THE BURMA - SIAM RAILWAY: THE SECRET DIARY OF DR. ROBERT HARDIE, 1942-45

The original of this Diary was buried in the cemetery at Chung kai for fear of discovery by the Japanese and dug up in 1945. Published for the first time 40 years after the completion of the railway, Dr Hardie's Diary tells the true story of the 16,000 Allied prisoners who died from sickness. exhaustion and malnutrition. In appalling conditions, using surgical instruments improvised out of scrap metal and with totally inadequate supplies of drugs and dressings. Hardie and his fellow Allied medical officers fought to stem the ravages of beriberi, cholera. malaria. tropical ulcers, dysentery and other diseases. It is a remarkable contemporary record written by a cultivated, objective and sensitive observer, whose delight in nature was a major sustaining influence during the darkest days of his captivity. The text is illustrated with Robert Hardie's own wartime sketches and watercolours. The novel and popular movie, 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' dramatised the building of the Burma-Siam Railway but many of the surviving POWs claimed the film is incorrect in its facts.