THE AUTHOR of a book entitled “At War With My Father” disputes that the mysterious tunnel which residents of Kanchanaburi’s Sangkhla Buri district said over the weekend they discovered, believed to have been built by Allied prisoners of war and forced labourers during World War II, is a new find as it had been discovered 14 years earlier.
Ms. Lynette Silver, the author of this book, sent ThaiNewsroom.com an email with the following details about this and other historic tunnels built with great suffering by the POWs and forced labourers when they constructed the Death Railway at the orders of the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II:
“I am a military historian living in Australia. The tunnel that is featured on your website was found 14 years ago, at the urging of the daughter of one of the Australian prisoners of war who was involved in the construction.
“In 2010, using clues supplied by the late Mrs. Dianne Elliott from records kept by her father, Sergeant Fred Howe, along with information obtained from a local farmer, the Thai Burma Railway Centre in Kanchanaburi went to the area and discovered the tunnel opposite the site of the Songkuri POW Camp.
“In 2017, I visited the tunnel myself (see attached photos) and it is featured in my book ‘At War With My Father’, published in 2023. The tunnel appears to be part of a defence strategy, as the Japanese were expecting the Allies to advance from Three Pagodas pass. The area where the tunnel is makes an excellent place for an ambush, with a concealed machine gun position on one side, served by the tunnel, and high cliffs on the other. At this point the road and rail line were in a quite narrow defile. The small ‘exit’ hole referred to in the article appears to have been a machine gun position.
“There is a similar tunnel near the site of the Kami Songkuri POW camp, located by other Australians in 2005. However, I believe that other tunnels, mentioned by Fred Howe and which were high in a cliff face, are in Burma, not far from the Kami Songkuri campsite.
“Howe and others formed what was a ‘Tunnel Party’. In May 1945 at the Nakhon Pathom Hospital Camp, Australian prisoners of war were selected for a work party upcountry. Along with approximately 200 British and 300 Dutch prisoners, the 163 Australians left Nakhom Pathom by train and seven days later, in early June, they arrived in Songkurai No 2 Camp (Songkurai) and were divided into two workforces.
“The condition of the camp was deplorable. It consisted of old dilapidated huts, each about 40 feet long and five yards wide. Much of the attap was missing from the roofs and bamboo supports had collapsed leaving the huts partly fallen down.
“Each day a small number of the very ill were allowed to remain behind as ‘camp workers’ while the rest were divided into work gangs of 20. They left the camp each morning well before sunup, taking with them the sick that exceeded the limit allowed who, in most cases, were carried by the other prisoners.
“From Songkurai No 2 they walked six kilometres to Songkurai No 3 Camp (Kami Songkurai) where they dug tanks traps in the area of the road and railway line and tunnelled into the sides of hills through solid rock. The tunnels were to be used as storage areas for food and ammunition and they strategically overlooked the road and the railway line.
“Sgt Fred Howe recorded:
“Tunnelling into the sides of the mountains making food and ammunition dumps was dangerous work as dynamite was being used and the tunnels were apt to cave in at any time. It necessitated us to climb precipices on which crude stairways had to be fashioned. Logs weighing up to three or four hundred pounds had to be hauled up and as it was impossible for more than two men to handle the log, the work was particularly arduous.
“The prisoners whose job it was to cut the logs for pit-props, having walked 6 kilometres from No 2 Camp to the worksite, then had to walk another seven kilometres to cut the logs and return with them to shore up the tunnels.
“Then after each day’s work the men returned, in the dark, the six kilometres back to camp. Then, after only three or four hours sleep, the daily routine started all over again.
“As the Japanese were using explosives, tunnelling was a particularly hazardous task.”
Lynette Silver AM, MBE
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: Ms. Lynette Silver outside the tunnel.
First and second insert: Lynette Silver and her husband Neil at the tunnel entrance and entering it.
Third insert:Interior of the tunnel.
Also read: Mysterious tunnel found in Kanchanaburi, likely built during WWII
