Brummie soldier who worked on Burma Railway says Bridge n The River Kwai movie was an insult

Aug 16 2010 by Chris Henwood, Sunday Mercury

BRAVE Brummie Tom McKie is still haunted by memories of working on the infamous Burma Railway – the war crime that inspired movie classic The Bridge On The River Kwai.

As ex-servicemen throughout the Midlands mark the 65th anniversary of VJ Day today, the 90 year-old veteran says that conditions were far worse than the film suggested.

“That film was a load of rubbish,” said Mr McKie, who served as a gunner in the 155 Regiment of the Lanarkshire Yeomanry. “It was an utter disgrace, an insult to those who were there.

“It was nothing like the railway. I was there from December 1942 to March 1944 and in all that time I slept in a hut just twice. The rest of the time I was in the open air. or under the lining of a tent.

“And you couldn’t escape. Firstly, your colour gave you away, then there was no food. Finally, there was thick jungle everywhere. All you had to do was take three turns and you were completely lost. It was the perfect prison. It was terror.”

Some 60,000 prisoners of war and 180,000 Asian labourers were put to work on the Death Railway, starting in June 1942. The forced labour project was officially recognised as a war crime.

Mr McKie, from Bartley Green, had been captured, along with 600 other British troops, by Japanese forces on February 13, 1942, after his regiment surrendered during fighting in Singapore.

Suicide

His regiment had been posted to the Far East just three months beforehand. They has already battled the Germans all the way along the French border with Belgium.