The letter was in a box of papers that was in my mother’s flat when she died in December 2023. I had known about it and read a transcript of it, but this was the first time I had seen the actual ‘air letter’.
The letter was written to his parents on his release from Changi POW camp where he had been held for three and a half years and is dated 6 September 1945. It sketches: his selection as an officer in the 2nd Gurkha Rifles (Indian Army) to reinforce his battalion in the Battle of Malaya; the surrender of Singapore on 15 February 1942; his initial time in Changi; his journey ‘up country’ in Thailand to work on the ‘Death railway’, and touches on his plans for the future.
Transcript:
To: Mrs A.S.Campbell From: Lieutenant C.B. Campbell, No. E.C.3047
No.1 POW Camp, CHANGI CAMP, SINGAPORE
6.9.45
My dearest Mummy and Daddy,
How much I have wanted to be able to do this for the last four years, how many things I’ve wanted to tell you, and now that the chance has come at last I just don’t know where to begin! I have decided therefore to give a very brief summary of what has happened to me since you last heard. I will then, when I can get paper and pen as well as a a spot more privacy, write the whole story at length with all the detail I can. These letters, for it will be more than one, will be in the form of a serial, which I will send to you by sea mail.
My 21st birthday is as good a starting point as any. This was spent in Poona when I was on a camouflage course from the 4th Bn. Soon after I returned to Dehra Dun where my unit was preparing to go up to the frontier (N.W.F.). On Dec. 8 1941 I was very worried about you all as your last letter had told me that you had booked passages for the middle of Dec. On the 15th my Co. got a telegram asking for 1 officer and two complete platoons to go as reinforcements to the 2nd Bn which was fighting the Battle of Malaya. I was extremely proud and pleased at having been chosen for this! My Bn left for the frontier 3 days before my draft – which was composed of 2 more platoons from the 3 Bn and some more from the training centre with two other officers. We sailed on Jan. 19th 1942 from Bombay, not arriving at S’pore until 29.1.42. I joined the Bn on the front line, guarding the naval base facing the Nips who were on the S.Coast of Johore Bahru. We withdrew solidly for the next ten days until our line was being forced back into the town and dock area. Troops dead tired had fought practically without rest for the whole 2 months campaign without any air support or relief of any kind. Nip aircraft continually over – they endured more than should ever have been asked of them.
Despite this, the capitulation (which came just in time to stop a full scale attack on our particular front) was a complete shock and a bitter disappointment. We kept on hoping that more troops would arrive to support us! We were ordered to lay down our arms at 4 pm on Sunday 15.2.42. On the 16th we were separated from our men – one of the saddest moments – and were told to march out to the Changi Area on the N.E. tip of the island. The men were put into different camps and on the whole suffered very much more than we did. We found on Changi, an old barrack area which included cantonments, bungalows and a military hospital. We had to take with us food for 10 days and were only allowed one lorry per unit. We of the 3rd India Corps were all British officers, with no troops to administer as had British Army units. We therefore did all our own chores and cooking. Our first PW billet was a good one – the old RA. Mess in which although crowded was free from flies and mosquitos being on a hill.
It was from this hill in September that I saw your repatriation ship go through! Lying lighted in the roads, I gazed at it and hoped and wondered if you were there! I couldn’t find out. After several moves and incidents a year passed – a year on a Japanese diet of rice and very little else drags a bit! So that when May 1943 came and I was detailed on an “Up-country party” which was to an unknown destination where the food position was promised to be good and which was stated by Japs to be a “rest” rather than a work party. They gave written assurance that officers would NOT be required to work and would probably return to S’pore! We travelled under peculiar conditions by rail to a junction near Bankok called BAMPONG. From here we marched through jungle tracks along the prisoner constructed line of the Rangoon-Bankok railway which we were made to work on for 9 months. No distinction being made between officers and men – I became expert in the use of a chunkle! I was evacuated back to a base hospital with a spot of fever and tropical ulcers (small) and was perfectly fit when our working party returned to S’pore Island. Here from Dec.’ 43 to May ’44 we lived on much better rations in a small camp and made very good vegetable gardens. Then in Feby we returned to Changi. It was grand to get back and see all our old friends again. A move from the Changi area into the Prison took place very soon afterwards, and we lived in an officers area just outside the gaol walls, with very little excitement apart from allied air raids until we were finally relieved here!
I got your first letter on 29 July 1944, it had been written in Feb.1943! Gosh it took a load off my mind! In all I got 14 long and about 10 short letters from you. They had large gaps in them but were always grand to get. The last I got was a card by Air Mail written 15.12.44 received 30.6.45 ! With the great news that the clan was just about doubling itself!! The annoying part was that I was unable to reply to these and during my whole incarceration I sent I to Auntie Gracie 19.5.42, Aunt Maude one on 23.2.43 and the third I wish I’d never sent, but it was just after I got back from Thailand and I’d got a letter forwarded from India from Alwyn ticking me off for not writing. He did not know I was a prisoner. I wrote him a card 19 .12. 43 and have been wishing ever since that I had not said such stupid things in it that I did. Will write him a full apology when I can. The others written 12.8.44 and 21.3.45 were the only cards and apart from 2 short wireless messages sent 27.12.44 and 20.8.45 I have been absolutely unable to communicate. I am now absolutely fit and terribly excited.
There! That’s dealt with me for the time-being and I can now write some of the things that I’ve been wanting answered for so long! What are your plans for the future, will you stay in London? Is Islay married? What’s Ian doing, where’s Alwyn? What’s the name of his youngest, where are Ken and Di and what’s their latest called? How are you, and how on earth can anyone live at home without beer? The news which has been pouring in on us about the outside world for the past week is a bit of a shock – the shortages of all kinds of things, the prices and income tax shattering- but what the h- anyway I’m free and we’ve won the war, nothing else matters at the moment! Our Gurkha troops are overjoyed and have maintained their discipline and their loyal selves to such a high degree that all are as impressed with them now as they were with them during the fighting. Our other Bn’s have done big stuff in other spheres and I think everyone realises the value of Gurkhas as fighting troops! Ours anyway certainly deserve a large hand for their behaviour when we were all taken away and they were put under Jap pressure to take up arms in the Jap cause! About my future – I know so little about what you’ve all been doing that its hard to even ask questions so I’m back to Me again, I don’t know where I’m going from here but expect to go back to India and then get some leave – I shall if its humanly possible, of course, come home on that. What to do for a living I just do not know! If conditions allow and always supposing I’m asked I think I’ll stay on in the 2nd Gurkhas. But how much this period here wouid affect my future I don’t know. I’m all completely out of date and have not reached above the rank of LIEUT whereas others who were more fortunate and my own age had such a good war that I shall not recognise them for medal ribbons and would not dare to speak to them on account of their rank! If I do not or cannot remain a soldier, then I intend to have a crack at the APC or some job which takes me abroad – I would like one in China. But I just do not know and refuse to worry – don’t you worry either it’ll come out in the end. Meanwhile any tentative job-hawser-pulling gratefully received.
We, here, are all so excited at recent events that we really don’t know if we’re coming or going, but are all hoping and I think just beginning to realise that we are definitely going!
The food I’ve eaten in the last few days! Things I’d forgotten the taste of and find re-discovery delightful! I’m now smoking a ‘Players’ and have had twice my home-side ration of butter today. Am very impressed with the troops who relieved us and by the sight of our own aircraft in the skies. To hear the wireless again and to shave with a new blade are among some of the pleasures I’m now wallowing in. We hope to be away from here soon now and then at last I shall really believe I’m free! Do hope I get a letter from you soon – please reply to this c/o Recovered PW mail centre, Bombay, India Command and by the way purely on time-scale grounds I’ve become a full Lieut, in fact I became one some 3 years ago! I see the very good warning “Think before you write” printed on this and only wish I could! Hope anyway that I have not contravened any censorship rules as I’m doing the prelim: censorship of this myself – my first responsible job for three and-a- half years so perhaps I’ll be excused any slight slip-ups. By the way, the climate of Malaya is ideal for P’s OW. You don’t need a hat even at mid-day because the humidity in the air dilutes the sun’s rays to such an extent that even I did not suffer any ill-effects from going bare-headed and shirtless from the word go. We here do not now find the heat in the least noticeable, and when it rains, instead of being relieved at the drop in temperature, often find it necessary to put a pull-over on! Mad dogs and Englishmen is all very well, I know most released prisoners are thought mad, but we certainly never stay indoors when the sun is at its hottest! Do hope the whole clan is fit and well and that we shall be able to have a bumper victory re-union and Christmas rolled into one! One terrible word in your ears – I’m fat – fat as butter with a tummy on me like a compradore ! This ruins all plans I had of gaining sympathy by pulling the “poor starved prisoner” raquet!
See you all soon, can hardly wait,
