Statement by escaped prisoner, Owen Campbell

On 7 June 1945 Gunner Owen Campbell and four other POWs escaped from the second march of Australian and British POWs from Sandakan to Ranau. The following account of their experiences is taken from a statement Campbell made after his rescue.

7 JUNE 1945
Allied planes came over. While the Japanese guards hid Ted Emmet, Sig Webber, Jack Austin (? Gunner Leslie Hotston), Ted Skinner and I escaped into the jungle. We took along 12 tins of rice, six tins of salmon and some dried fish - all stolen from the Japanese. We also had some fish lines and a compass which Emmet had kept since our capture at Singapore in 1942.

8 JUNE
Managed a couple of miles heading for the coast.

9 JUNE
I had malaria so we rested.

10 JUNE
Pushed on but Ted Skinner got dysentery so we decided to camp for a couple of days to let him recover.

11 JUNE
I was pretty sick with beri beri and stayed with Ted. Emmet, Webber and Austin pressed on to the coast.

12 - 15 JUNE (approx)
I stayed with Ted.

16 JUNE
I went to get some water and fish. When I came back I found Ted with his throat cut. I buried him there.

18 JUNE
I came to a river and found Austin (Hotston ?), crook with dysentery and malaria, sheltering under a blanket. Webber and Emmet were fishing nearby. We decided to ask any Malays we saw for help. We heard some Malayans on a boat in the river and Emmet and Webber went off to hail them.
As the boat approached a Jap stood up from the bottom of the boat and fired four shots killing both Emmet and Webber. It was so quick they had no chance and fell in the river. I was so far behind them I was not seen, so I escaped and went back to Jack Austin.

19 - 21 JUNE
I stayed with Jack and we lived on fish, which I caught from the river, and fungus which grows on the trees there. Jack was getting very weak at this stage and he died on the evening of 21 June. I buried him as best I could.

22 JUNE - 3 JULY
For eleven days I pushed on alone.
On the first day I swam across a wide river on a log. A Jap saw me and fired at me, hitting me on the wrist. I managed to make the shore as the Jap continued to fire at me.
After about the fourth day I became delirious and began to think my mates were back with me. I talked to them.

3 JULY - 24 July
I was picked up by two natives near a spot where about 100 Japanese were camped. They took me to their house and hid me. They gave me a bath and then I was taken inland to another native camp, where I was looked after for about 6 days. Eventually the natives had to pull out as the Japanese were active in the area.
After going for about 3 miles through the jungle we came to a river and travelled down it for about 3 days in a canoe until we reached the coast and headed up another river. After about 7 hours paddling we reached the SRD camp of Lieutenant Hollingsworth where I stayed for 3 or 4 days with malaria.
Eventually I was taken out to sea, picked up by a flying boat, and taken to the American aircraft carrier USS Pocomoke.

(Adapted from Statement by Gunner Campbell, 2/10th Field Regiment, 21 August 1945, 1010/4/27, AWM 54)

On 3 July 1945 Gunner Owen Campbell, after having wandered delirious for days in the jungle, approached a river where he saw a small canoe. Probably close to death, he had little option but to take the chance of calling out to the men in the canoe: two natives, Gulunting and Lap, from Kampong Muanad. Gulunting describes what happened.

In July 1945 Lap and I went out to look after our fish traps. We were using a small 'gobang' (canoe). Whilst we were so occupied Jap boats were passing so we hid in a small stream whilst they went past. After we knew they had gone we ventured into the main stream and searched for more of our traps. We had not gone far when I heard someone calling 'abang' (elder brother). I looked at the man and saw that he was practically naked. We approached
him and he commenced to faint. I got hold of him and carried him into the boat. We then went up river to our camp and took him there. I carried him to my hut where the was provided with trousers and shirt and food. He was at Muanad for ten days when Salium and Ambiau came to fetch him... He gave me this compass MK VI 5226 as a memento. I know now that his name was Gunner Campbell of the Australian Army.

(Statement made to Major H W S Jackson by Gulunting of Kampong Sapi, at Beluran, North Borneo, 12 January 1947,
papers of Lieutenant Colonel W S Jackson,
item 9, part 1, PR 84/231, AWM)

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