a friendship forged s of the Burma Railway
panese camera and was told ‘For d’s sake, don’t tell your grandparents’. And Peter had somehow managed to p two small diaries while in captivity ch were sent back after the war. They are hard to read in faded pencil speaking with Robert has helped ce together events. The last entry made on August 31, 1943. It says ‘It thought I had a heart attack. I did know what happened.’
Peter died the following day.” ut it is clear that he was still thinking ut his friend until the very end. ecause in the entry for August 28, Peter talks about the arrival of men from their old camp,
NK Robin Green h his Uncle ter’s tag adding sadly: “But not Eric yet.” Like many who served in the “Forgotten War” Eric only started to speak about his experiences later in life.
Robert explains: “My father gave talks to school groups at the Imperial War Museum, where he told them of his time on the Death Railway. In the 1990s he returned to Singapore with other Far Eastern prisoners-of-war and then I went back with him in 2005.
“We paid our respects at Peter’s grave at the Commonwealth military cemetery in Kanchanaburi.” Robert learned how Eric joined the Royal Norfolk in November 1940.
After training, he and Peter were based at Marbury Hall near Liverpool, where the regiment was
Robert with photo of the two pals in Royal Norfolk regiment helping with fire-fighting duties in the heavily bombed city.
They then spent three months on a troop ship to Singapore, arriving in January 1942.
Robert says: “But on February 15 Singapore fell to the Japanese and they were taken prisoner.
“They spent the first six months under canvas looting Singapore for the Japanese, stripping anything of value. After that they were sent up country to construct the Burma Railway, clearing forests and creating cuttings with explosives. But then they got separated.
“It must have been a terrible shock when Eric finally got to the new camp only to find his friend had died.”
Eric was moved to Hintok Camp in Thailand and forced to work on the notorious Hellfire Pass, the railway cutting that claimed thousands of lives.
It got its name because the sight of emaciated prisoners labouring at night by torchlight was “a vision of hell”.
Robert goes on: “At some point Eric caught malaria and beriberi, and developed jungle ulcers.
“As he was unable to walk or work, he was sent back to Singapore and ended up in Changi Prison, until the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to the Japanese surrender.
“Eric was shipped home via Ceylon arriving in Liverpool in October 1945
FAREWELL Eric visits Peter’s grave
after four years away. With him he brought a little Japanese netsuke figure, a bar of soap made from prison kitchen fat and Peter’s dog tags.”
After the war Eric trained as a quantity surveyor and worked for the Ministry of Housing.
He and wife Orian had a daughter, Corinna, and then Robert.
“But he always regretted not returning the tags to Peter’s family,” says Robert.
“After his death I often thought of tracking them down too. Then lockdown gave me the time and opportunity,
ThailandBurma Railway
ROBIN GREEN and realising Eric and Peter would have been 100 this year gave me the impetus.
“Eric’s parents had been in touch with Peter’s while they were serving and I found an address in my grandparents’ old address book and started from there.
“We haven’t been able to meet in person yet but I sent him the dog tags and we plan to see each other.”
Robin said: “I am truly indebted to Robert for his detective work and for managing to track me down.
“It is such a shame that I never met any of the veterans who served with Peter, especially Eric.
“They and all their comrades suffered so much in the Far East but have very much been forgotten and overshadowed by the war in Europe.
“I hope this VJ Day anniversary will remind people of their sacrifice.”
■ You can leave stories or messages about VJ Day on the Royal British Legion website – rbl.org.uk/vjday75
They and all their comrades suffered so much in the Far East but have been forgotten