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In mid May 1943 `G´ Force passed through the Rin Tin Camp. This was the last camp in Group 4 (IV), at previous camps they had been told it was a plague spot and had been closed down.
Just before they reached the camp they passed a Jap Transit Camp which was in good condition, then three hundred yards passed this the track dipped into a gully, when they climbed to the other side they were on a high river bank in Rin Tin Camp.
John Coast says in his book, Railway of Death, “It was the eeriest and foulest place we had seen in Thailand and two things struck us immediatly about it; first the acrid stink of dirt and decay, and something worse; and secondly, an uncanny stillness.”
The camp was enclosed by tall trees in a clearing on the river bank, everything was still and very quiet, almost evil, it was not a place to stay at. A Dutch officer had been left in charge of eight cooks and their job was to feed the working parties passing through. The empty huts had no sleeping slats and in the roof were huge lizards, bugs, lice and flies. The camp had been built three months before for 900 Dutch prisoners but soon dysentery caused many deaths, in ten weeks 231 of the 900 men died. The cemetary was a small cutting in the jungle and even in the short time the jungle was covering the clearing once more and the 231 wood crosses would be no more.
The hospital was full of equipment just left, men were too afraid to touch it, there was also a lack of fresh water near the camp.
The group left Rin Tin the following morning and were pleased to do so.
Information from Railway of Death by John Coast
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Lin Tin
Also Named
Japanese
VI Group
