Rin Tin, Lin Thin 182km - Thailand

Rin Tin Camp,  Lin Tin 180k – Thailand

When ‘D’ Force U Battalion under the Command of Reg Newton  moved from Tonchan to RinTin – there was no camp.  It was jungle and the men had to clear it before building huts.

The men thought highly of Reg – and would say they survived because of him.  He stood up to the Japs and got slapped often.

Along with  Doc. Hinder and Lieutenant Ralph Sanderson.  Reg Newton was ‘red-hot’ on hygiene and cleanliness.

When ‘D’ Fore were working at Rin Tin the POWs built a bridge under instruction from the Japanese which wasn’t very sturdy.  When a loco began crossing the bridge the structure started to tip over and the Japanese had to gingerly reverse the train back out (which was funny for the POWs watching).  However the POWs took six weeks to brace the bridge which had been built on soft ground.

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.”

Above:  Ex-prisoners of war members of a War Graves Commission survey party at Rinteng (Rin Tin) rail siding on the Burma-Thailand railway.