Imperial War Museum, 1983, Hardcover (Original Cloth), Book Condition: Good, Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good, First, Illustrated By: Dr. Robert Hardie

map endpapers; Some 61,000 Allied prisoners of war were forced by their Japanese captors to work on the notorious Burma-Siam railway. More than 16,000 died from sickness, exhaustion and malnutrition, an average of one victim for every 28 yards of track. But for the skill, ingenuity and devotion of the Allied medical officers and orderlies the death toll would have been even higher. In appalling conditions, using surgical instruments improvised out of scrap metal and with totally inadequate supplies of drugs and dressings, they fought to stem the ravages of beriberi, cholera, malaria, tropical ulcers, dysentery and other diseases. Robert Hardie, a medical officer serving with the Fed rated Malay States Volunteer Force, spent over three years as a prisoner of war on the railway after the fall of Singapore. Throughout this harrowing period he kept a diary, which he managed to conceal from the Japanese despite numerous searches. It is a remarkable contemporary record written by a cultivated, objective and sensitive observer, whose delight in nature was a major sustaining influence during the darkest days of his captivity. In his efforts to combat disease and alleviate suffering, Hardie had to contend not only with the indifference, incompetence and unpredictability of the Japanese but also with a certain amount of apathy and selfishness on his own side. His diary, which has an immediacy inevitably lacking in other more retrospective accounts, vividly conveys the hardships, monotony and humiliations of life in the squalid and overcrowded camps which marked the course of the 'railway of death'. The text is illustrated with Robert Hardie's own wartime sketches and watercolours. Size: 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. 192 pages. Dust Jacket is fully intact, no tears or chips, but carries signs of wear to corners. Dust Jacket price-clipped. Gilt titles spine. Multiple copies available this title. black cloth but with light sun fading to top edges of covers. Includes appendix & biographical index. Illustrator: Dr. Robert Hardie. Quantity Available: 2. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilo. Category: Military & Warfare; Second World War; Far East; Death Railway; 1940s; Medicine & Health. ISBN: 0901627267. ISBN/EAN: 9780901627261. Inventory No: 2476.