100-year-old survivors of Death Railway pay tribute to their fallen comrades
TWO of the last surviving prisoners of war forced to work on building the bridge over the River Kwai will today mark the 75th anniversary of Victory over Japan (VJ) Day.
Walter Stead and Cyril Doy, both 100, will pay tribute to the tens of thousands of fellow servicemen killed during the campaign with a two minute silence.
The pair were among the thousands of Allied troops held captive by the Japanese and forced to build the 250-mile “Death Railway” from Thailand to Burma (now Myanmar). They spent four years between 1942 and 1945 working back-breaking seven day weeks.
Escape
In 1940, Walter was sent with the Royal Army Service Corps to the front line in the war against the Japanese but a year later his family in York were informed he was “missing in action – presumed dead”.
Walter, who cheated death when he managed to escape a firing squad, said the captives had no idea that Victory in Europe had been declared two months earlier.
He said: “The war with the Japanese was the one we were involved in and we knew nothing of anything else. VJ Day was the end of my war.”
Walter partially lost his hearing after a savage beating with bamboo rods and had to watch in horror as a fellow inmate was beaten to death in front of him.
Cyril, of Southwold, Suffolk, served in the 6th Battalion Royal Norfolk regiment, but in 1942 was taken prisoner in Singapore.
He was so thin when he arrived back in Britain in November 1945, his father failed to recognise him.
And district nurses still visit him at home twice a week to treat injuries he suffered in the horror camp.
Cyril said: “We left civilisation and entered another world for almost four years. The atom bomb that ended the war saved our lives. Whatever one thinks of the terrible bomb, it is the only reason I am here today.”