The Burma Railway
River Kwai Bridge
River Kwai Bridge Kanchanaburi was of special interest to me due to my late uncle Allan Herd, who spent 2 years as a POW on the Burma Railway. In fact I urge you to read his amazing story, you can find it by following this link which will take you to “One Soldiers Incredible Story”.
War Museum
The war museum shows you how the poor prisoners lived and died at the hands of the brutal Japanese army and their incredibly cruel Korean guards.
Forgive but not forget
The sign outside the museum says it all.
River Kwai Bridge war graves
The cemetery is beautiful kept, I was really surprised by the diverse number of nationalities buried here as well as their ages, many were so young.
What a waste of lives
Forced labour was used in its construction. More than 180,000—possibly many more—Asian civilian labourers (romusha) and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) worked on the railway. Of these, estimates of romusha deaths are little more than guesses, but probably about 90,000 died. 12,621 Allied POWs died during the construction. The dead POWs included 6,904 British personnel, 2,802 Australians, 2,782 Dutch, and 133 Americans. After the end of World War II, 111 Japanese and Koreans were tried for war crimes because of their brutalization of POWs during the construction of the railway. 32 were sentenced to death
Some of the weapons
They look very ancient indeed.
River Kwai Bridge guard tower
That’s my brother Warren Herd inspecting the five star facilities.
Dheva Mantra Resort
We stayed at this very nice hotel on the river about 15 minutes walk to the bridge. Restaurants and rooms were good and a terrific pool area and grounds. Book the Dheva Mantra Resort here.
Dheva Mantra Resort and Spa
Lots of greenery.
River Kwai Bridge
Not much to look at but loaded with history.
Here comes the train.
River Kwai Bridge.
My apologies for this image
Long time friend Tony Murphy and my brother Warren Herd after a refreshing shower. For the record they were not sharing a room. 🙂
A-One hotel on Beach Road
For a great room rate at the A-One hotel opposite the beach just book through THIS LINK.
Here are some great Pattaya Hotels.
One soldiers incredible story
A wonderful golf venue
Everything you wanted to know about Bangkok but were afraid to ask. 🙂
Counter only started June 16 2020.
