Kuii, Kui Yae, 185.60k - Thailand

Kuii, Kui Yae, 185.60km  – Thailand

‘D’ Force V Battalion 1 August 1943 to 18 Dec 1943

This Battalion suffered the greatest death rate of all ‘D’ Force on the Railway.

Kuii was just above Kinsayok Camp and about 10 km south of Hindaine Camp.  It was also about 4km from River Kwae Noi.  This atap hutted camp was already established and occupied by 1700 Dutch when V Battalion arrived.

On 30th August Major Cough of ‘D’ Force V Battalion Group 6 was ordered to take 100 of his fittest men to Kuii Camp.  (They were at  Hindaine where conditions were appalling, 28 men including several machine gunners died and 40 of the heaviest sick were evacuated.  V Battalion had been broken down into 3 work parties by then one at Onte, one at Brankassi and this one commanded by Alf Cough at Hindaine).

The 100 Australians joined the 100 Dutch and 100 British POWs at Kuii.

Below:  Cough’s diary.  Murray Ewen has highlighted relevant information for ‘Colour Patch’.

Read further about ‘D’ Force V Battalion

The men were barged from Hindaine to Kuii and commenced work on 1 August 1943 and remained until 18 December 1943.  They were to work on the railway embankment.

The men worked in gangs of 5 men – with 4 carrying a rice bag between them supported by sticks and the 5th man would load from the side of the bank up 18 feet high.

The death rate from tropical illnesses especially malaria and dysentery was about 6 per day.  The men were overworked, had very little food and no medical supplies.  The doctors tried hard to keep the men alive by stopping them from working when they were clearly seriously ill, but mostly to no avail.

Seriously ill men would pass out while working on the railway and others would hide them and do their work – helping each other whenever they could.  At least one or two POWs worked daily in the morgue, wrapping the dead and placing them in a large communal grave.  Fortunately Kuii did not have cholera which was fortunate as the death rate was so high anyway.

29 heavy sick men were evacuated on 11th August.

Eddie Bell WX691 said in “Ghosts in Khaki” by Les Cody.

“The Japanese Camp Commander was a sadistic animal.  Many of the sick could have been evacuated much earlier to hospitals which were being set up further south, but he refused; he preferred to leave them to die in their huts.  All graves had to hold six bodies and had to be dug by the sick unable to go out to work.  The bodies were left exposed until the grave was filled.”

A total of 52 men including 21 machine gunners died at Kuii including Ted Leadbitter (a former Fairbridge Farm Schoolboy) who was assaulted by the violent Japanese Engineer known as ‘Black Cat’.  Leadbitter was seriously ill suffering with malaria and forced to work.  ‘Black Cat’ pounced on Ted as he struggled to work until was kicked and beaten for 30 minutes.    The beating was so terrible Leadbitter was carried back to camp.  Unconscious, beaten and  terribly ill, Leadbitter developed cholera and died 14 days later.  He was 24 years of age.   He left his young wife Winifred whom he had married in 1941.

On 18th December Major Cough with 18 other ranks from the original party were evacuated to Non Pladuk.  A further three men from this group died within three days of their arrival.

Out of the original 500 men, 200 had died by December 1943 and another 20 had died by March 1944.

Had V Battalion remained with the Australians instead of the
Dutch it is certain that many more men would have stood a better chance of being able to walk out of the jungle at the end of 1943.

Whilst at Rin Tin Capt Newton ventured north about 9 kms back up the line to Kuii where he came across Major Alf Cough’s V Battalion.  “In the middle of about 1500 Dutch East Indonesians we found the 2/4th m/gunners.  Alf Cough, Les Riches and their chaps crowded round and poured out their story of being placed under the command of the Indonesians from the moment they arrived and had been working  on all the usual things – embankments, bridges, cuttings, etc. and  had lost a number of men.  Things had gone hard with them with the Japanese ‘treatment’ and being under Dutch command as they had no control of their work figures and always received the thin end from the Dutchies:  they had had little medical attention as it was centred mainly on the Indonesians and above all they had no representation on the rations and in the kitchens and consequently had to take what was given.”

Those from 2/4th who died at Kuii included:

WX9031        Brennan, Maurice John died 27/9/1943 beri-beri aged 30 years.

WX15989     Buckley, John Scott died 19/9/1943 malaria, general debility and tropical ulcers aged 36 years.

WX7714        Clark, Francis Denis John (aka F.D.J Stevens) died 10/10/1943 malaria and cardiac beri beri aged 30 years.

WX15707     Cooper, Hugh Myles died 3/10/1943 dysentery aged 38 years.

WX7909        Davidson, Thomas died 18/9/1943 acute enteritis aged 33 years.

WX8733        Harrison, Henry Ralph died 15/9/1943 malaria aged 27 years.

WX9348        Heppell, Colin Leslie Died 6/10/1943 colitis aged 38 years.

WX10635     Hoppe, Vernon T.W. died 19/11/1943 cerebral malaria aged 33 years.    

WX15402     Jaensch, Lawrence died 6/10/1943 of acute enteritis and malaria aged 36 years.

WX8425       Leadbitter, Edward Johnathan died 10/10/1943 cholera, aged 24 years (prior to his death, Ted Leadbitter was severely kicked and beaten unconscious by ‘Black Cat’, Brutal Japanese engineer.)

WX7640       Lee-Steere, Forrest died 3/10/1943 Cholera, aged 36 years.

WX7660        Manning, Donald Thomas died 22/10/1943 avitaminosis aged 28 years.

WX9324        McCarthy, Jack died 21/7/1943 Linson Camp malaria aged 24 years.

WX15905     Moir, Edward George (Ted) died 1/10/1943 malaria and dysentery aged 32 years.

Below:  Full Statement of Atrocity written by Ted’s half brother Peter Gardiner WX10925 who was also a POW at Kuii.  He writes about the loathed, sadistic Japanese guard ‘Blackcat’.  

WX7426        Murphy, John Patrick died cholera 30/11/1943 aged 27 years.

WX17458     Newling, Oswald Kitchener died 22/10/1943 malaria Aged 28 years.

WX8432        Newling Rexford Frank died 20/9/1943 malaria aged 30 years.

WX7902        Philp, William Hawksley died 18/9/1943 malaria aged 35 years.

WX17344      Slater, Albert died 26/9/1943 beri- beri aged 22 years.

WX9351        Treasure, John died 13/9/1943 cerebral malaria aged 24 years.

WX13161      Wright, Henry Edward died 5/10/1943 avitaminosis aged 22 years.

Above: Kuii Cemetery

If you wander over to this site you can in the quiet, sense the ghosts of the men who were here.

Below:  highway south from Kanchanabui looking northwards – the site of Kuii Camp is behind the large advertising placard on left.  There is a small creek running beneath the small bridge.

Thais do not use former POW campsites.cemeteries for housing or any construction – they are usually left to nature or perhaps farming.

Below:  Major Alf Cough’s Affidavit re Kuii Burials – Camp Commander Osaka ordered graves would not be covered over unless there was 6 corpses – sometimes a graves would left open for 2-3 days with one or two corpses.  The bodies were ordered to be stripped of their clothing.  The POWs would endeavour to cover the naked bodies with empty rice bags or other similar items.  The Dutch and Australians were buried in same graves.

The cemetery was within 100 yards of where the Australians were quartered and the Dutch quarters were about 30 yards. The dysentery hospital was about 10 yards from the edge of the cemetery and the dysentery hospital about 30 yards.