By Peter Bate

More than 700 war veterans and their families gathered at a memorial site for the dedication of a 30metre section of the Railway of Death, shipped in from the Far East. The fragile stretch of the notorious Thai-Burma railway was observed at close quarters by ex-Prisoners of War who survived brutal conditions which claimed the lives of up to 18,000 during the Second World War. It was dedicated during a special service let by one of the survivors, the Reverend Ray Rossiter, at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, near Lichfield, on Thursday 15th August. More that 60,000 Allied servicemen were captured by the Japanese and forced to work on projects including the Burma and Sumatra railways. One, 80-year-old Frank Champkin, said: "It is very difficult to explain what it was like. "We were working from morning to night, dawn to dusk. When we had almost completed it we were forced to work constantly for three or four days under the light of flares. ”We just lived from day to day with the hope of coming home." Mr Champkin, who was living in Sutton Coldfield when he was called up aged 19, added: "This monument is absolutely marvellous. "It is in honour of all those who died on the railway and a warning that this should never happen again." Jungle Mr Champkin, chairman of the Kwai Railway Memorial Group, was one of the survivors behind the installation of the track made famous in the film 'Bridge On The River Kwai'. Another was Tom McKie, of Birmingham Far East Prisoners Of War, who was one of only 200 men out of 1,000 to survive work on the jungle track in the South Thailand Valley of Death in 1945. He said: "This is marvellous. It will ensure future generations will have a great interest in what happened." A stone monument dedicated to all servicemen who lost their lives in the Far East between 1941 and 1945 was also unveiled on Thursday. Bamboo and cane are being planted at the plot at the arboretum, off the A38. Pictures To see large views (42kb-79kb) of the above pictures in a separate window just click on them.

Acknowledgement