With the Fall of Singapore, about 80,000 allied soldiers became prisoners of war (POW’s) of the Japanese. On the islands of Java and Sumartra, another 40,000 became capitive while about 3,000 from Timor, Ambon and New Britian also became POW's. So what did the Japanese do with these POW's?

Private Harold Martin joined the army in late 1940, he was 23 at the time and left behind a wife and young son. Like so many men of that time, he felt “It was the right thing to do” to fight for his country. In late 1941, he was sent to Singapore as part of the Australian commitment to the British Garrison. On the 15th February 1942, he was amongst the 15,000 Australian soldiers who became prisoners of war (POW’s) of the Japanese in the Fall of Singapore.

Private Goulden was amongst the first Australians to be sent to Burma to work as forced labour for the Japanese. Escape from a Japanese work camps for Allied and Dutch POW’s was difficult. But against all the odds, Private Goulden would attempt an escape to get back to his young wife in Australia. It would have tragic consequences.

Whenever I visit the Burma-Thailand Railway, I am always on the lookout for something that adds a little extra to the story of the Railway now nearly 75 years old. On a recent visit, at Namtok Railway Station, almost at the end of the current operating section of the Railway, I found an old framed black and white photo taken back in 1955, showing the reconstruction of the Bridge over the River Kwai which was badly damaged by allied bombing during the war.