Douglas Frederick Field
He was a cycle hand in 1939.
- Family History
- Military history
- Extra information
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He was the son of Robert and Edith Nora Annie Field and the brother of Edith Anne, Joan and William Field of 34, Radford Boulevard, Nottingham.
In January 1944, 5th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment did not exist as an active field unit. The entire battalion had been captured at the Fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942.
Consequently, in January 1944, the surviving officers and men of the 5th Battalion were scattered across the Far East as Far East Prisoners of War (FEPOW).
Where Men of the 5th Bn Were in January 1944
By 1944, the Japanese military had moved prisoners out of the initial camps in Singapore (like Changi) to various forced-labour locations across Asia:
• The Burma-Thailand Death Railway: A vast number of men from the 53rd Infantry Brigade (which included the 5th Norfolks) were sent to work on the Siam-Burma Railway. Construction officially concluded in late 1943, meaning that in January 1944, survivors were being consolidated into major base camps in Thailand—such as Kanchanaburi, Chungkai, and Tamarkan—suffering severely from malnutrition, malaria, ulcerated limbs, and dysentery.
• Other detachments of the 5th Battalion had been shipped aOther Far East Camps: Other detachments of the 5th Battalion had been shipped away on notorious "Hell Ships" (see elsewhere on this website) to serve as slave labor in coal mines, docks, and factories across Japan, Taiwan (Formosa), and occupied China/Hong Kong.
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