‘Speedo! Speedo! “All men work faster”
Shouts the Japanese engineer
We just carry on at our usual pace
And make out we do not hear.

Then, in move the guards-bash!bash!
Down comes rifle butts and bamboo
The railway’s well behind schedule
Good- that’s what we’re trying to do.

Death is here, all around us
Along this thick jungle trail
We’ve dug cuttings, built embankments and bridges
And now we are laying the rail.

We work from very early morning
And toil through till noon the next day
Then wearily trudge back to our huts for some food
Before backspiking the rails that we lay.

This surely can’t go on forever
Somehow, one day it must end
We’ll either make it back to Australia
Or our belongings taken home by a friend.

But no matter what the outcome
Rest assured we’ll have done our share
To keep the Japs out of Australia
So generations can live in peace there.

..and from the other side of the world comes a British soldier recollections...