1943: Six POWs, inscribed on a ouija board
November 1st, 2010 Headsman
Here lie the remains of 3529270 Pte T Jackson Manch Reg. CQMS C Anderson FMSVF, A S H Justice USS Houston. 33271– Pte Mar- … here the letters had been eaten away. At the bottom of the board there were several more words which it was not possible to decipher but still discernible were the words
Executed 1/11/43
The WW2 People’s War is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The archive can be found at bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar.
This date’s execution — contributed to WW2 People’s War by Chris Comer of Stockport Libraries on behalf of Arthur Lane — concerns six Commonwealth POWs who were shot for attempting to escape at Thambazayat, a prison camp in Burma.
They’re remembered by a fellow-prisoner from their time at the Thailand prison camp Chungkai, where the prisoners pulled off a memorable caper with a ouija board and some of their guards.
These executions did not reshape history. But this story of a few men under the shadow of a senseless death has the spark of humanity that animates these pages. Read it in its entirety here: part 1 | part 2.
On this day..
- 1939: Edmund Jankowski, Olympic rower - 2020
- 1842: William Caffee, Mineral Point spook - 2019
- 1946: Arthur Robert Boyce, the king's housekeeper's lover - 2018
- 1922: Francisco Murguia - 2017
- 1929: Habibullah Kalakani, Tajik bandit-king - 2016
- 1833: Ira West Gardner, creepy stepfather - 2015
- 1938: George Brain, Wimbledon murderer - 2014
- 1822: David Lamphier - 2013
- 1912: George Redding, making Emile Gauvreau's career - 2012
- 1943: Not Anatoly Kuznetsov, insignificant little chap - 2011
- 1463: David of Trebizond and his heirs - 2009
- 1615: Kate McNiven, the Witch of Monzie - 2008
- 1920: Kevin Barry - 2007
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Burma,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,England,Execution,History,Japan,Mass Executions,No Formal Charge,Occupation and Colonialism,Shot,Soldiers,Torture,Wartime Executions
Tags: 1940s, 1943, november 1, ouija board, world war ii
