VARIOUS INFORMATION ON ABBREVIATIONS ETC
SHOWN ON JAPANESE PRISONER OF WAR
INDEX CARDS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS.
ABBREVIATIONS FOR COUNTRIES
POW CAMPS IN JAPAN HA- HAKODATE, NA - NAGOYA, SE - SENDAI, OS - OSAKA, - TO - TOKYO, HI - HIROSHIMA, FU, FUKUOKA.
POW CAMPS OUTSIDE JAPAN. KO - KOREA, MA - MALAYA, MU, MUKDEN, MANCHURIA, JA - JAVA, FO - FORMOSA, TH - THAILAND, SH - SHANGHAI, CHINA, PH - PHILIPPINES, HK - HONG KONG, BU - BURMA, KA, KAINAN, BO - BORNEO, RA - RABAUL, NEW BRITAIN.
ABBREVIATIONS ON FORCE “F” WORK PARTY ROLL.
CHA - CHANGI, SPE - SINGAPORE (SIME ROAD OR PASIR PANJANG, D - DECEASED, KAM - KAMBURI (ON 31/1/1944). REP KAM - REPORTED IN KAMBURI, 12/1943, BUT NOT ON KAMBURI ROLLD O 31/1/1944, REP TAN - REPORTED TANBYA, ESC - ESCAPED, O.RD - OUTRAM ROAD GAOL, REP D, REPORTED DEAD - NO OFFICIAL INFORMATION.
NUMBERS FOUND IN FRONT OF POW NUMBERS:
I - UBON, II - CHUNKAI, III - MULMEIN, IV - TAMUANG, V - BURMA, VI - HINBATU (SIAM), VII - KANBURI, VII - SAIGON, 1V - PETBURI, X - LOTAN (FIC). CHANGI - i (on original POW Numbers)
AT THE FALL OF SINGAPORE ON THE 15/2/1942 THE FOLLOWING PROVOST UNITS WERE IN SINGAPORE: SINGAPORE FORTRESS PROVOST COMPANY, 18 (EAST ANGLIAN) INFANTRY DIVISION PROVOST COMPANY, L OF C PROVOST COMPANY, 3 INDIAN CORPS PROVOST COMPANY, 9 INDIAN DIVISION PROVOST UNIT, 11 INDIAN DIVISION PROVOST COMPANY.
SHORTLY AFTER CAPITULATION CMP FORMED THE SOUTHERN AREA PROVOST COMPANY WHICH CARRIED OUT POLICE DUTIES IN THE PRISON CAMPS AROUND SINGAPORE. IN APRIL 1942 MANY CMP NCO’S WERE PUT INTO WORK PARTIES AND SENT TO WORK ON THE BURMA RAILROAD (FORCE “F” & “H”). ONLY 30% OF THESE MEN LIVED TO SEE LIBERATION IN 1945. WITH THE WITHDRAWAL OF THESE NCO’S THERE BECAME A SHORTAGE OF PROVOST IN THE SINGAPORE pow CAMPS, SO SOLDIERS FROM INFANTRY UNITS WERE ATTACHED TO CMP TO ACT AS GARRISON AND REGIMENTAL POLICEMEN, THEY APPEAR ON CASUALTY LISTS UNDER THEIR OWN REGIMENTAL LISTS.
THE CUTTS PAPERS.
THESE ARE TYPEWRITTEN NOMINAL ROLLS OF CMP AND ATTACHED PERSONNEL IN CHANGI PRISONER OF WAR CAMP AND CONSIST OF ROLLS FOR SINGAPORE COMPANY, 18 DIV PRO COY, POW IN CAMP AND KRANJI HOSPITAL ON 1/9/1945, 3 INDIAN CORPS PRO COY, 9 & 11 INDIAN PRO UNITS, L OF C PRO COY.
THESE LISTS WERE GENERATED BY RSM CUTTS, CMP WHO WAS THE RSM OF SINGAPORE FORTRESS PRO COY, CMP AND ARE HELD IN THE CORPS MUSEUM.
Two examples from the Cutts Papers
4529504 RSM Cutts, G A was awarded a Mention In Despatches
In London Gazette 37720, page 4526, 12/9/1946 for distinguished
Service in Changi Prison, Singapore
THE ARTICLE BELOW APPEARED IN THE RMP JOURNAL IN THE FIRST QUARTER ISSUE OF 1960, PAGE 141.
CHANGI GAOL
By Lt/Col, C Wilkinson, OBE.
There are perhaps very few readers of the Journal who know that inside Changi Gaol there hangs a plaque in the form of the Corps Badge, which has been placed there in memory of members of the Corps who died within its walls or in the immediate vicinity.
For those who may have forgotten or are not familiar with what took place in Malaya and Singapore during the Second World War, it is recalled that after the capitulation of Singapore on 15th February 1942, all the British, Australian and other Allied prisoners of war were herded together in the fairly large area in existing pre-war barrack blocks and married quarters at the Changi end of Singapore Island. Not long after however the Japanese demanded large working parties for Japan, Singapore Docks and worst of all the Thailand Railway, and by May, 1943, there were comparatively few of the original prisoners of war left in Changi. Then the losses of labour on the railway became disastrous and in December, 1943 the survivors of the notorious “F” and “H” Forces (who in three weeks carried out a forced march by night of 194 miles up the whole length of the railway from Bampong, resulting in a death rate in six months of 3,000 out of 7,000 including fifty-seven of a party of eighty Military Policemen) were brought back by rail to Singapore and thence to Changi to recuperate.
Shortly afterwards the Japanese decided to concentrate all prisoners of war on the island into Changi Gaol and so in May, 1944, they started moving there, carrying with them everything they could possibly strip from the barrack blocks and houses in which they were living and which was likely to be of any use at all in the future.
The move had been very carefully planned by our own staff, and advance parties, chiefly consisting of Sappers, had made ready the gaol itself to receive all ranks of the nationalities concerned. They had built a large hospital consisting of wooden attap roofed huts to accommodate up to about 1,000 patients outside the goal and increased the officers’ area ( to house 1,200 officers) by adding more wooden huts to the existing concrete and brick warders’ and coolie quarters which ran along the outside wall farthest from the main road. The commander of the area was Lieut, Colonel S W Harris, CBE, TD, (Herts Yeomanry) and his staff consisted of Major M Portal (Coldstream Guards), Capt. P U Coates (E. Yorks), and Capt C Wilkinson (RNF0 with Australian and Dutch liaison officers attached.
The Japanese Camp Commandant was a very unpleasant individual called Capt. Takahashi who was later hanged as a war criminal for the way in which he treated prisoners of war.
The leading Corps personalities were Lieut Colonel B K Casto (DPM, Malaya Command), Capts. R D Chenevix-Trench and W A English (both of 18 Division), RSM Turner (3 Corps), and CQMS Bailey (18 Division). It should be mentioned here that all our Generals, brigadiers and colonels had been removed from Changi on 16th August 1942 and sent to Formosa by sea and so the highest rank in any camp was that of lieutenant colonel.
Whilst it may sound rather grim to have spent sixteen months in such a limited space it was nevertheless bliss to those who had spent many months, and in some cases years, in the stinking rotting filth of some of the prison camps on the Thailand Railway or in Java and Sumatra. Here they could try and forget the bestial treatment of their former Japanese or Korean Guards; the endless hours of labouring in the monsoon rains or blazing sun and dust, the stench from those unfortunate men whose legs were slowly being eaten away to the bone by tropical ulcers, that never ending smell of diarrhoea in not the best of sanitary conditions; the screams at night of those who realized they were about to die from cholera (and there was nothing anyone could do about it) and finally the nauseating smell of burning flesh hanging over the camps most of the day as the bodies of those who had died in the night, sometimes up to twenty were cremated.
There was plenty to do in Changi Gaol Camp. The majority of the fit were employed in making the Changi Airfield and so go out of the camp daily into fresh air and sunshine. At the end of the day they returned to clean water to wash themselves or drink, without that awful dread of it being cholera infected. Although the rations were poor at least they were well cooked and one could go to sleep at nights under roofs that did not let in a constant stream of rain. Large parties of the less fit were employed in our many acres of vegetable gardens and everyone who was not a patient in the hospital had a job of work of some sort to do, even if it was only fly swatting in the cook-houses or caterpillar catching in the gardens. Idlers were not tolerated. The gaol itself was a hive of activity. There was a soap factory, workshops for brush making, clog manufacturing and turning out metal utensils and gardening tools of every description, the majority of which were made out of metal army lockers brought from the barrack blocks in Changi. Despite very many exasperating interferences and petty restrictions by our guards, plays and concerts were organised and lectures given and courses run in the evening on almost every subject under the sun from accountancy to beekeeping. Churches were built, Anyone who was bored there would be bored anywhere.
The Military Police were very much in demand. The death rate had unfortunately been so extremely high up to this time that they had to be augmented by reliable officers and NCOs from other units. They had a very considerable task of helping to “cut out” the staggering amount of “black market” activities and stealing which went on. There were several reasons for this. First of all everyone was perpetually hungry if they could not supplement their basic rations. Secondly, officers were paid according to rank whereas other ranks were only allowed by the Japanese to be paid if they carried out manual work, Thirdly, the Japanese allowed us officially to make certain canteen purchases through outside Chinese contractors. These things together therefore were the main causes of the “black market” gangs starting up, with disastrous results in many cases to their innocent comrades. To try to appreciate why the majority were so hungry it is necessary to record that the average daily rations issued per man by the Japanese were only 9.28 ozs, rice, 0.14 ozs tea,, 0.58 ozs salt, 0.71 ozs palm oil, 0.04 ozs pepper, 1.15 ozs fish and 7.9 ozs of vegetables (70 percent of which were grown in our own gardens). Meat had long since been unobtainable. Camp Order no. 264 dated 18th February, 1045 read: “It is forbidden for any swill to be collected without proper authority. In addition, swill may not under any circumstances be used for human consumption.” If one takes an example of the monthly rate of pay for a captain and scale it up and down according to ranks on more or less the same proportions as existed in the army in 1942 it will give a rough idea of what officers and working other ranks earned. A captain received (on paper) a gross monthly amount of $122.50. The Japanese in all seriousness deducted $60 for “food, clothing and accommodation” (which they claimed was in accordance with the Geneva and Hague Conventions) and they banked $32.50 into some mysterious account which we never saw, (assumed to be the Japanese officers rake off). All officers compulsorily contributed £10.00 to assist the other ranks messing generally and to help those of them who could not earn any working pay or were in hospital. After paying $5.00 to one’s individual mess that left only £15.00 to spend personally at the canteen for a whole month, and now we begin to see why the “racketeers” came into the picture, because when the camp first started some of the canteen prices were as follows: tobacco $2 per ox; coconuts 75 cents, sugar £3.40 per IIb; cheroots 13 cents; but in a few months they had soared to tobacco £4.80, coconuts $3.50; sugar £11.20; cheroots $1.60. Some even more attractive items had been introduced enterprisingly by one Chinese contractor such as whitebait at £28.00, palm oil £2.00; curry powder $16.60 per IIb; soap $18.00 per tablet. All wonderful things to get hold of indeed but where was the money coming from to buy them with? One way was to sell, quite honestly, to the Japanese or Korean guards your watch, fountain pen, cigarette case and other valuables, but not everyone (particularly the honest ones) had the right contacts, and this is where the rogues scored because they employed dishonest people who went out daily with the various working parties. Some of them even took the risk of being shot by the guards and made tunnels under the perimeter wire to meet their contact by night. As the prices offered for such articles were so high and an honest chap had little idea of what the intermediary received, he was usually well and truly “stung” and rarely got even one-tenth of what the racketeers obtained from their purchases. And then the very sharp but crooked brains of the “black marketeers” really got down to making big money for the day they were released, as well as living like lords in the camp. They started quietly cashing cheques for as low as two dollars to the pound. So it can be seen by looking back at the second lot of canteen prices quoted above what that would do to your bank account, when your cheques were presented at home, if you cashed many cheques and bought foodstuffs at those prices. Camp Order No. 401 published on 24th July, 1945, read: “It is known that persons in this camp are lending money in the Japanese dollar currency upon the security of promissory notes, cheques and other negotiable instruments, expressed in sterling currency and that the rate of exchange is often as low as $2.00 to the pound sterling or its equivalent. There can be no moral justifications for charging such a harsh and unconscionable rate and those doing so are exploiting for their own profit the needs of their fellow prisoner due to sickness or misfortune. This usurous practice must cease and the effect of the following order is to make a negotiable security taken contrary to its provisions unenforceable at law. No person shall take or hold any negotiable security, cheque or account stated where the consideration given in respect thereof is a sum in local Japanese currency let at a rate of exchange of less than $8.00 local Japanese currency to the pound sterling or its equivalent in other currency. In view of the present inflation the rate of $8.00 is not considered adequate but a minimum rate had necessarily to be fixed without reference to inflation. It is not the object of the above order to prevent lending at a reasonable rate.”
As conditions amongst the native population in Singapore and Malaya worsened they would pay almost any price for clothing and it was not long before the racketeers found, for example, that a pair of khaki shorts would raise two hundred dollars. Even at the official rate this is the equivalent of a cheque for £25 sterling or it would purchase a useful quantity of foodstuffs from the canteen. The amount of clothing that was stolen and sold caused a major crisis as it could not be replaced by us or the Japanese. The Staff therefore again reinforced the Military Police and tremendous efforts were made to catch and punish offenders. Two punishments quoted in Camp Order No. 223 of 9th January, 1945, are examples of how offenders were dealt with: (a) “To undergo twenty eight days in the corrective cells, followed by twenty eight days restrictions for attempting to trade and being in possession of one pair of underpants in excess of the clothing scale”. (b) “To undergo sixty days in a corrective cell for selling clothing.” Check posts were set up by Military Police at all entrances to the various sub-areas and to the camp itself and people were frequently searched. Camp Order No. 406 was also extremely effective: - “With effect from 2nd August 1945: (a) No other rank (excluding WO’s) will enter or leave the Gaol between the hours of 08.00 and 19.30 (except on Wednesday or Sunday) and between 08.00 hrs and 16.30 hrs on Wednesday or Sunday wearing or carrying a shirt except on written medical authority: (b) Between the hours of 19.30 and 22.00 (16.30 and 22.00 on Wednesdays and Sundays) all other ranks (excluding WOs) entering or leaving the Gaol will wear shirts.”
At one stage even the Japanese Camp Commandant became worried at what was going on and in January, 1945 gave instructions for the following Camp Order to be published: The Camp Commandant (Capt. Takahashi) has drawn attention to the marked disparity between the cash paid over by the Imperial Japanese Army to the camp and the value of the goods purchased from the canteen contractors. Rough figures for the past three months were as follows:
Purchased through IJA contractors Camp Income
October 1944 $194,466 $136,517
November 1944 $233.983 $ 139,962
December 1944 $244.541 $139.238
He has commenced an enquiry into the whole matter and meanwhile has stopped canteen supplies, at least till next week-end, on the grounds that we have already sent in January more than we received in pay for all ranks in respect of December.” All this took rather a lot of explaining away to him by our Staff but as he was getting a good “rake off” from the contractors and was tactfully persuaded he was missing not other “perks” he very soon allowed the canteen to function again.
Post War
Long after the war was over and those of us who, because of our duties, had seen everyone safely off on their way home and had closed the doors behind us forever, the present Commissioner of Prisons in Singapore (Capt. P L James) wrote to our Colonel Commandant in August 1957, to say that a ward in the prison hospital had been re-built and made into a chapel through contributions received from the Returned Soldiers League of Australia, Rotary Club of Singapore, the Assistant Chaplain-General of the Forces, Singapore, the Royal Netherlands Consul-General and the Consul-General of the United States. He went on to say that at a service held at the chapel on Sunday, 18th August, 1957, the Archdeacon of Singapore, the Rev. Robin Woods dedicated the furnishings and fitting to those prisoners-of-war and internees who lost their lives whilst incarcerated at Changi. Plaques, including our own which were added in January, 1959, have been placed on the walls of the chapel representing all the Corps and Regiments of all the allied forces who were present in Changi during the period 1942-1945. The prison records show seven Military Policemen as having died there: Sgt. D McLew, L/Cpl. J Grundy, L/Cpl. C L Kettlewell, L/Cpl. L Corton,( Leicestershire Regiment attached to CMP). L/Cpl. E Greenhalgh, (Manchester Regiment attached to CMP). L/Cpl. T Evans (South Wales Borderers attached to CMP), and Pte, J Monghan, (Seaforth Highlanders attached to CMP). The first three were definitely members of the Corps but it is thought that the others were garrison or regimental police attached to us. In Japanese in this area died; nor too, that the total death rate due to the remembering them let us also not forget that eighty per cent of all Military Policemen who were captured by the Japanese treatment of prisoners-of-war captured in or near Singapore in 1942 amounted to (a) British and Australian, 12,000 (b) Dutch, 6,000 and that more than 100,000 coolies died on the Thailand Railway alone.
THE CMP PLAQUE IN THE CHAPEL
(note: It has a Queen’s crown, a George the VI cypher with V in centre instead of VI, the CMP Normandy Memorial has the CMP badge with George VI Cypher and a Queen’s Crown).
Lt/Col Wilkinson, OBE was awarded a Mention in Despatches in London Gazette 37720, page 4575, dated 14/9/1946 for distinguished service whilst a Prisoner of War.
The above Roll of Honour was drawn by 7689015, L/Cpl Harry Thorpe, 18 Division Provost Company, CMP
In memory of his comrades, he was a prisoner in Singapore, Thailand and French Indo China
(See L/Cpl Thorpe’s story as a POW in www.far-eastern-heroes.org.uk, well worth a read.).
Example of a Thailand POW Camp roll, columns 4 & 5 show new and old POW Numbers with Roman numerals in front showing
Country in which camp is located. Former camp: letter M indicated Malaya. Entries lined through show men who died. The last column Remarks, show
Japanese date; The CMP casualty Walmsley, Charles George has the date M-17/11/18 which means 17th November 1942. The first number in the date is the Japanese year so 1939 = 14, 1940 = 15, 1941= 16, 1942 = 17, 1943 = 18, 1944 = 19, 1945 = 20, 1946 = 21
Example of a Japanese Prisoner of War Index Card, front and rear.
Cards with a diagonal line across shows the man died.
Example of M. I. 9/Jap/No.31167 A
Given to all POW survivors giving their details, camps they were in, escape attempts, sabotage attempts, acts of courage by Allied personnel. Each form had a different serial number.