Chapter 19 - From Bangkok to Singapore

Summary

On 1 October 1942 work started on the Mae Khlaung steel bridge. The foundations of the bridge-piers were laid as concreted well-cribs, and for excavating the hard, tough river-bottom apparatus was needed, apparatus called a Gatmel dredger. Under water on the river-bottom the sharp edges of its blades bored into and pulled up the foundation, the edges of the bades closed up, bored into the earth and sand, gripped the load and carried it up: such was its mechanism. But at the time a Gatmel could not be found in Thailand. On 1 November I was specially assigned by 9 Railway Regiment HQ to search for one. The official order ran, ‘Railway Official Futamatsu to go on a business trip to Malaya and Singapore to collect under-water dredging apparatus. Sjt Nagata and Superior Private Yasawa to be attached to him.’ That term ‘to be attached’ meant that regular soldiers must cooperate with a gunzoku without supervision. ‘Attached’ to me were Sjt Nagata in charge of machine parts and Superior Private Yasawa as orderly. Out party left for Malaya, leaving Sakamoto Unit at Wanyai.

When we got to Banpong we found the Southern Thai National Line was impassable to the East of Nakhon Chaisiri on account of flooding of the River Menam. We stood by waiting for two or three days until a steamer became available for Bangkok from Nakhon Chaisiri, so we got to Bangkok despite being unable to go by train directly to it. All you could see was what looked like a lake and of course the railway line was under water. In the South Thailand plain here and there you could see coconut palms and the roofs of houses apparently floating on the water. The wide surface of the muddy water at the peak of these hot days glittered in the sunlight, and ripples gathered over the railway line embankment. At a wharf near the station a small roofed steamer was waiting for people arriving by train. Women farm-workers carrying vegetables, business-like Chinese, yellow-robed bonzes and so on, a miscellany of common people crowded onto the upper deck of the ship which quivered and shook as it moved away from the wharf.