The Burma-Siam Death Railway – By Allan Hartley – October Bentham News
Footnote: George Edgar Tranmar
On our visits to the CWGC Cemetery in Kanchanaburi scanning those lucky enough to have a grave headstone, we came across the name of George Edgar Tranmar who was educated at Stoneyhurst College. We sent a photograph of George’s grave to Stoneyhurst, and received a reply thanking us for helping with the school war record. All they knew about George was that he was reported missing at the fall of Singapore in 1942, so we had helped the college to finally know what happened to him.
A Few Facts about the Railway, the Bridge and the Prisoners of War (PoWs)
The railway is 415 km long, built between June 1942 and October 1943, to link existing lines Singapore-Bangkok and Rangoon.
Of the 63,000 Allied PoW servicemen over 12,000 died constructing the Death Railway. Over 3,000 Dutch Nationals died and remain missing. 133 American nationals, known as the Lost Battalion from the sinking of the USS battleship Houston, also perished.
A press-ganged civilian labour force of over 250,000 worked to construct the railway. Around 90,000 Thais died during construction.
Bombing the bridge had little strategic effect on the Japanese as they had trains on both sides of the river. With any bridge damage all they did was to have the PoWs unload the train on one side of the river and re-load the train on the other side.
Less than a few escaped from building the railway. PoWs were so weak that without resources, map, compass, food, they had nowhere to escape to as everywhere was jungle.
Around 1,000 Japanese servicemen died from natural causes working on the railway.
And What About the Film ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’
The film is Hollywood fantasy. The British as portrayed in the film did not co-operate or collaborate with the building of the bridge but used every opportunity to sabotage the bridge and other structures.
The tide did not go out as the River Kwae is not tidal.
The bridge was destroyed by the Royal Air Force in June 1945, not by a commando raid.
The author of the book and the screenplay, Pierre Boulle, never visited Thailand nor the bridge.
The film was filmed in Sri Lanka not Thailand.
