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<\/a>Eddie Knowles: reluctant soldier and outstanding chronicler of a disastrous expedition.<\/p><\/div>\n
But if his experiences were not exceptional, his narrative certainly is. I have read many accounts written by former prisoners of the Japanese. Some have been profoundly moving. Many have been filled with horrific stories of appalling maltreatment. But none that I have read have touched me more than Eddie\u2019s straightforward, unvarnished and remarkably fair-minded record of the life of an ordinary soldier from a loving family pitched ill-prepared into a nightmare almost beyond belief.<\/p>\n
Dedicated to \u2018my friends who did not grow old\u2019, it follows his progress from schoolboy through to raw recruit, serving with the 50th<\/sup> (Holding) Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment on coast defence duties, and then last-minute reinforcement, despatched in October, 1941, to bring the regiment\u2019s territorial battalions up to strength ahead of their long journey overseas.<\/p>\n Eddie joined the 5th<\/sup> Battalion at Marbury Hall, near Northwich, in Cheshire. From there, he wrote what would prove to be his last letter home \u2013 it was \u2018cut to pieces by the censor\u2019 \u2013 for almost four years. By October 24, they were kitted out, packed and ready to leave for the nearby railway station on the first leg of their epic odyssey.<\/p>\n \u2018By a brilliant bit of organisation we were to arrive at the same time as the rush hour commuters who were heading home,\u2019 noted Eddie. \u2018They were to be a little later than usual this night for with all our gear we were \u2018fell out\u2019 in front of them on the platform to wait for our troop train.<\/p>\n \u2018My section found ourselves among a group of office girls who kissed us all goodbye, several times, and said they would always remember us; we were sure they wouldn\u2019t but it was still a nice send off. And with our civilian friends waving, we heaved ourselves aboard the train.<\/p>\n \u2018This had not been intended by our army masters. It was like a scene from an old movie, but the moment was almost lost by the singing \u2013 the awful rendering of \u2018When They Sound The Last All Clear\u2019 by the departing soldiery as the train pulled out.\u2019<\/p>\n The passage is typical of so much else in Eddie\u2019s memoir, descriptive, evocative and full of those little human details which bring the past so vividly back to life.<\/p>\n The rest of his incredible story continues in similar vein through seven ring-bound folders, each word handwritten in capital letters, as he battles against defeat and despair.<\/p>\n There were times when he came close to giving up hope of ever seeing home again, particularly during his battalion\u2019s breakout from encirclement in Malaya and during the darkest days of captivity.<\/p>\n Remembering one spell in Chungkai hospital, surrounded by a depressing host of skeletal, shrunken-eyed dying men, he observed: \u2018One cannot over-estimate the value of life. For me, in spite of the suffering, the fight to hang on to it was never more essential than now, even among all the squalor of the dysentery ward. I was just 22, had so much to do, and could not bear to think of leaving for good the things and those that I loved.\u2019<\/p>\n In the end, he did emerge alive and with a confusion of emotions; of relief mingled with great sadness. \u2018Nothing would ever equal the sheer relish and excitement of that time,\u2019 he wrote and added: \u2018I thought of my mates\u2026 who had been pulled into the army and had left England\u2019s shores with me and so many more [and] who would never return home \u2013 of poor Rush, who had died in hospital beside me at Changi on his 21st<\/sup> birthday, and that me sad. Then, in a change of mood, I was still young and I had much to do.\u2019<\/p>\n Eddie, who settled in Norwich, lived on into his 80s. Though his later years were marred by declining health and bouts of depression, he never forgot his mates he left behind in Singapore and Thailand. In later life, he journeyed back to south-east Asia to visit their graves and the scenes of his lost youth. As he wandered through the \u2018beautifully kept\u2019 cemeteries at Chungkai and Kanchanaburi, he felt as though he was being guided by some unseen force to the graves of his \u2018special friends\u2019 among the thousands that were there \u2013 \u2018young lads who had died so far away from home\u2026 brave young comrades who gave their youth and their lives to a cause that was already lost\u2019.<\/p>\n And now it is time to remember Eddie, the \u2018unsung\u2019 chronicler of a war without pity. Next week, I shall have the privilege of joining those closest to him when they present his extraordinary memoir to the Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum to be preserved for posterity so that future generations can read of what ordinary men like Eddie endured and survived 70 years ago.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was loaned Eddie\u2019s memoir as part of my on-going research for a book on the 18th<\/sup> Division during the Second World War. If anyone has any first-hand accounts by men who served in the Divison \u2013 either in the three Norfolk, two Suffolk, two Cambridgeshire infantry or support units \u2013 I would like to hear from them. You can get in touch either via my website<\/a> or by calling me on 01603 435624<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u2018Since any story has to start somewhere, this one begins during the worst year of the great world depression, when there came to our school a young student teacher, perhaps no more than 18 years old\u2026\u2019 Such are the opening … Continue reading