Surviving the Japanese Onslaught

An RAF PoW in Burma

These are the firsthand memoirs of the late William Albert Tate (W.O, RAF Bomber Command) framed within the factual history of his service career in the Royal Air Force between the years 1938 and 1946, penned by his son. This gripping narrative relays William's firsthand recollections of his time spent as a Japanese Prisoner of War, when he was incarcerated for two years in Rangoon Gaol, after bailing out of his Wellington over Burma. Tales of the harsh brutalities inflicted by his captors and the unsanitary conditions in which he and his fellow captives were held offer a real sense of the everyday realities experienced by Japanese Prisoners of War at this time. Jungle diseases, enforced starvation, sadistic torture tactics and the ever present threat of aerial bombardment all beset these prisoners. William and his son meditate on the legacies of enduring such trials as these in an engaging account of survival against the odds.